Creative metal parody band Mac Sabbath plays Great American Music Hall
SAN FRANCISCO -- With its surreal collision of fast-food iconography and twisted versions of classic Black Sabbath songs, Mac Sabbath has established itself as one of the most diabolically clever metal parody/tribute bands working today.
In the past eight years, the Los Angeles-based outfit fronted by clown-painted singer Ronald Osbourne and featuring elaborately costumed members Slayer MacCheeze on guitar, Grimalice on bass and the Catburglar on drums has risen from playing underground shows in fast-food restaurant basements (at least according to band manager and spokesman Mike Odd, who strangely sounds a bit like Osbourne without the British accent) to headlining clubs and playing major music celebrations like England's Download Festival and San Francisco's own Outside Lands Festival.
Armed with an arsenal of well-crafted props -- including a smoke-belching onstage "grill," inflatable cheeseburgers and Osbourne's giant striped straws that the singer uses to slurp unsuspecting audience members' drinks -- the band has become a popular live act with its warped versions of Black Sabbath gems like "Frying Pan" ("Iron Man"), "Pair-a-Buns" ("Paranoid") and "Sweet Beef" ("Sweet Leaf"). In 2017, Mac Sabbath put out a flexi single of "Pair-a-Buns" that was packaged with a special coloring book (the band also released a collaborative claymation video for the tune).
The band has continued to create unusual merchandise, this year putting out its limited edition Pop-Up Metal pop-up book that they made in collaboration with artist Gris Grimy that includes a "secret vinyl surprise" featuring seven of the band's recordings of their twisted takes on Sabbath classics.
While the band recently played a San Francisco show at the Great American Music Hall last fall and a December show in Concord with action-adventure rock heroes Arnocorps, Mac Sabbath returns to the Bay Area once again on its current "More Than Meats the Eye Tour," headlining the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco Thursday night. This time, the band is joined by similarly conceptual band the Cybertronic Spree.
Founded in Toronto, the group of musicians wearing elaborate Transformer costumes deal out over-the-top covers of not only music related to the Transformers television show and 1986 animated movie (the band released a recording of the film's complete soundtrack in 2019), but a variety of action-adventure themes, anime and video game music as well as appropriate '80s metal and hard rock covers. Last month, the band released Ravage, its first collection of original songs that sounds exactly as you might imagine given the outfit's previous work. Phoenix-based multi-media art-punk crew Playboy Manbaby opens the show while local DJ Omar spins records before and between bands.
Mac Sabbath
Thursday, Sept. 28, 8 p.m. $30-$35
Great American Music Hall
