The 3rd Coming of Spinal Tap

What ever well the members of Spinal Tap Unplugged, are tapping into these days, is coming up drIer than a 90 yr. old hooker at a Shriner's convention.

Like most of my friends, I loved the 1984 mockumentary - This Is Spinal Tap.
The parody of a British heavy metal band was spot on. I even liked the original songs with their power chords and melody hooks. The parody of British rockers trying to intellectualize simplistic songs like Hell Hole, and Big Bottom blew a hole through the pretentious world of the heavy metal music biz of the 1970's and 80's. Director Rob Reiner did a fantastic job with the movie and went on to directorial stardom afterwards.

Watching the unwigged, acoustical Spinal Tap, performing an unplugged version of Hell Hole, on Jay Leno last night, was totally devoid of the charm of the movie. The power chords had no edge when played acoustically, and gone was the fun of the original Spinal Tap. Hell Hole just doesn't hold up when stripped of its humorous heavy metal pretensions.

The performance by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer appeared to be a parody of itself: - Three aging musicians trying to milk one last comeback tour to pay the bills during a recession.

I'm a big fan of Christopher Guest. I loved his films Waiting For Guffman, and Best Of Show. I used to listen to Harry Shearer's syndicated weekend radio show on KCRW, regularly. I stopped listening every week, when his amalgam of comedy and political anger at the Bush Administration got a little too heavy for me to bear. I too was angry about how badly the Bush Administration had mismanaged everything, I used to listen to Shearer's show praying that he would do one of his offbeat comedy impersonations of people in the news, that I love.

I love these guys but I would like to see them go back to what they do best - comedy and parody. Doing serious performances of their parody songs are a supreme waste of their multiple talents.