3 Reasons You Should See Mac Sabbath Live

If you’ve heard of Mac Sabbath, chances are the name puts a smile on your face, but if you haven’t heard of the band that dresses as deranged versions of the McDonald’s mascots while playing fast food themed parodies of Black Sabbath songs … well, then that sentence probably just melted your brain.

With Ronald Osbourne on vocals, Slayer MacCheeze on guitar, Grimalice on bass, and Catburglar (whose makeup is a cross between the Hamburglar, and Peter Criss from KISS) on drums, this past Thursday Mac Sabbath took their tenth anniversary tour to Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, and proved exactly why they’ve built such a fanatical following over the past decade.

The combination of the music, the visuals, and the realization that yes, you are in fact actually seeing, and hearing this, makes the show a true experience.

For those bold enough to embrace the bizarre (and in my opinion everyone should be!), here are three reasons you should see Mac Sabbath live.

They’re an acid trip you can still pass a drug test after experiencing 

Perhaps if the timelines of Mac Sabbath and Ken Kesey had intersected we might never have had The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, because had Kesey seen Mac Sabbath he may have realized he was capable of seeing, and hearing, unbelievably strange things that could blow his mind while totally sober.

With trippy heavy metal versions of the McDonald’s characters, giant inflatable burgers being tossed into the crowd like beachballs, and smoking Ronald McDonald heads on on giant poles on each side of the stage … honestly, what more do you need to believe your mind is in an altered state?



Now, I think we’re all happy Ken Kesey did his thing, but for the rest of us Mac Sabbath might be the closest one can come to an acid trip without actually having the drug in your system (which is a good thing, because most of us actually have to go to work the next day!).

You don’t have to love Black Sabbath, or fast food, to enjoy the show 

I know a lot of folks might wonder if a band that parodies mostly Black Sabbath songs – and I’m not giving any spoilers as to what else they play – can be enjoyed by people who aren’t necessarily into Black Sabbath, and the answer is a resounding yes.

Black Sabbath has enough songs, and riffs that are immediately recognizable – “Paranoid,” “War Pigs,” “Iron Man” – that even people who don’t listen to Ozzy and crew are probably still familiar with them, even if they don’t necessarily realize it.

Of course, with Mac Sabbath the song then becomes about hamburgers, or chicken nuggets, or rib sandwiches, but once again, even if you don’t enjoy those things – and personally, I haven’t eaten fast food in over 20 years – it’s still hilarious, and a heck of a lot of fun.

They can legitimately play 

As with any band of this nature that is built on some combination of costume, parody, and theater – GWAR, Tragedy – the show wouldn’t be a good time, and the band wouldn’t last more than a nanosecond, if they weren’t actually good musicians.

None of this works if the skills don’t come first, and while we may never see the faces of the people inside the giant Slayer MacCheeze, and Grimalice costumes, we can hear them play, and they play damned well.

As an aside, while this was my first time seeing Mac Sabbath, I spoke with a few folks in the crowd who’d seen them multiple times, so this is not just a “you see them once” band, they’re a “you see them, have your mind blown, and then bring your friends the next time the band is in town” band. That only happens if the band can legitimately play.

For more Mac Sabbath, check out officialmacsabbath.com.