Absolutely Fantastic!

Have you seen the movie, "This is Spinal Tap"? What about "A Mighty Wind"? If not, you should (although I will say that some may find Spinal Tap offensive. Hilariously offensive). It was our love for these movies (along with others directed by Christopher Guest) that inspired us to buy tickets to see "Spinal Tap: Unwigged and Unplugged" in Detroit this past Friday night. It was a completely different kind of concert from last week's Billy Joel/Elton John show but again we had a fantastic time. My stomach still hurts from laughing so much.

Featured in the concert were Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean. Not only are these guys all incredibly funny actors but they're also pretty great musicians as well. They performed songs from both movies, with all of the heavy metal Spinal Tap songs getting new acoustic arrangements. There were also a lot of video clips and just general comedy throughout the night. The banter between songs was just what you would expect from guys like this. Harry Shearer seemed to do a majority of the talking with Michael McKean saying a lot too. Our big surprise was how quiet Christopher Guest was. He really seemed to prefer to stay in the background, letting the other two lead the way. A bit disappointing. As longtime fans of "The Simpsons" we've been pretty big Harry Shearer fans so it was great to hear so much from him too although it did feel like we were being spoken to by Principal Skinner all night (except for the time he said, "Release the hounds!" in a Mr. Burns voice).

One big surprise was when they opened up the floor for questions and answers from the audience. Aides roamed the floor level (not us on the balcony) and let people ask the guys any questions they wanted. Questions ranged from where the guys met and how they started to playing together to whether or not Christopher Guest kept in conact with the dog he worked with in "Best in Show" (his response to the woman - "Are you OK?") with a "Which way to the bathroom" thrown in for good measure.

I don't know if I could pick a favourite part of the evening, I loved it all. "Stonehenge" was definitely up there along with "Old Joe's Place".

All in all, another fantastic evening. Of course, we've just used up our concert budget for about 5 years so don't expect any more exciting reviews from me for a long, long time!

(note: that is not my photograph, it is taken from tonepublications.com. We didn't bring our camera)