OK, there’s a little bit to unpack here. A concept. McDonald’s has been in the music news lately, oddly. Did you read Kanye West’s poem on the Golden Arches? I think he mentioned something about “artificial meat eyes” in there, but let’s bracket that for now.
Another McDonald’s-related bit of musical curiosity is about to hit you hard. In the stomach. Mac Sabbath is, as you might have guessed, a Black Sabbath parody band that uses the themes and imagery of fast food hamburger chains, particularly those of McDonald’s. (I was half hoping for a Fleetwood Mac/Sabbath mash-up parody, but we’ll wait for that one.)
In this theatrical band, the singer dresses like that clown. The drummer is Hamburglar-eque fused with Peter Chris’s Kiss getup, the bassist is like a cross between Barney the dinosaur and the character known as Grimace. (Don’t worry if you’re too young to make any sense of this. Consider yourself lucky.)
The band, from Los Angeles, is part GWAR, part Weird Al, part Dread Zeppelin, part Korn, and part Butthole Surfers. It’s a cult phenomenon. The lyrics are like a nightmare vision of fast-food America, with feedlots, growth hormones and slaughterhouses. All appropriately set to the familiar demonic strains of Sabbath.
Mac Sabbath plays at Pearl Street Ballroom, 10 Pearl St., Northampton, Saturday, Sept. 10, at 8:30 p.m. $15 to $18. 413-584-7771 and iheg.com.
