Memory:Kevin Seager
Place: Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, Utah
Date: September 1972
This was the best and worst live rock music venue I ever attended. The worst, because the Black Sabbath performance was terrible, the best because Gentle Giant opened for them. Apparently I had heard Acquiring the Taste before the concert, but for some reason I failed to connect that album with the musicians fifteen yards in front of me (Duh...). Anyway, age has chipped away at my memory, but I do recall Ray doing an out-of-this-world violin solo...played through a wah-wah pedal ! The entire audience (at least 4000) was transfixed. I also recall how unique it was to see performers change instruments right in the middle of a song. And of course there were the sudden unexpected stops, melody and timing shifts. I remember thinking, "Wow, These guys are really, really different"
Then came the letdown of the night. BS then opened. Their amps were so loud the music could not be heard, just screech & rumble. Bass player was jumping wildly all over the stage, while the lead guitarist resembled a stone-dead statue...didn't move a muscle the whole time except for his fingers and forearms. Ozzy just jumped up and down constantly waving the "peace symbol". Couldn't hear him anyway, the instruments drowned him out.