Posted on August 4, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Final Tap

“It was a good idea at the time, now it’s just a brilliant mistake” ~Elvis Costello.

“Give me reincarnation… or give me death!!” ~Spinal Tap

First time I’ve seen’em was on the massive event “The Freddie Mercurie Tribute”. It was the Wayne’s World era, and they were the Yankovichesque band “The Spinal Tap”, playing “Majesty of Rock”, from their second official album. The VJ was so busy pointing out how their bass player wasn’t even actually playing the bass, hitting the same chord all over again at the same time until the end of the song. And there wasn’t disappointment on its voice… The VJ seemed really amused, as Spinal Tap were genius throwing the arrogance and quirk excess of all the hyped guests right on their face like mud after it bloody rained on the umpteenth replica of Woodtock (Michael McKean made his enterance on the stage on a long red carped on a exceeded parody of Freddie Mercurie Royal Queen’s mise, a miracle anybody shoot him from the crowd, maybe saving his bullets for Axel Roses addressing to the audience like “British Dogs”.). That damn bass player was so hard to replace that only David Gilmour was called as a substitute on a gig in 1991.

Fools or genius heavy metal masters? The truth was in between. Spinal Tap, with the made up discovery faked as the 30 more drummers death in mysterious circumstances, were born by the crazy idea of the director Bob Ryner to film a Mockumentary on this unreal band, that started as a flower power ensemle ending to bring on a complete revolution in rock history, becoming a point of inspiration for all the other heavy metal bands, making the 11 levels ampls a trademark for their legacy.

Must funny part of the story? During Spinal Tap glam era on of the Spinals got framed inside the stage reproduction of an alien veggie pod. Pure Sci-Fi Wasabi? I wouldn’t say so, since the same thing happened to Bono Vox in Las Vegas inside a giant Lemon on the opening show for Pop Mars Tour on 1997.

It’s 2009. I don’t know how many other drummers have died till their last album, but the band is back with a very rich album called “Back From The Dead” (being Iron Maiden one of the main references of the band).

The news? I don’t know who’s playing their parts, but old songs sounds really good, especially if you like… Weather Report and Frank Zappa  don’t be surpried by the interludes of “Jazz Oddyssey”!

Tracks like “Hell Hole” are amusing and funny like no other, but crazy guitar solos and perfect sound ingeniering find their place as well, just like in “Heavy Duty“, a classic right between Satriani, Poison and Deep Purple.

Out of the parody… what’s the problem with that band? Possibly the coming of bands like “The Darkness” taking even more seriously what our idiots thought knew was a very cleaver joke.

The Spinal Tap – Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight

Waiting for our sight:

• What Will Replace MTV? (15)
• Our last year of independent? (7)
• Indie O’Clock: Tiny Tide and Nothing Meets All (7)
• Funny Little Bunny (6)
• Christmas Indie Ep from Japan (6)