I just saw that Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer who were the Mock band in This is Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind are performing for real in a six week tour. No characters (i.e. no wigs) and playing acoustic only. If you have seen either of the excellent mocumentry’s then you know that these guys are pretty good. I will look forward to hearing how they sound. http://www.unwigged.com
UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED An Evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean & Harry Shearer (March 2, 2009 – Los Angeles) — Actors/Directors/Musicians and Comedy Icons Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer are doing something they have never done before; performing a six week, 30 city multi-media acoustic tour without wigs and electric instruments. UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED: An Evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer has the legendary musical and comedic trio performing music from heavy metal’s loudest band Spinal Tap along with the folk music from A Mighty Wind, and more. Tickets for the UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED tour go on sale Friday, March 6th, with the tour starting Friday, April 17th in Vancouver and ending Sunday, May 31st in Milwaukee. UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED is not about funny costumes and characters, but rather three long time friends and collaborators who make each laugh and love nothing better than to find some excuse to get together and play music. The trio commented, “With this being the 25th Anniversary of the film This is Spinal Tap, we thought this would be a fun and at the same time, a little challenging, as we have never performed as ourselves. Think of the evening as three old friends jamming in your living room. As opposed to OUR living rooms; we won’t be home.†UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED will feature songs from the original soundtrack This Is Spinal Tap (1984), the studio album Break Like The Wind (1992), and A Mighty Wind (2003) along with some special surprises and rarities thrown in. Guest, McKean, and Shearer have a rich history going back decades. Guest and McKean first met in college where they wrote songs together. As for McKean and Shearer, they have known each other since 1970 when they were both members of satirical group The Credibility Gap on radio, stage and records. In 1979, Guest, McKean and Shearer appeared together for the first time in a Rob Reiner-produced, sketch comedy television pilot called The TV Show. It was here the world got their famous glimpse of Spinal Tap featuring lead singer David St. Hubbins (McKean), guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Guest), and bassist Derek Smalls (Shearer). In 1984, Reiner and the lads devised a way to bring the group back this time in a major motion picture, This Is Spinal Tap, and the rest is history, literally. This Is Spinal Tap was ranked #29 of the “100 Funniest Films of All Time†by The American Film Institute and The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry’s list of 25 American cinematic works selected for historical preservation calling the film a ‘culturally significant’ work. Entertainment Weekly recently awarded TISP eleventh place (of course) in their “cult film†list. And Netflix has ranked This Is Spinal Tap in the Top 1% of all Netflix Titles in terms of total rentals to-date!
