The historic Center Stage Theater complex in Atlanta, Georgia, played host to parody heavy metal tribute band Mac Sabbath on a pleasantly mild Saturday night in the South. Built in 1966 to honor Atlanta’s performing arts community and to memorialize Helen Lee Cartlidge after she and 100 other arts patrons perished in the Orly plane crash of 1962, this three-venue facility has been a live performance destination for nearly six decades. With Ben Katzman’s DeGreaser and Flummox in tow, Mac Sabbath leveraged The Loft space, an intimate and industrial-feeling 650-capacity venue within the Center Stage compound for their latest 10 Year Anniversary tour stop.
Kicking off an evening of music that was destined to be nothing less than delightfully strange was Ben Katzman’s DeGreaser at 8:00pm. Perhaps best recognized as a finalist from Survivor Season 46, Miami-based guitarist Katzman is a multi-faceted musician that can creatively blend various musical genres (punk, pop, rock) into a unique audio experience.
With his Survivor Siga tribemate Tim Spicer (from Atlanta) announced as being in the audience, Katzman and crew went full throttle for 30 minutes, blasting through in-your-face metal bangers like “Don’t Be A Poser,” “Kool is the Rool,” “EGODRIVER,” “Love Witch,” and “Florida Man.” While certainly a talented guitar shredder in his own right, Katzman’s tight band pivoted effortlessly across song styles that seemingly pulled influences from artists like Judas Priest and old school Sammy Hagar. Katzman, with pronounced sweat to prove it, was the perfect choice to get the early audience amped up for the evening.
Next up on the bill following a quick 10-minute changeover was Flummox, a self-described band of “genrefluid sounds for the strange and nocturnal” out of Nashville, Tennessee. Out on the road supporting their latest album release Southern Progress (April 11), the queer/transfemme band consisted of Alyson Blake Dellinger (lead vocals, bass), Alan Pfeifer (drums), Chase McCutcheon (guitars), Jesse Peck (keyboards), and Max Mobarry (guitars). I had heard that Flummox was well known for being unpredictable and unchoreographed at shows, and Saturday night was no exception.
Opening their set with “A Bundle of Styx,” I was immediately taken in by Flummox’s unexpected uniqueness. Their heavy sound and distinct songwriting style are almost impossible to box into a single description. Flummox comes across as punk one minute, and then death metal next, all accentuated by Dellinger’s uncanny vocal ability to gravitate from sultry to Satanic mid-song.
While there have been a few lineup changes since their formation back in 2012, Flummox’s catalog of existing originals could have carried them through their ear-melting 8-song, 50-minute set on Saturday night. However, most of their performance highlighted the Southern Progress release, featuring tracks live such as “Always Something Going Down,” “Coyote Gospel,” “Nesting Doll,” “Femto’s Theme,” and my favorite, “Siren Shock.” When Dellinger dropped the mic at 9:30pm to call it a night, as the saying goes, I was sufficiently flummoxed.
Setlist:
Following the final stage turn, the quirky McDonald’s-inspired Black Sabbath parody band Mac Sabbath cooked up the venue’s energy as the clock passed 10:00pm. Anchored by Ronald Osborne (vocals), along with his fellow theatrical bandmates Slayer MacCheeze (guitars), Grimalice (bass), and the Cat Burglar (drums), the band’s elaborate stage show was rounded out with a smoking grill, laser-eyed clowns, as well as a variety of special character guests that appeared throughout the night.
Jokingly referring to the band as “drive thru metal,” Mac Sabbath kicked off their set with “Organic Funeral,” and then proceeded to captivate the near capacity audience with their magnetic performance for the next nearly 90 minutes with puns (“Chick-Fil-AC/DC” and “Dokken Donuts”), props (“burning” chickens on the grill, spray bottles of “ketchup” and “mustard,” inflatables, a giant beer-chugging straw), and punch-you-in-the-gut heavy metal antics.
Known for their unique rearrangement of Black Sabbath songs into tunes like “Chicken for the Slaves” (“Children of the Grave”) and “Sweet Beef” (“Sweet Leaf”), the band also delivered enjoyable reimagined “covers” in “Bread” (“Beth” by KISS) and “The Grouper” (“The Trooper” by Iron Maiden). Then, as expected and with Osborne sporting a flaming frying pan, Mac Sabbath capped off their opening set with the ever-popular fan favorite “Frying Pan” (lifted from “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath).
With the crowd shouting “one more song, one more song,” Mac Sabbath quickly returned for their encore and gave their demanding fans a final three-song set, starting with “Fries Above” before rolling into the well-known classic “Pair-a-Buns” (recreated from Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”). With the audience’s energy at its apex, Mac Sabbath put an exclamation point on their gig’s funky and fun night with a resounding performance of “Gravy Train,” their musical modification of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.”
The Mac Sabbath 10 Year Anniversary Tour continues on for a few more weeks, where it will wrap up on Saturday, May 10th, at The WC Social Club in West Chicago, Illinois.
Setlist:
Encore:
All photos (c) Elliott Gordon. All rights reserved.
