Ever have crazy acid dreams where the members of your favorite classic rock band become the world’s most recognizable fast food characters?
Gainesville, you’re not dreaming.
Enter Mac Sabbath: the parody band that alters Black Sabbath tunes to fit the thematic structure of a certain golden-arched hamburger chain. The group will be taking their “drive-thru metal” act to The Wooly in Gainesville for the first time this Friday night for their Rock-Sham-Shake Tour. I got a chance to catch up with the band’s spokesperson and manager Mike Odd to figure out what the hell this whole thing is about.
The band claims to have traveled through a space-time portal from the 1970s so they can warn the modern age of the problems with corporations, fast food and music. Their mission: to return to a time when music and food were less processed and more genuine.
Odd says he met Ronald Osbourne, the band’s singer, named after Ronald McDonald and Ozzy Osbourne, when Osbourne approached him in full costume at a burger joint in Chatsworth, California. Osbourne explained the band’s story and mission and asked Odd to manage the band.
“It was very strange, and it keeps getting stranger,” Odd said with a laugh.
Indeed, strange is what fans can expect when Mac Sabbath rolls through town this weekend. The band, dressed as Ronald Osbourne, Grimalice, Catburglar and Slayer MacCheeze, dress the stage in fast-food folk lore, with french fries running around, inflatable burgers bopping all over the place and giant laser-eyed clowns.
“It’s a full multi-media stage show,” Odd said. “They take an arena size stage show and pack it onto a club-sized stage.”
While the performance is meant to be dark, outrageous and ultimately comedic, the band’s message is underscored by a serious tone. The content of the songs ranges from the inclusion of GMO’s in our food to the plight of the fast food worker’s wages in the modern age. The satirical elements of the group are marked with sarcasm, but the show could ultimately be enjoyed by anyone in attendance, according to Odd. The band has performed everywhere from massive music festivals like Outside Lands in San Francisco to elementary school Halloween parties.
“It is just this wicked, gnarly, ominous metal show that comes off so heavy and scary and somehow it’s still a ‘family-friendly’ thing,” Odd said.
So whether your a fast-food junkie, a metal head, none of the above or simply just looking for something you’ve never seen before, make your Friday night a special one and go see Mac Sabbath.
Check out the Facebook event page here.
