At Verizon, Ozzy Osbourne's Same Old Scream

Ozzy Osbourne has become more a television star than rock star in recent years. So he's now opening concerts, including Saturday's Verizon Center show, with a video montage in which he digitally insinuates himself into scenes from recent TV programs ("Dancing With the Stars" among them) and does godawfully crude things to those he shares the screen with. He used to fake biting the head off a bat for effect; now he fakes ripping the prosthetic leg off Heather Mills McCartney.

Once the music started, alas, it was clear no amount of digital sleight of hand could hide the fact that after 40 years of "music stuff," as he put it, Ozzy's famous voice is shot. But he gamely warbled through some new material, including the obviously themed "I Don't Wanna Stop," and turned guitar hero Zakk Wylde loose on power ballads such as "Mama, I'm Comin' Home." Wylde's shredding also carried vintage rockers from the early years of Ozzy's solo career ("Mr. Crowley," "Suicide Solution," "Crazy Train," "I Don't Know"), when he was marketed as a menace to society.

He was mostly just a menace to himself, and the abuse has caught up with Osbourne. Bumbling around the stage in black stretch wear and sporting long, dark locks that didn't appear to be his own, he came off as a cross between a latter-day Brian Wilson and Joan Collins. He occasionally hopped up and down, though his vertical leap wasn't enough to let him clear a syringe or a bag of blow.

But rock's former prince of darkness apparently enjoys playing out his career as a clown prince. Osbourne smiled a lot and cursed more, and doused the crowd with some sort of soapy liquid from a high-pressure hose whenever the spirit moved him.

The entire upper bowl of the Verizon Center was empty, but the fans that showed up came in full dirtball regalia: One woman old enough to know better stomped about near the front of the stage in misapplied makeup and a tight T-shirt that said "I {heart} Dirty Rocker Boys." She blended well with those around her.

Osbourne and Wylde sent everybody home with "Paranoid," Black Sabbath's prototypical punk tune from 1970. Turns out, the song has aged better that anything else in the arena on Saturday.

-- Dave McKenna