Just looking at him last Friday night at the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater in Cleveland, you knew that Ronnie James Dio was in his glory.

Could you blame him? No way. The last time his lineup of Black Sabbath played here in northeast Ohio was in 1992 on the Dehumanizer tour and though his voice and charisma haven’t waned a bit, playing to sparse but passionate club and theater crowds over the last 15 years had to be getting to him. How fun it was to witness Dio learning the answer to “Who would show up to see Dio-era Sabbath?” yet again? Big time fun, to be sure. Fronting the newly re-launched lineup as Heaven & Hell – named after the 1980 Sabbath album he helmed, to avoid Ozzy Osbourne confusion – Dio looked as happy as he’s been in many years and belted out all his old Sabbath tunes with wicked aplomb.

Being that this might be the first, last, and only time Heaven & Hell tour or perform, attentiveness for the quartet was in high gear. Dio and bandmates Tony Iommi (guitars), Geezer Butler (bass), and Vinny Appice (drums) covered a fair amount of ground in two hours to the delight of the crowd. Even the marginal new material from the new Black Sabbath: The Dio Years compilation went over surprisingly well. “Ear in the Wall,” “The Devil Cried,” and “Shadow of the Wind” are surely not the best tracks ever recorded by the band, but the sense that this was likely a one-shot deal permeated the night and earned them praise from the thousands in attendance.

Iommi was a monster to listen to, blistering through “Lady Evil,” “Sign of the Southern Cross,” a sharply done “Die Young,” and a poignant “Falling Off the Edge of the World.” He let his guitar (and Dio) do the talking, leaving his silent, black-clad stature on stage speak for itself. Butler’s bass playing was, in a word, record-perfect. He kept the time rollicking with capable drummer Appice, whose drum solo was both a yawner and low point in the set. Knowing that “Turn Up the Night” and “TV Crimes” have been played elsewhere on this tour, this reviewer was sad to see them eliminated from the set in favor of drumrolls and a weak exercise in 4/4 timekeeping.