Rock Star Supernova - Week 4 Elimination

Well it's the fourth elimination show, and for the third out of four times - I'm shocked.

I'm not quite ready to start calling out that there's a rat in the rabbit farm, but I'm getting close because this decision was just plain ridiculous.

During yesterdays performance show was pretty impressive and once I had the chance to hear them, I noticed that many of Supernova's comments matched my own. They felt that Magni's guitar was unneccesary, particularly for the song he was singing. There was a lot more back and forth between the band and Patrice than I'd previously been aware - especially Dave Navarro's "I have a job".

Storm getting the encore for "Anything Anything" was cool, and most excellent. She of course killed it - again.

And then we went into the new bottom three selections and I can't say I was surprised by any of those who at least temporarily joined their ranks except for Jill. She actually had a killer performance even without grinding on Gilby. It could be argued that she hasn't really shown her own personality on stage yet and has instead been regurgitating generic stage moves, but it can't be said that she hasn't sang her guts out.

Her one bit about "everything in rock being done already" certainly brought the SN boys to a dead stop - and I have to agree with them. Everything hasn't been done, and if you go into with that belief - you'll never find the next great thing, let alone invent it.

Patrice's performance of "My Iron Lung" by Radiohead was a ballsy choice - but a great one. I'm not a big Radiohead fan, but this song had the kind of drama and dynamics that Patrice needed to show. She's already proven she can sing, but can she stop and audience dead in it's tracks with just a look! Can she bring them to a fever pitch and drop them to their knees? That's what you get from someone like Eddie Vedder or Bono in their prime.

She definately took it up a notch, and then kept cranking. Once she was done I was absolutely sure she was staying.

Next up was ZaYEEda. Oh God. What's with the Silver Chun Li (Street Fighter II) outfit? Everytime this girl goes onstage I feel like we're in for another episode of Spooky Kabuki Theater. Now I have to admit that yes, it is mezmorizing - I can't look away - I can't take my eyes off her. Either because she's obviously jazzer-sized herself down to a size freaking ZERO - or that fact she's about to do something creepy and weird again.

But this time- this time, all I can say is that her rendition of "I'm not an addict" by K's Choice was a snooze fest. Zayra simply doesn't have the vocal quality or magnetism to just stand their with a microphone without moving and truly deliver chills with a song. She aint got it. Dilana can do it (and has), even Dana has shown she could do it last night. But Zayra brought nothing to the table tonight except possible eyestrain with yet another radioactive outfit.

When she was done I fully expected this to be Zarya's Last Stand.

Last up was Phil, and I've had my doubts about him. Mr head-bob seems to be in his own world and this performance he finally let us join him with a song by Failure. It was a real quirky song - right up his alley, but what got me was his physical performance. He completley took command of the stage - and I could absolutely see what he was doing work in a heavier context like Supernova's with an EMO twist. I'm not an Emo fan, but there are millions of them out there - and they would absolutely love to see a band with some chops and a unique, different and daring singer leading them. Just think about Avenged Sevenfold and how rabidly intense their fans can and you get the picture. For the first time I was really feeling Phil, more than his performance of "White Rabbit" last week - where his stage precense was fine, but the vocal was all over the map. Tonight he had both under control, and did a great job IMO.

So now we get to the Shock and Awe part of the evening. Supernova decides to keep Patrice (good move) and to Dump Phil! It was a moment nearly as suprising as Ty's sudden exit last year was to the hamsters. The look on their faces was total surprise.

I think the band already knows who they want, they've already narrowed things down to their top two or three - and that's Storm, Dilana and possibly Magni - with Lukas being an outside dark horse unless he can show the boys a different voice, and Toby being a distant possibility. What happens to anyone before they get down to the nitty gritty of chosing between the frontrunners is really just irrelevent minutia in the end -- but there's is that basic nagging concept of fairness. I know - silly me.

There is simply no good reason why Zayra is still on this show. I admit I've felt this from the first scene in the first reality show where she gave this cringe-worthy performance in the recording studio - she doesn't belong here. Sure, the black catsuit and Wonderfriends Wear have been delicious eye-candy -- but it's just not enough damnit.

