On Thursday, Mac Sabbath traveled through the time-space continuum and landed at the Local 662 in St. Petersburg to deliver dire warnings about government control in food, clad as drive-thru metal versions of McDonaldland characters and performing covers of Black Sabbath hits that have been re-tooled into parables about nutritional value and low wages.
The whole lineup for the night was a truly inspired one, kicking off with a set by dapper rockers Twisty Chris and the Puddin’ Packs. With a bouncing lead singer and scorching bass, they played songs with a nod to the ’50s that prompted many in the quickly-growing crowd to start doing the twist. Up next was Nerds Raging, a local robot-fronted punk band that killed it with the covers. They Rick-rolled the crowd, played a thrash cover of the Muppet Babies theme song, and wrapped up their set with “America (Fuck Yeah).”
The third band of the night was St Pete’s own glorious Wolf-Face. The four-piece is so legitimately good that they don’t actually need the Teen Wolf gimmick, which is a good thing since they’re just four small-town wolves who enjoy playing basketball, drinking beer and rocking out. These furry storytellers put on a consistently amazing highly-recommended show, and you should catch them once, at least, if you haven’t already.
Finally, after three great openers and a free keg of Magic Hat beer had gotten the crowd sufficiently hyped up, it was time for the main act. A cover of “Send in the Clowns” began to play, the lights dimmed, and the red-and-yellow-striped curtain that hung across the stage unveiled the glory that is Mac Sabbath. There was Slayer MacCheeze on guitar, The Catburglar on drums, bassist Grimalice, and Ronald Osbourne on vocals and the grill. They worked their way through a collection of clever quasi-overs, holding the crowd rapt. I’d never heard of Mac Sabbath outside of a flurrry of viral videos, but it felt like one part concert, one part high concept performance art.
Ever since Peelander-Z stopped coming to town regularly, I’d been feeling something was missing from my concert-going life. Mac Sabbath fed the craving I didn’t even know I was having, and I’m hoping the buzz from this show will spur more local interest so the quartet brings their dietary-education-through-punk message back to our dimension soon. —Marci/DCG
Check out more photos of “drive-thru metal” act Mac Sabbath by Brian Mahar below.
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Rock parody group Mac Sabbath brings its “drive thru metal” to Tampa
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2016.
