Blizzard Of Ozz Concert Review!!

I have surprise concert review for you guys on this Sunday! I decided to slightly postpone the "Going Underground" review to slot in my thoughts on last night's Blizzard of Ozz tribute show, as I wanted to partly repay you guys for the delays from earlier in the week. Oh, and I picked up a copy of "Soo Stories" by Duane Roy too, so we'll have two book reviews soon as well! And yes, tonight we'll have a Sault Michigan-centric post as promised, so let's get everything going to kick off the week!

I never found room to slot this in before last night, but there was short notice openers last night at The Canadian Nightclub, and the band in question was local punk trio Motion Carried, featuring Scary Uncles frontman Justin Langlois, Frightlight guitarist Rick White on drums, and veteran local bassist Jamie Whalen. I'd heard a grand total of one video by Motion Carried since their launch, so I wasn't too sure how they'd sound on the whole, but I'd say they mostly sound like a more covers driven version of The Scary Uncles. The set included punk renditions of songs like "Leaving On A Jet Plane" and "Folsom Prison Blues" as well as covers ranging from Green Day and Social Distortion to The Ramones and The Vaselines, even throwing in The Scary Uncles' "Labatt 50 for good measure"! Punk fans would absolutely dig these guys, I assume, but I think the guys in Motion Carried knew they were playing to a different crowd, given their amusing self-deprecating banter. Justin's a very good punk singer and knows his way around some great punk riffs, and Rick and Jamie were also solid last night! You can't go wrong with a straightforward punk rock, and these guys brought it! Hopefully I'll see them around town again soon!

The main event, of course, was Toronto based Ozzy Osbourne tribute band Blizzard of Ozz, and I have to say, I really enjoyed them last night! On first impression, the cosmopolitan band makeup will get some notices, but their set and energy spoke for itself! Scotty Osbourne looked the part and had the on-stage moves down to replicate Ozzy, except for throwing water on the crowd, of course! It's odd though, he sounded great live, but listening to his performance on the video I shot, he sounds more offkey than he sounded live. I guess that's a testament to the fun that the small (but lively) crowd was having! Roland "Black Zakk" Murray tore it up on guitar, he had every song down pat and had a great stage presence, but maybe with a little less pinch harmonics than Zakk had. Jenn "Lady Evil" Butler's bass work was really good too, and her backing vocals added to the harmonies, while Niall Kerslake was awesome on drums, and had a nice theatrical flair to go with it too, though catching drumsticks seemed to be a bit off. I liked how the band tried to replicate an Ozzy show, and I liked that they included a mix of Black Sabbath and Ozzy solo songs you wouldn't expect into the set, like "Fairies Wear Boots", "Believer", and "Ultimate Sin"!

The first set definitely had a more diverse list of songs, but set 2 was almost all classics, with "Crazy Train", "Paranoid", and "Mama I'm Coming Home" all coming late to send the fans home happy! Blizzard of Ozz were really fun last night, and even if the vocals seemed to sound more off as the night went on, we didn't notice, and they visibly enjoyed rocking out for us. In the end, that's what matters most! If you weren't there, you missed out! For my photos from last night, click here, or visit The Sault Metal Scene's Facebook page! And yes, I have videos, so here's Motion Carried covering The Stone Temple Pilots' "Crackerman" (who said they didn't play a little hard rock?) and Blizzard of Ozz playing the Ozzy classic "Over The Mountain"!





That's all for now, but stay tuned for a new Sault Michigan-centric post later tonight! Thanks everyone!