The Garden Amp in Garden Grove hosted “Drive-Thru Metal band” Mac Sabbath for their tenth anniversary show. Support from The Dickies and Peelander Z made this a tongue-in-cheek night of satire, bad puns, and insanity.
Peelander Z, the Japanese Action Comic Punk band, opened the night by pumping up the crowd, chanting “Go PZ, Go” until Peelander Yellow, Peelander Green, and Peelander Red exploded into “P-Burger,” a song about eating hamburgers every night and every day. During fan favorite “So Many Mike,” they pulled up someone from the crowd wearing a homemade shirt provided to him that said “I Am Mike.” At one point, Peelander Yellow replaced each member of the band by holding up signs asking for someone from the crowd to volunteer to play an instrument on stage. While this was happening, bowling pins were set up at the front of the stage. Once a new band had been formed, Peelander Yellow waited at the back of the venue and ran into the pins for a quick game of human bowling. They closed the set dancing to their cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Peelander Z’s set moves so fast they don’t give you the proper time to process what you are watching, but by the end of their set, most of the crowd was on board. Their stage show is the most fun one will ever have at a punk rock show. My description cannot do justice to how amazing their set was and must be seen in person.
Second up was the legendary Dickies. They opened the set with “Killer Klowns From Outer Space.” Ben David Selig’s rhythm guitar, Eddie Tatar’s bass, and Adam Gomez’s drumming hold the band steady while Stan Lee shreds through a set that went through most of the Dickies’ hits, including “Eve of Destruction,” “Manny, Moe, and Jack,” and “You Drive Me Ape.” Lead singer Leonard Graves doesn’t move as well as he used to, but his voice still sounds great. He’s still a charming and funny frontman who will wear a snorkel and goggles while dancing with a blow-up doll during “Waterslide.” The band closed with their covers of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and the themes to Gigantor and Banana Splits. While I have never seen a bad set from this band, it was disappointing not hearing “Stukas over Disneyland.”
Mac Sabbath is touring in celebration of ten years. Ten years of Ronnie Osborne and his Monsanto-mutated fiends Grimalice on bass, the Cat Burglar on drums, and Slayer McCheese on guitar to warn the world of the evils of a drive-thru dinner. Mac Sabbath came out in tuxedos to celebrate their anniversary but quickly took them off to let the mayhem begin. While most of their set consists of parodies of Black Sabbath songs like “Drive Thru the Void” and “Sweet Beef,” they also include takes on the band’s songs. Peter Criss-Hamburglar mash-up, the Catburglar, sings a version of KISS’s “Beth” called “Bread.” Decrying other fast food bands such as Dokken Donuts, Taco Belle and Sebastian, and Iron Maidenny’s. At one point, Ronnie Osborne grabs a microphone attached to a trouble light and sings Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” like Dean Stockwell in David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.” Mac Sabbath’s set included a secret word. The secret word was “cake,” and when said, Ronald Osborne would put on a bucket hat and the band would go into the first verse and chorus of Cake’s song “The Distance.” At the end of the set, Stan Lee of the Dickies came out to play guitar on “Pair-a-buns,” Mac Sabbath’s take on “Paranoid,” prompting Ronnie Osborne to crowd surf on a hamburger pool float before teasing us with the beginning of “Gravy Train,” their cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s song “Crazy Train,” but ending before the first verse and their set.
This was a perfect lineup, and their powers combined made this one of the best shows I’ve seen in years. Picking bands that have no qualms about their silliness makes for a good time. The energy in the venue was different than most shows. It almost felt like watching Saturday Morning Cartoons live in person. Replaying this show in my head feels more like a fever dream than a cheap-ticketed night of entertainment.
