Rock Star : Week 6 Performances

Well, this was a week of surprises and not all of them pleasant.

First up was Dilana doing her version of The Who's "Won't get fooled again" with Gilby - and I have to say I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong, Dilana was fine - but in nearly all of her performances so far she's been able to bring a special something to the performance. Something electric and chilling at the same time. This time - fffftt! Sure, she commanded the stage and had some nice interplay with Gilby, but it really didn't work for me. I honestly felt that Dana did a better job last week on The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" than Dilana did on this song. But maybe it wasn't her, maybe it was Gilby himself and his really lame Holiday Inn supporting vocals. Note to Supernova - Keep that man Away from a Microphone during performances.

That one moment just reminded me why Gilby was the number three guitar option in GnR. His one real claim to fame is being Izzy Stradlin's replacement. Sure he's had his own bands before and after that. He's had a solo career, but all in all Gilby is a major weak link in this band. If the band featured Slash or even Dave Navarro we'd been in an entirely different universe, but it doesn't. Gilby is a pedestrian guitar player, period. He's nice and dependable but he's no guitar hero (and no singer).

Kurt Cobain killed the guitar hero. Murdered them with all due malice of forethought (even more than his own suicide) and completely got away with the crime. It's not just Cobains anti-solo stance and his arguement that solos take too much attention away from the rest of the song (like being the lead singer didn't already attract attention) it's the fact that he made guitarists irrelevant. They became just some other guy in the band, they lost all their mystique and personality. You used to be able to recognize a guitarist by his playing in the pre-Cobain years -- but now can anyone but their most hardcore fans even name the guitarists in the top ten bands in the country? Who plays guitar for Linkin Park? What about Evanescence? Maroon 5? Coldplays guitarist is also their singer, so people know him (besides he's married to Goldie Hawn's daughter isn't he?) - but what if someone else played guitar in that band? And the only reason we know who plays guitar for Pink is because - he's on this show!

Gilby's a dinosaur, and not one from the top of the food chain - like T Rex. He's one of little ones that the T-Rex's ate as an appetizer. He's the one thing that makes me not really look forward to the future of Supernova, and this performance just proves it. I mean c'mon - he and the band were actually out of time with each other at the beginning of the song. How bush league is that?

Dave talked a ton of crap about "How could anyone follow Dilana?", especially when she was performing with Gilby -- normally I would agree, but this time Jill on the Tracy Bonham song was a revelation. She not only followed Dilana - she topped her. Without Gilby. Following her performance last week she's found a whole new level. Yes, we know she can scream in key and does it very well - but ever since she got clowned on "Don't You forget about me" she's learned how to harness all that power and focus it to where it's needed. This was by far her best performance to date. The way she handled the stage was perfect, not slutty - just total take command. She even avoided the fashion disasters of previous weeks. I'd say this performance has made Jill Elite except for the damage and deficit she has to overcome from previous weeks. If she'd begun the show with a performance like this one or "Alone" from last week - there would be no stopping her. Chances are though, she'll be off the show after tonight.

Josh's handling of the Interstate Love Song was admirable. He finally showed how his vocals can work in a rock context (not that that should really be a surprise, the underbase of all Rock is R&B). He looked confident and relaxed - even with Tommy playing behind him - but I do agree that picking up a guitar and singing with it can be very physically limiting. Some people who are extremely comfortable with their guitar playing can and will run all over the stage and dash back to the microphone to sing, but that requires a song with enough of a musical intro or interlude for you to have time to get back and forth. Too many of the hamsters who pick up guitars (and hardly seem to freaking PLAY THEM -- grrrr) are content to just stand behind the microphone and strum. Dull as dishwater that is.

Ryan doing "Paint it Black" was - interesting. It seems like he's picked up fashion and theatrical tips from Lukas circa episodes 2 (black racoon eye makeup) and Dilana episode 1 (Dark hood over the head until the song kicks in). Obviously what they've done has worked for them, but does it also work for Ryan? It seems like a desperate ploy to literally cop other performers schtick while they're watching. It's either crazy or crazy like a fox - I'm not sure which. Other than that, his vocals have been stellar since he did the the Live song, but I still have problems with his stage presence. He's doesn't look comfortable or graceful. It's a bit like watching a drunken footballer try to slamdance and missing the floor. The man is just plain clumsy. The SN guys didn't seem to notice any of that - so whatever. It's not likely he'll be in the b3 this week.

Patrice is probably not long for this show. Her vocals always sound so stiff and over managed - way too much vocal training and it shows. She's just plain boring. She had managed to overcome that a couple weeks back, but this time she choose to do what Josh did - hide behind a guitar for her performance of - heck I can't even remember what she did. Fuck it.

Storm on "We are the Champions" was simple, elegant and killer. She had no problem with the vocals that turned JD into a simpering twit begging to switch with Jordis last year. Her stage persence is always killer, she just commands full and erect attention at all times. (yes, that was a single entrendre). Technically she did have some problems with a few of the odd intervals in the song. As a singer I notice she tended to miss the downward slide to the note for the word "are", but it's only a minor quibble. She's never been note perfect, but more than close enough for Rock N Roll. The thing that she did tonight to kick things into another level is she took advantage of her ability to ad lib and harmonize. From listening to her songs I know that she loves to layer her own voice in the studio and that she usually comes up with really killer secondary melodies which she stacks on top of the original line -- well tonight she did that. Where JD used the audience last year to cover up the fact that he couldn't hit the notes on this song - Storm used the audience (and the House Band) to JAM a solo vocal on top of the primary melody. It's what a lead guitarist would do - back in the days when bands actually HAD lead guitarists (ok, ok, enough on that rant). That was smooth.

And the comment at the end about "Spanking the Crap" out of SN on a future heavy rocking song wasn't a threat - it was a promise. And again smooth to steal some of Z sexual teasing away from her. Spank me Mama... spank me. I've been a bad, bad boy.

Z - doing all the young dudes in a Gold Alien Jumpsuit, platform stacks and a Top Hat. If I didn't have it on DVR I wouldn't believe it. I'm going to miss Miss Freak-a-zoid when she's gone. One good thing, wearing those platforms kept her from spazzing out on stage. I suppose she's was trying to do a "70's glam thang" this since this was a Mott the Hoople song (All the Young Dudes), but she completely misinterpreted what the song was about. It's a pissed off tune, and her performances was like seeing Celine in Vegas. It was a nightclub act. Next up - Donny and Marie doing "Major Tom" by David Bowie. Y'know, if Z ever bothered to work on her voice - particularly her diction - as much as she obviously starves and barfs, then does everything she can to show off that boney ass of hers, she might actually be a great singer. Yeah, I know that great singers are dime a dozen, and with AI tryouts this week their stock is falling rapidly, but it's obvious that she does all this that shes covering for her vocal weaknesses - of which there are many. She deserved to get dropped from this competiton weeks ago, I mean - I can't imagine how any of her act works with a band like Supernova. They'd be - fuck - they'd be a glam band! Unlike a lot of people, I don't have a problem with glam bands -- but just look at the shit the guys in Damnocracy gave Sebastian Bach for his spandex jumpsuit? The SN guys dropped Matt like a flaming spud when he did one 80's glam band song - so they can't keep this up forever. Z is obviously good for ratings, but not for Supernova. Either way she's not leaving this week IMO. It'll probably be Patrice.

Magni doing a solo acoustic Live song - Just - FUCKING - KILLED IT. He totally murdered that shit. This is what a signed artists sounds like. This was not amatuer hour, this was not dress-up fun with Z and Ryan - he just sang the crap out of that song. That was a hit single right there. This guy has been around block more than a few times, and the pure quality of his performances are always there. There's no doubting that he could front this band, but the question is the same that faced Miggy last year. Is he too - nice? He's a family man, with responsibilties and obligations. Although Tommy does have kids of his own the SN boys - at least Tommy and Gilby - come from what I used to call Gutter Rock. Music made by people who quite literally had been living in the gutter just a few weeks, or possibly hours before. People that had nothing else going on in their lives and made Rock music because they had to for their own survival and sanity. They lived on the edge, and sometimes fell off of it.

Magni is not that guy. That guy is Lukas. And this performance Lukas may have just sealed the deal with SN. Jason's been on him about his vocals - with good reason - for weeks. As was shown during the Reality show, Dilana thought she could strategize him into undermining himself by suggesting he do the Radiohead song "Creep". Clearly she thought he wouldn't be able to open up his throat and pull it off -- but he did. Just barely. He was shaky during the head-voice portion of the song just before it kicked into full on scream mode. Singing in your head-voice is skill you have to practice. It doesn't happen that much in Rock (unless you're in Coldplay), but he got through it. The irony is that he should have really attacked those last notes the way that Jill does. When I first heard this song Thom York reminded me of Bono when he got to the end of the song - he was screaming his fool head off -- but Lukas didn't. He skirted through the first part of the scream and cut off the ending notes, but managed to include them on the second go round to redeem himself. Again he just barely pulled it off, but he's got so much credit in the bank from the songwriting challenge and other events in the show I'm not sure how anyone else is going to catch up to him. This job is his to lose.

Toby's version of "Burning Down the House" was a bit manic and - well - weird. It's seems like everybody is desperate to create some theatrics in their performance. (Isn't this what Ty was constantly - and falsely - accused of last year?) I don't know, at certain point on this stuff coming from guys who don't do it naturally - like Ryan - just comes off as calculated. They know they've got to compete with Dilana and Storm and Lukas - and Z - so they now they feel they have to do something shocking and crazy to get attention. It's like watching someone try to overdo their makeup at a whore convention - it's a mess. And did this guy not watch any of this show last year? Doesn't he know that Mr.Gimmick from last year pulled the exact same deal with the bull horn? Yes, Dave it's been done - JD did it. (That was after he copied Me, First and the Gimme Gimme's version of "California Dreaming", gave "Hand in my pocket" a Bo Diddley enema and then actually dared to borrow melodies directly from Michael Hutchens for the song writing challenge) Enough already. Do what you do best, not what other people do.

Vyan