Mac Sabbath
Tour 2023
Andrew Latshaw
November 4th was a mild Saturday for a nice drive from Canton, OH to Pittsburgh, PA for the Mac Sabbath show at Jergel’s! I had never heard of this venue, and so I was not sure what to expect. When I get there, the parking was free, which was great! There was a line out the door for the show, which I thought was awesome for the band! As I get inside and checked in, I saw that the line was for the band but also for the people to be seated to eat.
Jergel’s was definitely an awesome venue! It is new, it is clean, and so well lit! However, the really awesome part was it is two levels, and it is like an Applebee’s had a baby with a concert club! It was so cool! The food there was fantastic, and not at all overpriced. I cannot say much for the drinks since I do not drink…
I went to the merch tables and said hello to the people letting them know I was shooting the show that night, and being there for Mac Sabbath, I had no idea who the openers were and I had never heard of Playboy Manbaby and or Cybertronic Spree.
Playboy Manbaby was the first to kickoff the festivities there that night, and they would also be the opener for the Cleveland show at the Masonic Temple Live the next night, on the 5th of November. Playboy Manbaby was truly an unexpected surprise to me! Seeing these guys warming up, and getting ready to start the show, the first thing that came to mind was these guys are either going to be really bad, or absolutely awesome… it did not take long to solidify that they were the ladder of the two!
They were hysterical, and their sound is not something I can really compare it to… having seen and shot them twice, I am at a loss for words here. The best I can muster is, and I mean this in the absolutely best manner possible! If George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic had a musical love child with Napoleon Dynamite, that would be Playboy Manbaby!
They were eclectic, they were energetic, the music was funny but engaging and uplifting! They were truly something that I was not ready for, and could not have been forewarned about. They are a band I hope to see again soon, and getting the opportunity to talk with a couple of the members in Cleveland at the Masonic before the show Sunday evening, I can testify that these guys are humble, friendly, and loving life!
Second to take the stage, and direct support for Mac Sabbath was Cybertronic Spree, which they were also completely unknown to me prior to this show. On a side note, I saw the tour poster, and I saw the names of the bands touring with Mac Sabbath. I had the opportunity to look these guys up, but I personally like the surprise and seeing the acts at the show for the 1st time. To whomever is reading this, you may like a different approach, but me? I hate spoilers, and so the wow factor was definitely there when Cybertronic Spree took the stage!
When I was at their merch booth, everything they were selling had this 80’s cartoon feel to it, theme if you will. Their logo is a modified Decepticon logo! That struck me as odd, and when they took the stage looking like the robot version of the transformers, I was blown away! Luckily for me, I was at a club. I was camped out in my spot for the night and so being awe struck through most of the first song, I was not too upset that it took me a moment to get my bearings to start snapping shots of these characters!
There were 5x members in total, and I was immediately taken back to watching the Transformers as a kid back in the 80’s! I was laughing and mesmerized at the overwhelming waves of nostalgia these musicians were creating for me!
Their music was also original works, I think that they did play one cover of a song that they said was the catalyst of them forming the band.
Having seen the show at Jergel’s on Saturday, I was blowing up my social media pages telling everyone about these two bands! I have already seen Mac Sabbath in the past, and I am already a die hard fan of them, but Playboy Manbaby and Cybertronic Spree, I had to make sure that everyone in Cleveland knew about them, that they had to see them at the beautiful venue that is the Masonic Temple Live!
As mentioned before, there were 5x members of Cybertronic, due to the lighting at both venues, one of the members remained in the shadows for both shows, and I was only able to get pics of 4 of the 5 members.
I strongly recommend checking these bands out! They are both fantastic acts, and they are worth your time, and deserve your attention. If they are playing a show in your area, I promise that you will be grateful that you went to the show! These bands are not your typical pop culture, rubber stamp sounds! They are playing original music that had kept me smiling for almost a month straight!
Before I dive into the Mac Sabbath portion of the review, I want to start off with a pinch of my backstory… I have been interested in art all my life, one form or another. I went to school for animation, and had photography roommates, but never did anything with that myself.
As the years went by, I took interest in photography and started taking pics with my iPhone 4s walking around the streets, alleys, and cemeteries of Little Rock. One day, I bought a hobbyist camera, and that is when I stopped walking around the rabbit hole and decided to just jump in face first!
I have been going to concerts since I was a kid, and then as a teenager, I really loved the concert life! While I was not a musician of any sort, and knew a couple bands, I never really got into the music life. There was a summer I chased Ozzy on tour, I went to 11x shows across 5x states. A couple years later, I chased KISS on their tour, and saw them 8x times in 5x states.