On the other hand there are tons of bad reasons for her to remain -- the first I won't even voice - too icky, but the second is obvious - ratings. Keeping her on the show a little longer before she finally gets shuffled off is going to keep the viewers who either love her or fucking hate her (like I do) watching a bit more intensely. Of course the other option is that it might cause a backlash from people feeling that things just might be a little hinky.

The excuse that Phil just didn't have the "commitment" was just plain lame. Where the hell did that shit come from? If it was so important that they let Phil go because of it don't you think they would have mentioned it to him before? What is this - a rerun of the sacking of Dave Mustaine from Metallica? ("Hey dude, wake up - you're out of the band - here's you bus ticket home - cya!) That crap has caused him issues to this very day (as was shown in Metallica documentary "Some Kind of Monster")

I don't buy it.

Especially when they used the lame "Duran Duran" excuse on Matt in week 1, and then tossed out Chris right after he put on his best performance, and the best of that night.

So far the only person who left when the should have left has been Jenny. Meanwhile we're stuck with Zazoo the Martian for another week (and I would expect more) - Yikes!

During the outro credits Z stated that her remaining on the show was even a shock to her - "It's a Miracle". Honey, "Miracle" doesn't even begin to describe it.

Update: After looking in on the Rock Band.com forums - it appears that the missing information regarding Phil's exit may or may not have had something to do with comments made in this article:

Jenny Galt, a contestant on Rock Star: Supernova who was eliminated from the competition, is criticizing both the band’s first single and the commitment to the new band’s long-term success.

“Tommy Lee’s got Motley Crue and Jason Newsted’s very passionate about (Canadian metal band) Voivod, there are a lot of questions as to whether this band is going to really take off. That’s up in the air,” she said. “And then, how much commitment do the actual members of Supernova have? There was a lot of chit-chat in the (Rock Star) mansion about that.”

She also says the contestants in the house aren’t thrilled with the band’s first single. “A lot of people in the group are skeptical about what kind of music they are playing. (Supernova) say they want to do something fresh and new, but then the first track we got to hear, a lot of people were just like, ‘Eww, I’m not sure if I like this,’” she said. “It sounded just like that same old, boys’ rock ‘n’ roll kind of glam thing they said they weren’t going to be doing. It was a bit surprising.”

Jenny's been gone since last week, so she must have been refering to the tracks the SN was playing in the studio during the first Reality Segment, which each contestant had a chance to make up words and melodies for right then and there (except Ryan who punked out). Phil at that point just scatted some melody lines, and actually managed to impress Butch Walker with his voice -- although it appears that in reality he wasn't that much into the actual music itself, and when you consider the song he choose to exit with, I can see that his musical direction is vastly different from that of Supernova.

Here are some more examples:

Ritchie said his primary goal for competing is to gain exposure for his band. "I mean, really I just hope to gain exposure. I love my band and I love the music," he said. "I'm not stoked about the music Supernova's popping out."

He said he knows if he wins the competition he's obligated to tour with the band, but that's a risk he's willing to take.

"I may have taken a risk. I love my boys back home, but you know I still have to look out for myself in this world," he said. "I've got to create opportunities for myself, and this is too huge an opportunity to say no to."

Supernova are actually in the same position that I've faced in my previous bands like Planet X, where doing the music you love to do sets you adrift in a sea of people chasing the modern rock dragon - trying to out-grunge grunge and out-emo the Emo bands. They say it makes you seem "Dated" simply because you refuse to jump on their trend-o-mat band wagon - which is just a bunch of fucking bullshit.

If some of those guys didn't feel it in their bones that they want to be in this band - the way I did when I first walked into that storage shed back in 1998 and heard the riff for what eventually became Pay Your Dues (the CD is out of print but downloads and samples are availble on MSN Music and Rhapsody) the first time - they shouldn't be in this band, period.

Yes, that includes Phil, but it also IMO include Zayra and a few others (Jill) who seem to have completely different musical ideas than those of the band.

Vyan