On a rainy, gloomy Saturday night The Mad Cat Live! Band took to the stage at The Gleason Room for its fifth live performance of a classic album. This time, the band tackled Black Sabbath’s fourth studio album “Vol 4.”—a fitting choice for a Halloween warm up.
Musicians for this performance were Erik Fabregat (company member of Mad Cat), Darren Bruck (of The Mystery Tones), Nabedi Osorio (drummer for The State Of) and Steph Taylor (keyboardist for The State Of).
Walking out of the rain and into the confines of the intimate Gleason Room, the stage was set as an eerie smoke emanated from the stage, and created an other worldly presence in the small concert hall. The stage itself looked like a cross between a satanic ritual gone wrong and a drop down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. There were oversized mushrooms scattered about and two large statues, a 10-foot tall scarecrow and a devilish looking tiki man slowly swaying back and forth. At closer look, the big reveal was that there were actual people in the statues and their faces, covered only by white masks, led to an uneasy feeling that Big Brother was watching.
Theatricality like this is part of what people love about Mad Cat Live! Based in Mad Cat Theater's gift for macabre, audiences get to experience the album rather than just watch a cover of it done on stage. They ensure you are drawn into the atmosphere of the show, which this time included clips from horror movies like “The Shining” and “Friday the 13th” and featured the aforementioned tiki man being slowly dragged around the audience (for some unknown nefarious reason) by a faceless satanic priest.
Fabregat led the band through the album’s 10 tracks, featuring fan favorites like “Changes”, “Snowblind” and “Supernaut.” At times, he seemed to channel the essence of Ozzy Osbourne, in particular on the ballad “Changes” where his voice was almost indistinguishable from that of Ozzy’s. Fabregat played dual roles, as Geezer Butler (bassist and lyricist for Ozzy's band) and Ozzy, a task that is not easily done, yet he rose to occasion and performed both roles flawlessly.
Darren Bruck’s guitar solos were blistering and reminiscent of Tony Iommi. While his playing on just about every song that night was great, his technical expertise really shone through on “St. Vitus’ Dance.” The song, which is one of the shortest on the album at two minutes and thirty seconds, doesn’t let up from start to finish and Bruck’s high intensity playing served it well.
As honed as Fabregat and Bruck are at their craft, Nabedi Osorio was once again the stand out musician of The Mad Cat Live! Band. Her drumming drove each and every song, and her quick fills and thundering bass drum would have made Bill Ward proud. She didn’t miss a beat throughout the entire show and this was most evident on “Snow Blind”, where her drumming was really the centerpiece of the song.
Adding their own twist to the classic album, the band decided to include keyboards on all of the songs. Originally only “Changes” featured prominent keyboards, but Steph Taylor was tasked with introducing the instrument to the other 9 tracks on the album. If Fabregat had not addressed the addition, it would not have been evident to anyone at the show that night. This truly speaks to the talent of Taylor who was able to seamlessly add another layer to the songs, and, went one step futher as integral to the success of the performance.
Ending the show was a surprise rendition of The Beatles “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, which surprisingly fit with the overall atmosphere of the concert. The heavy guitar riffs and bossa nova style drumming, were the perfect ending to the show.
For the amount of time that was so obvious in the planning of the production, and the immense talent of the band members on stage, it struck me as sad that the concert hall was mostly empty. This could have been because of the weather outside or the fact that Sabbath’s “Vol. 4” is not as well known as other albums like “Paranoid” or “Black Sabbath”, but either way it is a shame that more people were not there to experience the energy and theatrics of Saturday night’s performance.
Check out more from mad cat at https://www.madcattheater.org/next.
