OMEB Halloween at Bobby Mackey's

This old mechanical bull at Bobby Mackey's has thrown many a cowboy wanna-be over the years.  We saw a few get tossed on Halloween night, one more worried about his hat than his ride.  Normally we wouldn't roam down to Wilder, Kentucky, just to visit a haunted honky-tonk since we used to own one ourselves.  However, our buddy Mike Carr, who performs as OMEB: One Man Electrical Band has made an unholy alliance with old Bobby, culminating in a FREE Halloween show to taunt the spirits into extra activity for the tours of Mackey's basement, mouth of Hell and all.

 

 We got there early for a good seat and enjoyed karaoke and line dancing hosted by Miss Wanda Kay the DJ and gift shop keeper.  She even had authored a book about the paranormal activities there, for sale in the shop.  Mikey debuted his new CD, "OMEB, Bloody OMEB" and also sold raffle tickets for a nice guitar to raise money for the late Ronnie James Dio's Stand Up And Shout cancer fund (click Dio's link to donate).

For those who have never seen OMEB, here's the deal.  He used to be in a band but grew weary of the hassle of dealing with 3-4 other guys and all the complications.  You know how us rockers can be!  So he began recording all the backing parts - drums, bass, keyboards, harmony vocals, etc. - and loaded the results into his laptop.  In his live performances, his laptop delivers the backing tracks, just like karaoke but of his own making, and he plays guitar live and sings live and feeds it through his PA system.  Add the evil clown and light show and you've got some real rock entertainment!

Mike covers a lot of tasty metal tunes from Metallica, Guns n Roses, Pink Floyd, System Of A Down and such.  With the new Bobby Mackey alliance, he cover's Bobby's song "Johanna" about the restless spirit of a young woman who used to work there but ended in tragedy.  It really works, since country and rock have ancestors in common (Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, etc.).  Ditto for a new song they do together called "Rockin' The Country."  Get out sometime and see OMEB play and visit Bobby Mackey's.  Tour the basement if you dare!