In my life, between going to shows as a concert goer, and now 6yrs as a concert photographer, it is no exaggeration to say I have been to between 800-1K shows… which that prelude brings us to the point of this review. Mac Sabbath, is easily in my top 10, possibly top 5 favorite of my favorite live shows, ever!
As mentioned before on November 4th, I drove to Jergel’s in Pittsburgh and then on November 5th, I saw them again at the Masonic TempleLive in Cleveland. This was the 2nd and 3rd time I have had to privilege of seeing and photographing Mac Sabbath, and every single time, they do not disappoint!
I was telling their “Employee of the Month,” sadly his name escapes me at this writing, but he is their merch guy, about how much I love Mac Sabbath! He asked why I feel they rank so high up in my opinion. I told him that I love how engaging they are, I love the show! They are, in my opinion the perfect combination of Gallagher, KISS, OZZY Osbourne, and the old Mc Donald’s characters!
If you have never heard of or seen Mac Sabbath, their show is 2hrs of nonstop food puns and their message is fantastic! They are a band of time traveling musicians from Burminghamberger, England who have traveled from 1972 in various time machines to warn us in 2023 of the dangers of processed foods! They are the pioneer in Drive-Thru Metal!
The troupe consists of Ronald Osbourne, Slayer MacCheese, The Cat Burglar, and Grimm Alice. There are the supporting characters in their wandering band of time traveling misfits such as the Moon, the Palm-Palm looking Fry thing, and Lizard Man with his harmonica playing solo!
The show keeps you guessing! Ronald comes out at the beginning bound in a straight jacket, with a scowl and runs from one side of the stage to the other, mean mugging everyone! Then he eventually frees himself from the confining straight jacket and then the show begins!
Once loose of the restraints, Ronald does his Ozzy Osbourne influenced voice and laugh. Coming from a lifelong fan of Ozzy, Ronald’s voicing and mimic of Ozzy just makes me smile and love him more! On a side note, another thing that is helpful to know about me is that when I was in college, my roommates tried to get me on to Mtv for their show called FANATIC! Where fans are so hardcore about these stars and musicians, yeah… so that helps explain my infatuation with this music! It is parodies of Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, and even KISS songs. Music I have been jamming to since I was a kid till now!
Another example is, if you are not familiar with the old Mc Donald’s characters, there was the Hamburglar. He had a had a hat, a mask that covered his eyes, and this terrifying smile that still lovingly haunts me to this day! Now, looking at how the Cat Burglar wears a similar striped outfit, a hat like the original character but his face paint is similar to Peter Chris of KISS, hence the Cat Burglar. For those familiar with a KISS concert, Peter Chirs will come out and do an acoustic song: Beth and then hand a rose to one or more of the women in the crowd. Well, the Cat Burglar sings Bread… How can you not laugh at this!?!
Tom Petty was credited for saying: “If I can make people forget about their problems for a couple of hours, I have done my job!”
Mac Sabbath does this for me! I have shot three of their shows now, and while at the show, and during the hours spent editing the pictures I shot at their shows… there is no stress of my life in my mind. There is me, there is the art I was able to capture of these guys doing their thing. They have done their job, over and over for me!
I have been telling my circle about these guys to the point of annoying people! I can honestly say that those who have gotten out to the shows, they have all thanked me for pushing as much as I did! One person came back and said that they are obsessed!
This show, it is fantastic! I will say that it is extremely interactive and so keep your electronics stowed if they are not waterproof!
In closing this review for Mac Sabbath in Pittsburgh and Cleveland this time through, if they are in your area please get out to the show and give these guys some much deserved love! They are not out there curing cancer, no. However, their warnings of how terrible processed food for you is, they may be preventing the spread of illness and issues later in life. The important thing is, in a world that we are in today these guys are out there touring the world to make people laugh. We are all guilty of taking things too seriously at times, and with the environment that we are all in these days, you cannot go to this show and not laugh! It is impossible to do that!
Personally, I feel that the world is a better place having Mac Sabbath and the likes in it! They may not solve the issues we have, but they are making it possible to smile, laugh, and forget about those stresses for a chunk of your day! That alone says they are doing their part, to which I am eternally grateful for!
Playboy Manbaby Website | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok | Twitter | Instagram |
Cybertronic Spree Website | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok | Twitter | Instagram |
Mac Sabbath Website | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok | Twitter | Instagram |
