Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, & Harry Shearer

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Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, & Harry Shearer – ‘Unwigged & Unplugged’
Label: Courgette Records
Year: 2009
Review by Bucky

Back in 1984 there were commercials promoting an upcoming movie called ‘This is Spinal Tap’ & the trailer showed this rip roaring metal band that I never heard of called Spinal Tap & I wanted to check them out. From the commercial I thought it was a documentary on some unknown band from the U.K. Myself & a few friends went to check out the flick on its opening day & were we in for a surprise. Rob Reiner was in the opening minutes of the film under the name Marty Dibergi talking about this historic rock band from the U.K. & that he would be following them around making a “Rockumentary”. It was at that point I realized this was a fictional movie about a fictional band & as soon as I seen the singer/guitarist David St. Hubbins I knew it was Lenny from Laverne & Shirley. None of this mattered though because I got so into the humor, the storyline, & the rip roaring rock & roll that by the end of the movie I almost believed it was a historical Rock Band. Soon afterwards I found out that bassist Derek Smalls was Harry Shearer (whom I knew as an extra on SNL) & the lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel was Christopher Guest who just joined the cast of SNL. The whole Spinal Tap craze was awesome & these 3 guys actually were good musicians. They remained in character on talk shows, TV specials, & in concert when they toured as Spinal Tap. They were a real band & at one point they even had Mick Fleetwood playing drums with them. In 2003 the 3 comedians joined forces one more time as a fictional band called the Folksmen for the Mockumentary of a 60’s Folk Music Revival concert movie called ‘A Mighty Wind’ which also was a decent movie but no where’s near the monster that Spinal Tap was.

2009 marked the 25th Anniversary of the classic rockumentary & to celebrate, the 3 comedians went on a 30 city acoustic tour calling it an ‘Unwigged & Unplugged’ tour which brings us to this phenomenal & highly recommended DVD. After watching this DVD if they would ever come through the Buffalo, NY area I would be first in line for tickets. The show was a little over 2 hours & was packed with comedy & of course music. The music wasn’t just Spinal Tap songs, it also featured music by the Folksmen, a couple songs from Guest’s ‘Waiting for Guffman’ movie, & even an awesome bluegrass version of the Rolling Stones “Start Me Up”(just as you’d expect to hear from the Hayseed Dixie).

The show kicked off with them harmonizing perfectly on the first verse of “Celtic Blues” which was very short. After a moment or 2 of silence the 3 kicked into high gear on a hard driving acoustic version of one of Spinal Tap’s metal anthems “Hell Hole” with Guest doing an amazing job scatting along with his acoustic guitar solo. There are a total of 35 different pieces to this show & so many highlights. Although they were themselves they told fictional stories about the characters such was the case when Shearer introduced the song “Clam Caravan” from Spinal Tap’s ‘Break Like the Wind’ album. He said that when Nigel wrote the song he meant for it to be called “Calm Caravan” but the record company pressed it as “Clam Caravan”. The song was a soft psychedelic acoustic number but towards the end Guest walked to the side of the stage & brought out this long hollowed out tube of painted wood & while McKean & Shearer continued with the soft relaxing rhythm Guest blew into the woodwind instrument a few times & the sound of almost flatulence filled the air. They also showed a clip of Spinal Tap from 1979 from a unaired TV pilot for an ABC show which never made it called “The TV Show”. The show & clip was created by Rob Reiner & the song was called “Rock & Roll Nightmare”. Shearer spoke of how their record company back in the early 90’s was Universal Records which he called them liars because they only used artists from planet Earth. He said that the company helped them put together an amazing video that was going to be a sure fire hit on MTV but when it was submitted to MTV it was rejected because of its content. Keyboardist C.J. Vanston was introduced & the band launched into a rocking version of the banned from MTV tune “Bitch School”. As the band hit the final notes Shearer in his Monty Burns (from the Simpsons) voice shouted out “Release the Hounds!” & then explained that the song was about a dog training school. McKean made a comment about how MTV used to be about music but now it’s about “Mmmm What else is on?” Another segment was called “The Clotworthy Memo” which was a story about a time when NBC was going to air ‘This is Spinal Tap’ on a late night Saturday but the censor whose name was Bill Clotworthy brought a list of everything that needed to be censored out which probably would’ve left about 30 minutes of the movie but the stuff that was to be censored was hilarious & they read the entire list. They played the first song David St. Hubbins & Nigel Tufnel ever wrote which was a skiffle type number called “All the Way Home” which was in the movie & also on their ‘Break Like the Wind’ album. McKean played some mean harmonica on this song & once again I cannot go on enough about the musicianship of these guys. The Spinal Tap classic “Big Bottom” was done in cool jazz style which sounded phenomenal. They played a song by the Folksmen called “Blood on the Coal” which is a wild dark tune about a train going in the wrong tunnel & ending up in a coal mine killing many people. Shearer announced it was time for audience participation time in which Mckean pulled out a rubber glove & the other 2 shook their heads at him. They needed the help of one member of the audience & they called a seat number which was a pregnant girl. They handed her a pair of 3D glasses & had her stand in front of the front row to watch the band perform the psychedelic “Flower People”. During the song the 3 guys kept leaning over the stage at her & weaving back in forth. At one point Shearer talked about the death of Elvis Presley & the band launched into their tribute to the King called “All Backed Up” which featured Shearer doing an Elvis singing impersonation. Of course the night wouldn’t be complete without the classic “Stonehenge” which had a video on a screen of a tiny Stonehenge being lowered by a string & 2 hands came out holding troll dolls which danced around Stonehenge. Christopher Guest & Shearer’s wife performed a beautiful duet on “Penny For Your Thoughts” from the ‘Waiting for Guffman’ flick & a little later McKean & his wife Annette O’Toole performed 2 songs. The first one was a hilarious religious song called “The Good Book Song” which answered the “What ifs?” on the bible stories of Noah, Moses, & David & Goliath. The second song was a lovely duet from ‘A Mighty Wind’ called “Kiss at the End of a Rainbow” which was sung in the movie by Catherine O’Hara & Eugene Levy. The show also featured a Q & A session with the audience which was entertaining but the real highlight of the whole show was the band’s funky version of “Sex Farm”. The musicianship was incredible as keyboardist C.J. Vanston pounded away with a sound that reminded me of Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” & halfway through the song McKean started to rap the tune as Shearer & Guest became a human beat box. The band rocked it up 60’s garage style with Spinal Tap’s (actually according to Tap’s history they were called the Thamesmen for this tune) “Gimme Some Money” featuring a keyboard sound like Paul Revere & Raiders had. For their encore they played a Folksmen tune called “Old Joe’s Place” which was about a good home cooking joint followed by verse 2 of “Celtic Blues”. After a few seconds McKean said it was time to make some eardrums bleed which they did on the final song of the night “Heavy Duty” from Spinal Tap.