Ian Anderson - Live at Citibank Hall, Rio de Janeiro, 15th May 2011

And so to my final concert in Rio de Janeiro. The gig was of enough importance to merit a mention in Brazil's prime media corporation O Globo. The article pointed out how Anderson had mentioned to journalists at the time of Jethro Tull's first concert in Brazil (1988) how he preferred Scotland's grey skies and subzero temperatures to Rio's eternal summer, which causou polêmica among weather-proud Brazilians. Fortunately for him, the gods seemingly answered his prayers, with torrential rains before the gig and the lowest temperature recorded in Rio this year (a brutally chilling 18° Celsius...).

The gig was at the same venue as Ozzy's show last month, and benefited from the same excellent acoustics. This was my first all-seated show ever, which was fine by me - I could sit back and drink expensive beer to the awesome music of Jethro Tull all night, which is what I do on many nights anyway. Much criticism has been banded about regarding Anderson's weakening voice - this can't be denied, but his flute playing and stage presence is still awe-inspiring. For a 63 year old he is far from sedentary - Anderson struts around brandishing his small metal instrument, playing some excellent improv. and acting as a great showman to boot. His backing band do a quality job too, all brilliantly proficient at their instruments, giving their own take on the old stuff too.

Despite being billed as a rarities setlist , a great deal of Jethro Tull classics were played - the excerpt of 'Thick As A Brick' being undoubtedly the highlight, and for the obligatory set-closer "Locomotive Breath" the crowd abandoned their seats and moved as close as possible to the stage. Slightly disappointed at the lack of anything from Heavy Horses though, but it was good to see a few hidden gems - 'Up To Me' from the Aqualung album and 'Budapest' from 1987's Crest of a Knave. The instrumental jams were excellent too - the band paying copious amounts of homage to Bach and World music in equal amounts. You wonder what the average Brazilian makes of the lyrical content - what other artist can sing about their pets, dervishes, sardonic takes on religion, backstage encounters with girls and the Vietnam war over the course of one gig? 45 years in the business now, Anderson may have fallen from such heights as the folk-rock trilogy era of the late 70's, but he certainly isn't Too Old For Rock 'n' Roll just yet.

Jack

Ozzy Osbourne - Live at Citibank Hall, Rio de Janeiro, 7th April 2011

In the latest issue of Road Crew, Brazil's most popular metal magazine, the editor defended the image of the country of being a place for aging rockers collecting their last run of paychecks. Fair enough, as the editor claims proudly, the country does recieve some acts in the youth of their careers (erm, Avenged Sevenfold!?), but the percentage of gigs played by international artists that are over the age 50 is significantly higher than in Europe or North America. My gig calender reads to confirm this - Iron Maiden last week, Ian Anderson on 15th May, and in between Ozzy Osbourne.

Say what you want about Ozzy appearing in multimillion dollar adverts with Justin Bieber or Sharon's seemingly sovereign control of his career, if he can keep getting the reaction he did from the Brazilian crowd on Thursday, he can keep touring "until he dies" (as he said he would in a recent interview). The Citibank hall was packed full of punters who, like at Iron Maiden last week, pogoed around to the tunes and sang each and every lyric almost without fail.

The setlist was a pure nostalgiafest, only one song from the last twenty years worth of studio albums was played, the gaggingly commercial single off the latest record, Let Me Hear You Scream. This made for pleasent listening, seeing as songs like "Bark at the Moon" and "Crazy Train" are classics, but personally I was disappointed at the total dismissal of the "Diary of a Madman" album - one of the two albums recorded with legendary guitarist Randy Rhodes.

Anyone who's still interested in Ozzy's career (a gradually diminishing number) will be keen to see how Ozzy's new backing band are doing, particulary the most revered spot, lead guitar. It seems fairy ironic that former guitarist Zakk Wylde's much maligned use of pinched harmonics was one of the reasons fans were happy to see the back of him, yet Gus G is fairly liberal in his usage too. Other than that, the Greek guitarist stays faithful to the Rhodes/Lee/Wylde originals, with the exception to the occasional fill to give his own spin on the old songs.

On stage, Ozzy, nearly 45 years into his career, still acts like a child who's eaten too many haribos, but for him it seems hardly incongruous. The man still has an puerile grin on his face throughout the show and took great pleasure in dousing the crowd in water at regular intervals. Although it has to be said, Ozzy really needs to learn more stage banter - "I can't fuckin' hear you!!" in between every song grates after a while. His voice held up for most of the gig, partially aided by an extended instrumental jam, including a rather tedious drum solo (90% of drum solos are boring for me, admittedly).

Overall, a good night's entertainment, not sure quite worth another £45 spent, but as is the standard in South America, you pay a lot of money for musicians 20/30/40 years past their peak. A final note - the playing of War Pigs and Fairies Wear Boots made me realise again how important a Black Sabbath reunion would be...fingers crossed.

Iron Maiden - Live at HSBC Arena, Rio de Janeiro, 28th March 2011

I had a premonition of the events of sunday night - the metal barriers that were used outside to make the queue of people snake (as opposed to a straight line) were pushed and climbed over as over-zealous fans were desperate to get in - security did nothing, of what security there was. The atmosphere was at fever pitch - incredible tension and anticipation, I've rarely seen anything like it.

Clearly the passion of the fans couldn't match the quality of the safety arrangements - halfway through the opening song, the barrier separating the stage and the crowd collapsed. Bruce immediately picked up on this and the band stopped and left the stage. After 20 minutes waiting Bruce came back on stage to announce that the barrier was irreparable and the show would be delayed 'till the followingnight. Cue civil unrest, but the audience left in disbelief and peace. Having spent 10 reais on the bus (3 hour return to my flat in Copacabana) and 25 on expensive beer inside I was pretty cheesed off at the amateur organisation of the concert, but happy that Bruce had the balls to tell the crowd himself as opposed to having some crew member or venue staff do it. Rearranging the concert for 24 hours later was no issue for me, and can you imagine Guns 'n' Roses being so benevolent? Bruce poiniently noted that the Japanese had two Maiden dates cancelled recently for far more serious reasons, which puts things into perspective.

So fastforward to monday night, Iron Maiden take two. The atmosphere was a lot more subdued outside, and there were notably less people than the previous night, but once the intro tape started playing all the calamities of yesterday were forgotten.
A setlist consisting of a healthy number of both old and new, the fervent Brazilian crowd lapped up every note, with "The Trooper" going down especially well, and new numbers such as "Coming Home" fitting into the setlist perfectly. The band still display energy levels to make many metal bands look positively static during performance. The intensity of the crowd was awesome - rarely have I been to a gig when the singing of the audience almost eclipses the band, and I owe the predicted bout of post-gig tinnitus more to the sound of the people around me rather than what was thundering out of the Marshalls. I have only seen Maiden once before, but I wasn't aware that pogo-ing was the dance of choice at their gigs - must be a Brazilian thing, a slightly bizarre change from the usual headbanging and body slamming of your typical metal concert.

This hardly seems like the final frontier for these 50-somethings, even if the quality of the studio material isn't as strong as it used to be, Iron Maiden in the live setting are still an awesome act.