(Report By: Bryce Sutherland) - Right, well I got to the show no problem, after the venue change and all that… The support band were Viking Skull, whom I'd never heard of. They were the
cheesiest rock band I've seen since M3! With songs such as Crank The Volume Until The Speakers Explode Spinal Tap, anyone? The sound was a little dodgy, as the drums and bass were over-powering. I thought that this would change when Dio came on.

But this was not the case. When the band came on and played the first song, I could tell it was going to be a long night. Vocals and drums were clear though. Here's the set-list:
King Of Rock 'N' Roll / Sign Of The Southern Cross (abridged) / Stargazer (abridged) / Stand Up & Shout / Simon Wright Drum Solo / Don't Talk To Strangers / The Eyes / Man On The Silver Mountain / Craig Goldie Guitar Solo / Long Live Rock 'N' Roll_Man On The Silver Mountain (Reprise) / Rock 'N' Roll Children / Mob Rules / Gates Of Babylon / Holy Diver / Rainbow In The Dark / The Last In Line / Heaven & Hell (abridged) / We Rock / Neon Knights

Ronnie James Dio himself was impressive. I've never heard him sound so good live; not even on "Live Evil". There were no bum notes at all. Some of his range has dwindelled a tad, but that's to be expected! His stage presence made the evening.

Craig Goldie has to be the most uninspired guitarist I've ever seen. His lacklustre facial expression resounded his licks… except when he played an Iommi solo… Overall, he played the Blackmore and Iommi solos nearly note-for-note, and then did his own little thing afterwards. I thought that was respectful. But when it came to "Neon Knights", he just shredded, and it spoiled it for me.The guitar was the hardest thing to make out, especially on the middle registers.

A lot of it sounded like noise. Occasionally you'd hear a pinch harmonic coming out during riffs on "Stargazer". I wasn't all that impressed with the David Hasselhoff-alike Craig Goldie, with his pouted lips.
Simon Wright's solo was good. Short but sweet; the way I like them. The drum sound was really good… and he even pinched Cozy Powell's "1812 Overture" part. I don't know if a lot of people could make out the piece… the sound was that bad. On the whole, Simon Wright was a good, tight drummer, and more expressive than Larkin made him out to be.
Rudy Sarzo was having a great time! He wasn't very exciting in terms of playing or capability, but he was sure as hell putting a lot of effort into it. He and Dio have a very good rapport.
Scott Warren on keys was short-changed. The only times you could hear him prominently was his intro on "The Gates Of Babylon" and during Craig Goldie's solo.

So, now I've given a review of the individual members, here's the whole show:
The bad sound aside, I knew the song "King Of Rock 'N' Roll" and thought it had more energy played live. I wasn't really headbanging by this point, but I enjoyed it more than the studio version. Then when Dio introduced "The Sign Of The Southern Cross", I went crazy. I was really disappointed it was cut short though. But it went into "Stargazer", which sort of made up for it. Eargasms galore! Although my favorite line (my eyes are bleeding!) was missed out. Damn.

"Stand Up & Shout" was pretty tame in comparison, for me at least. Although everyone else went crazier for this one than the previous one. The drum solo I've already mentioned, and I didn't know "Don't Talk To Strangers", so - due to the bad sound - I couldn't make out any melodies really. I have to admit that, by this time, I yawned.
Dio then introduced a song from "Master Of The Moon" called "The Eyes". It started off really promising. A nice crunching (but fairly unoriginal) riff. Then the vocal line came in. It was just a typical Dio vocal hook, and the lyrics were just the same mystical stuff I was used to. I thought, Oh well, maybe it'll pick up. But it just turned into typical Dio material (not any heavier than usual either), but a tad slower. Sorry, OverbarD, but I wasn't impressed.
There was a very slow "Man On The Silver Mountain", which was pretty cool. This was the song where Dio's voice was showing the slight loss of range.

The guitar solo was supremely dull. Maybe it was because of the poor sound, maybe it was the fact the guitar was through a Marshall and I don't like them… I don't know. Incoherent noise mostly…
I stood with arms folded until "Mob Rules" came on. Craig Goldie played the Iommi solo, then added his own little bit on the end of that solo, which sounded fine.
What a heavy version of "The Gates Of Babylon"! It rocked!
I'm not too keen on "Holy Diver", but I thought that maybe the live version would be more tolerable. They played it at about half the speed, meaning I had to endure twice as much. This was when I noticed how much my feet hurt from standing around for so long.

"Rainbow In The Dark" seemed a little unnecessary… it was too clichÈd live.
Typical '80s anthemic rock, but the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it. "The Last In Line" was pretty well-played; certainly more interesting than "Rainbow In The Dark"!
Suddenly, "Heaven & Hell" burst out. All faith had been restored. The only problem I had with it was that they added a little bit in the middle that I just couldn't make out. That, and the whole song had been shortened. It sounded like a poorly rehearsed garage band, since the sound was so muffled. But they added in a little snippet of "A Little White Shape" from "Live Evil", which was cool and unexpected. When Dio sang, There's a big black shape looking up at me…, he crouched down at the front of the stage in a demonic pose, and a solitary red light shone upon him, making him out to be the actual shape… the audience laughed. When the red light went out and it was the normal stage lights on, Dio was chuckling to himself as well… good; he wasn't being serious.

When "We Rock" came on (first encore), I didn't think anything could top "Heaven & Hell". I was right! The people right down the front went even crazier though. And "Neon Knights"… well it could have been an excellent finisher, but Craig Goldie spoiled it for me by shredding over it the whole time. It was like Brad Gillis on "Speak Of The Devil". What an anti-climax.

Overall, I was impressed with Ronnie James Dio for having such a voice at such an age. That was the highlight for me. Maybe the crappy sound has tainted my review, I don't know. But I still maintain that Dio's solo material isn't a patch on what he did with Black Sabbath or Rainbow.