Review: The Weird Wonders Of Mac Sabbath And Galactic Empire
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — "Join us for what is easily the weirdest show you will see all year" bellowed Dark Vader during a set from Galactic Empire at The Foundry in Philadelphia on Thursday night.
Dark is the lead guitarist for the imperial enthusiast band which performs metal arrangements of your favorite songs from a galaxy far, far away. Imagine as if Dream Theater met up with John Williams in aisle three of a Party City – that's Galactic Empire.
Dark is not to be confused with the much more menacing and much more copyrighted Darth Vader. Neither are his bandmates Kyle Ren or Boba Sett.
Boba Sett for what it's worth is a ferocious drummer, acting as a double-pedal madman behind the kit. In fact all of this imperial fleet are skilled musicians delivering an iconic score dripping with badassery. The costumes and the names cut corners, but their skills did not.
If you would have told me that the dark side of the force would open for the demonic side of fast food, I wouldn't have believed it. However, after an hour of failed planet implosions and punishing rock, Galactic Empire gave way to Mac Sabbath.
Mac Sabbath is a different band of misfits all together. They claim to have traveled through the time space continuum to warn about the dangers of government controlled food. They do so of course to the tune of your favorite Black Sabbath songs. Their desperate pleas come out in songs like "Frying Pan" which sounds very similar to "Iron Man", or "GMO Blind" which resembles the classic "Snowblind". You get it.
The band, not being of this world, does not do interviews. Their manager though does and explained to us before the show that their work has been Ozzy approved with some possible collaboration on the horizon.
The restaurant doesn't seem as embracing of the demented clown who calls himself Ronald Osbourne.
He along with Slayer McCheese on guitar, Grimalice on bass, and Catburglar on drums ripped through every fast food pun possible, beer bonged from a giant soda straw, and actually performed a tight, fun set of songs to the surprisingly packed house.
Squirting water from ketchup and mustard bottles, banging spatulas together, the night was filled with tributes and theatrics. Like the band before them, it would be easy to laugh it off completely if it didn't sound so good.
The best parody is an authentic commitment to the original with the most exaggerated flourish. Somehow a clown named Ronald and a guitarist named Dark really nailed it.
