Mac Sabbath does Black Sabbath McDonald’s style

Not a fan of Black Sabbath? Not to worry. That line is long and includes everyone from the religious right to certain members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who made the heavy-metal band wait until 2006 for their induction. But, proper due must be given, for Black Sabbath surely put things into the language of pop music that weren’t there before they arrived on the scene. And, they gave the world Ozzy Osbourne, whose post-Sabbath buffoonery has been parlayed into celebrity status over the years. Osbourne’s a living cartoon, but then again most of the members of Black Sabbath seem as if carved from an odd book of fables. Consider the wiry old troll on bass named Geezer Butler, and Tony Iommi, a guitarist who is missing the tips of two fingers. Who better to pay tribute to the lot of them than Mac Sabbath?

Right out of the box, the buzz surrounding Mac Sabbath spread around the planet via rock and metal bloggers who dug the act. This is an L.A. band that started up last summer and performed a handful of area shows and street fests costumed head-to-toe in dazzling full-color McDonald’s fast-food character costumes. Ronald McDonald, for example, plays Oz, and it works so well I wonder why the real Ozzy didn’t come up with it first. Fans would have loved it. None of the members of Mac Sabbath, by the way, have stepped out from behind the anonymity of those costumes, but as a cover band, they are right on the biscuits. Tributes used to dominate the classic-rock club scene, with most looking nothing like their counterparts. In this case, who would know? And while Sabbath’s hits are played true to form, the lyrics and titles are not. “Sweet Leaf,” for example, becomes “Sweet Beef” and “Paranoid” is re-cast as “Pair-of-Buns.” Fries not included.