The Sabbitch is back

Over the years, Black Sabbath has proven to be an easy mark for the creative tribute band. In a recent issue I wrote about Mac Sabbath, a bona fide tribute that, while keeping the music real, fronts elaborate McDonald’s cartoon character costumes and makes food-parody of certain lyrics. Now comes Black Sabbitch, an all-female Sabbath tribute act from Los Angeles. I’ve no idea what feelings the royal couple (Ozzy and Sharon) may have toward Mac Sabbath, but they do like Sabbitch. They chose the band to open for Ozzy at last year’s Ozzfiesta.

Black Sabbitch got started in the manner of countless hard-rock bands: during a jam session based on Sabbath tunes. It’s an easy place to start a hard-rock friendship — almost everybody knows Sabbath, and the song structures themselves are relatively easy to pull off if you don’t. In this case, a drummer named Angie Scarpa and Blare N. Bitch, a guitarist, both veterans of L.A.’s rock scene, worked out together one night on some Sabbath and the rest is history. They found their “Geezer” in Melanie Makaiwa, and Aimee Echo from the Human Waste Project stepped in on vocals — but she does them her way, not with the grandiose theatrics of Ozzy.

Otherwise, the job of a tribute band is difficult and simple in equal measures. Simple, because every note has already been worked out in advance. Difficult, because every single fan knows those notes and will therefore know it when said tribute band makes mistakes. All of that is off the table with Black Sabbitch. They are a hard-rock band playing old-school Sabbath, not actually living it so much or playing by rote, and they bring a new shine to old doom. Indeed, they rock the living hell out of Sabbath’s catalog. That, and a reporter once wrote about liking the band’s “sexy confidence.” So do I.

Gayc/DC and Gunner Gunner also perform.