So sad am I, that young Jordis has been booted off the show. Not that she was right for INXS (she’s not AT ALL) but I’ll miss her and her lovely voice.

I had to laugh a couple times last night at just how scripted this show is. I overlook it but sometimes it is so bad that I just cringe. Cases in point: JD got the encore last night, but Dave “picked” the second encore to be all the singers joining in on a rousing rendition of “Us”, the new INXS single. It was so obvious and gross that they always intended the group to sing that when Dave made his SHOCKING. CHOICE. for the second encore I almost lost my dinner.

Secondly, after his INXS cover JD was asked what he’d bring musically to the band. Instead of answering the question he went into Miss America mode and talked about heart and love and generosity and :puke:.

And don’t get me started on INXS. They are so scripted they might as well just hold the quote sheet in their hands. A few weeks ago one of the guys made some comment about how difficult the decision was to boot off a contestant and his “frustration” was so badly acted that *I* could have done a better job.

But bad acting aside, the music is fabulous and I believe the final three just might be Marty, JD and Suzie. Mig has versatility in his performances, but he’s definitely more pop than rock in the songs he writes.

So the past two nights of Rock Star: INXS have been great. I really enjoyed Tuesday’s concert night. No one faltered – each of the six did a tremendous job. I was scared for Susie and her cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody” but she did rather well, considering that song is all about the harmonies.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Then last night’s kick-off show was interesting. Susie and Marty got the encores, and then the final three performed. JD did okay but I felt he phoned it in. Ty did better by a long shot. Jordis – my poor Jordis, I fear she may not be around much longer. Her INXS cover was NOT well done at all, and as great a singer as she is I’m starting to realize that her showmanship is a bit lacking. She’s PHENOMENAL on a ballad song, but when it comes to rockin’ out she’s rather lackluster. But in the end they opted to kick off Ty, who blamed the voting on racial prejudice in rock music (FYI, Ty: see Fishbone, Living Colour, Jimi Hendrix and even Hootie & the Blowfish’s Darius Rucker for just a *few* amazing African American rock stars).

The rate it’s going the final three may be Mig, Susie and Ty. Jordis really needs to step it up.

What a fabulous concert night last night! I was a bit worried when Suzie’s performance was strong but not great, but boy did everyone else deliver. Well, mostly everyone.

Suzie: “Start Me Up” fit her range well, and she did a decent job. I felt it lost energy in the middle, but she finished up nicely.
JD: Okay, that’s not even my favorite Foreigner song but I grudgingly admit that he did a great job. The crowd was TOTALLY into it, too.
Deanna: The first of two original songs, I have to say that I liked this song a lot. Unlike INXS, I thought she totally went out of her comfort zone (she seems like a blues singer to me not a rock singer) and she rocked the house. GREAT song.
Ty: Ty is in danger of building an ego just as big as JD Fortune. However, his performance was excellent and he has some major showmanship.
Mig: The song wasn’t that bad – certainly not as bad as the Monday night show (on VH1) intimated. Was it an INXS song? No – but neither was Ty/Deanna’s.
Marty: I long for him to sing a pop song. Every song he does he is very intense, and it’s starting to get old. There’s no way I could go to a concert where the entire time the lead singer is Very Intense. Give me a round of bubblegum at least once – even if it is tongue-in-cheek.
Jordis: Poor Jordis. She did horribly. Admittedly, it’s a hard song – Steven Tyler and Mariah Carey are the only ones with vocal ranges beyond comprehension. She should have never tried for that note because it made her go horribly off-key. But as Dave said, it’s nice to know even great singers can have bad notes from time to time.

Bottom three initially were Deanna, Ty and Jordis. Jordis is in there for destroying a brilliant Aerosmith song, and I think Deanna is in there just because she’s not a fan favorite (even though she KILLED last night). I’m convinced Ty is in there for an ego check. I’ll be curious to see how the bottom three changed overnight – Jordis and Suzie deserve bottom three, and I can see Deanna in there simply because the viewing audience doesn’t feel her much.

Okay, so last night’s rock show was amazing. No one was truly bad in the traditional sense of the word. In fact, 6 of the 8 were downright brilliant. I can’t remember the order they performed, but here are my thoughts:

Jordis was phenomenal and this cover song (Knockin on Heaven’s Door) was just as fabulous as her David Bowie cover a couple of weeks ago.
Suzie’s Sam Cooke cover was very well done. It was the first time that I loved hearing her sing (usually she’s too tone-y for my liking).
Jessica was one that I didn’t particularly care for. She can sing an INXS song like nobody’s business, but “Torn” disappointed – mainly because it’s a sad song and yet she giggles and waves to someone halfway through. What was THAT about?
Ty did an awesome cover of “Maggie May” – I really enjoyed the soulful version he did. Denis didn’t care for it, but I loved it.
Deanna, Deanna, Deanna – please remember this important thing: Never put yourself down until you’ve heard what the judges have to say. She did an OUTSTANDING job with her Bonnie Raitt cover and should NOT have been negative about it. If she had been positive about it she might not have been in the initial voting bottom three.
Marty’s cover of Britney Spears? Amazing. He took a candy song and made it pretty powerful. I had never really given a thought to the lyrics of the song but they ARE depressing! He did a great job.
JD Fortune. Ugh. Can his ego be ANY bigger? He’s even referring to himself in the third person now. The soundman must have (in)conveniently gotten some earwax in his ear because the sound on JD’s song was abysmal. But JD’s performance was pretty boring as well. It’s hard to ruin a Stones song, and he managed to do it.
Mig. Glorious wonderful piano-playing Mig. Hard to believe I didn’t like him at the very beginning. He rocks, he NEEDS to win.
Mig

In case you were wondering why the network stopped airing Monday night episodes of “Rock Star: INXS”, I have no idea. BUT, I discovered that VH1 is airing new episodes on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. now. Last night found the final eight contestants doing a songwriting clinic in which they are moved into two teams of four and asked to write a song using a music track that is provided to them by INXS. Team #1 was Ty, Mig, Suzie and Deanna. Their song was horrible but they had a blast writing together and it showed. Team #2 was Marty, Jordis, JD and Jessica. JD and Jordis clashed and eventually JD walked away and wrote his own song while the other three collaborated. However, the clinic was meant to show how well they worked together, so Team #2 failed the task. However, Dave Navarro asked JD to sing his song which ended up being better than Team #2’s song. And as Marty (I think) said in response to JD’s solo clinic performance for Dave and INXS, “What a great way to stand apart from the team and have all the focus be put on you. It’s genius.” I laughed out loud. They HATE JD.

In other news, this week INXS told each contestant what song they had to sing. My favorite choice? Mr. Intensity Marty has to sing a BRITNEY SPEARS SONG. I already know it’s gonna ROCK.

I also cracked up when the voiceover said, “Stay tuned tomorrow night for the most. emotional. episode. yet.” Um…it’s performance night and it is supposedly “live” – how on earth do they know it’s going to be emotional?

So do you love American Idol and all it’s musical goodness? Well, AI is nothing compared to Rock Star: INXS, a new show featuring 15 rockers trying out for the position of lead singer in popular 80s/90s band INXS.

Straight outta the gate I have a favorite and so far I consider her the frontrunner for the job. That is Jordis, who nailed her first two songs with no problem. According to her bio she’s very heavy metal though, so I hope that doesn’t hurt her since INXS is really more a MOR rock band. My least favorites are Suzie (whose first song was atrocious) and JD, who is just weird.

Definitely check it out – the music is fantastic and significantly better than the claptrap on AI.