SABBRA CADABRA :

CASTLE HEIGHTS

The crowd at Castle Heights found themselves plunged into a time warp as Sabbra Cadabra conjured up the spirit of Black Sabbath . The band, which hails from New Jersey , has been performing their tribute to the legendary band for two years. Joe Donnelly is the new incarnation of Ozzy Osbourne . Jeff Mott takes the place of Geezer Butler on Bass . Dan Toto is the spitting image of Tony Iommi on guitar . Rounding out the lineup is Tom Capobianco , a spirited Bill Ward on drums . According to Capobianco , the band uses the same stage equipment as the original Sabbath . Everyone dresses and looks the part , right down to the platform shoes , he said .

Capobianco said that Sabbra Cadabra is very careful to mimic Sabbath,s sound exactly to the point where their renditions are closer to the original recordings than the real bands live versions were . Everythings in tune with the songs on the albums.

The crowd at Castle Heights was uniformly in the spirit of the occasion , chanting Ozzy ! and Sabbath ! even before Sabbra Cadabra took the stage . When they did , with the song Black Sabbath , the pandemonium that erupted almost suspended belief . The band went on as promised to perform energetic , near perfect versions of over a dozen Sabbath classics . Particularly memorable were Electric Funeral , and Iron Man , with Donnelly putting his all into a heartfelt Ozzy-esque performance . Toto,s  Iommi was also dead- on . He wailed away with power on each song , an impressive army of guitars behind him . Mott and Capobianco provided a solid bottom . The irony of watching this expertly played set is that Sabbra Cadabra likely performs these  songs much better than Sabbath itself did in their heyday ( their live recordings provide evidence of this ).

Sabbra Cadabra is a must - see for not only original Sabbath fans who want to recapture the feeling of seeing the original band , but also for new fans who want to get a taste of what it was like .

Jim Catapano