BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER It’s been 25 years since Spinal Tap launched its hilariously disastrous, albeit fictional, North American tour in support of its equally ill-fated and fictional album, Smell the Glove. Mercifully, the band’s Unwigged & Unplugged tour — which touched down Thursday night at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside – seems to be going much better: rave reviews and sold-out theaters without a single drummer losing his life, all of which is a big step up from second billing to a puppet show at an amusement park or the Air Force base-dance circuit. Part mock-career retrospective, part teaser for the forthcoming album Back from the Dead (due out June 16), Unwigged & Unplugged finds the men behind Tap — Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer – sans wigs, codpieces, and electric guitars. The three perform sterling semi-acoustic versions of the Tap songbook (some didgeridoo included), along with choice selections from various alter-ego bands such as the Folksmen’s gaseous “A Mighty Wind” and the Thamesmen’s snarly British Invasion pastiche, “Gimme Some Money.” MORE
[This is Spinal Tap trailer – “Cheese Rolling” (long version)]