Earlier this year, Spinal Tap came to town to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest film comedies of our generation.
Comedian-musicians Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer appeared at the Riverside as part of the "Unwigged & Unplugged" tour that featured music from "This is Spinal Tap" and "A Mighty Wind."
"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," the band wrote in a pre-tour statement.
"Think of the evening as three old friends jamming in your living room. As opposed to OUR living rooms; we won't be home."
Tomorrow sees the release of a DVD capturing that tour. More specifically, the DVD captures the May 31 Riverside performance, which was the last stop on the tour.
A copy is on its way and we'll tell you all about it once it arrives.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
