On Friday July 14th, Fulton 55 in Fresno hosted an Ozzy Osbourne tribute band known as Mr. Crowley – The Ozzy Osbourne Experience. The more time that goes by, the more I am up for a night like this. There was a time when tribute bands weren’t really something I was on board with but as the real deal bands age, break up, can’t get along, can’t sing anymore, etc., tribute shows have given me what I want in the way of celebrating the music I love at a live event.
Visually, we got Zakk and early-2000s Ozzy (granny glasses/straight black hair) wearing the Vol4 tassled sleeves. Musically, we got Randy/Jake/Zakk-era solo Ozzy along with a heavy dose of Black Sabbath songs.
The first of two sets started off with “Over The Mountain” from Diary Of A Madman and for myself personally, that’s the perfect place to begin. Two Jake E. Lee songs followed, “Bark At The Moon” and “Shot In The Dark.” So far, so good.
A couple of surprises, to me at least, were “I Don’t Wanna Stop” from Black Rain and “Into The Void” from Sabbath’s Master of Reality. “I Don’t Wanna Stop” is a song I never cared for on the radio but it went over great live.
Another surprise, like they were cherry-picking my favorite songs from the solo records, was “Perry Mason” from Ozzmosis.
Singer David Diaz was a great facsimile of the unique voice of Ozzy Osbourne and had a lot of his gestures and movements down. Gutiarist Mark Knapp nailed the intricate licks of every song and I spent the second hour-long set directly in front of him watching his masterful playing of all these classic songs. With the Zakk Wylde battle vest, braided beard and his long, straight hair flowing up from the fan pointed upwards at him in front of his mic, Mark gave us all of the guitar magic that comes with Ozzy.
The second set was filled with Sabbath classics like “Children Of The Grave,” “Iron Man,” “War Pigs,” and, believe it or not, “Changes.”
Great night of celebrating Ozzy’s mind-boggling, elite career. A small mosh pit popped up every so often with some bizarro techniques that added even more energy to the show. A younger guy lost control and took out a table and a couple of chairs. An older guy passed out after staggering roughly 15 feet. The young guy dialed it down a little the rest of the show and the old dog got to his feet and wobbled away with Fulton 55 staff. All good.
At this point in history, I say go see stuff like this any time you can. $20 or so to hear those songs live, loud and with everybody screaming along. I live in fear of a life on Earth (you know, Earth!) where a night like this isn’t available. My age group’s going down a road that worries me at this point, with what looks to me like fewer and fewer true believers showing up every time out.
Good to see the energy from the younger generation but they tend to think of Green Day and Fall Out Boy as “classic” while also understanding that our legends are who they are. I wonder if that’s the best it will ever be going forward.
Along those lines, another thought that may be minor or it may be huge. See if you can follow me on this. The opening band was a cover band that started with “Hells Bells” and then ran through a string of songs from a bunch of 90s/2000s bands that I mostly didn’t care for. White Zombie was ok, Tool not so much. Alice In Chains is always welcome, but they played “Would” and I would have much rather had “Sea Of Sorrow.”
But the music selection wasn’t a real big deal. They played “Panama.” Mixed feelings on how that went, but no matter. The band was up there in jeans and T-shirts and while the music is absolutely, unequivocally king and always will be, I have a tough time with bands (and scenes) that have no image. AC/DC has an image everybody recognizes. So does Van Halen. The two main characters in Mr. Crowley copied Ozzy and Zakk’s familiar looks.
When I say “a tough time,” I mean that I wonder if that’s what my glorious, theatrical, operatic, epic, life-defining experience with hard rock and heavy metal is being reduced to. Obviously, Van Halen had two guys in flashy outfits and two pedestrian-looking guys. Cheap Trick had three distinct dressers and then a regular guy. You don’t have to come up with a flashy image to be a great musician, by any stretch, but there was a whole lot of style and energy behind Steven Tyler, David Lee Roth, Alice Cooper and, yes, John Michael Osbourne and his mates.
The opening band was incredibly tight and played great for their whole set. The presentation was that of cool guys you’d love to hang out with and that’s pretty much what the crowd did here. This is CLEARLY me being “the old guy.” I’ll take young guys blasting my era’s songs any time I can get it.
But I always think of that scene in Rockstar where Mark Wahlberg is at his day job working on a printer and one of the suits is hassling him and he gets close up to Wahlberg and says “is that eye-liner?!?!!?” And Wahlberg tells him “yeah, man, I’m in a band.”
In my mind, getting up on stage is still connected with a performer getting into his/her alter-ego. You’re not just a regular guy up there, you’re Deliverin’ The Goods. Not everybody has to feel that way and the world doesn’t owe me anything. I’m just stuck on the days when every band had the over-the-top guy, maybe two or three of them, and there was that extra dimension to the art. It was in stark contrast last night at the Fulton 55 show and it makes me appreciate the madness I’ve gotten to enjoy even more.