Every once in a while, I don’t talk about television. However, this is not one of those times, based on a technicality. Last Sunday, the wife and I took in an INXS concert, and well, you’re gonna have to read about it. If you don’t care, skip down to the Linkage portion of the column.
The opening act was a Vancouver quartet called Stabilo. For the Canadian’s out there, you may recognize the name. For everyone else, they’re essentially Generic Canadian Rock Band #67. Think Default or Fall Out Boy, without a song capable of breaking into the US Top 40. This is the kind of music that populates Canadian Hot AC radio.
During the break between bands, the wife and I take the time to look around. It appears that the majority of the audience are female. And of the “cougar” variety (I’ve been told the American word for them are “barflys”). The upshot is that is hits us – we remember that we aren’t in our 20s anymore.
Then, we get a countdown timer, and AC/DC’s “TNT” plays over the speakers. And, at zero, the curtains open, and “Suicide Blonde” plays. People are up on their feet, and J.D. Fortune is feeling the energy and already moving around.
And this is where you see how J.D. was a much better (and obvious) choice to lead the band over Marty Casey. Marty never had a clue about how to channel his energy, while J.D., throughout the concert, knew when to bounce around, knew when to let the band members take the lead, knew when to just rambling.
That rambling, however, was… lacking. Pretty much a lot of “glad to be here” and “15,000 people. Whoo!”
Still, the band’s energy was evident, and there wasn’t the tension that was evident when we went to see Oasis in March. It’s was a good show, and if you get a chance to see the “new” INXS (and you’re over 30), I heartily recommend going.
IP Linkage:
Shelly keeps her pimp hand strong with her recaps of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’.
The Rev gives you the lowdown on the UFC Lightweights a.k.a. 155 pounders who could kick your ass without breaking a sweat.
Romo gives us the “upfronts” for NBC, ABC, CBS and MyNetworkTV.
DeeDee laments and celebrates Chris Daughtry’s exit from Idol.
And finally, the fad is over. When ESPN.com starts posting a daily Sudoku, you know it’s done.
The Week In Hindsight:
Thursday:
‘Survivor: Panama – Exile Island’ (Global, CBS)
‘My Name is Earl’ (Global, NBC)
‘The Office’ (Global, NBC)
‘The Ultimate Fighter 3’ (Spike) – Rumour has it that Ross “Loss by Silly Submission” Pointon will be coming back, moving up to 205 and getting his ass whipped by someone not named Bisping (since Bisping’s already done that).
Sunday:
‘Survivor: Panama – Exile Island’ (Global, CBS) – Gotta admit, Aras winning it all took me by surprise. But then I think that all of us were expecting Terry to win the immunity, and thus the game since only Cirie stood a chance of beating Terry in the Final Two. Still, I was surprised that Danielle made the right call and chose the right person to go up against in the Final Two. As for the others, well, there was no real “power player” this time, but it showed that a physical player with a poor mental game (Terry) and a strategic player with very little physical game (Cirie) can make it far in the same game. Kudos to the both of them.
Monday:
‘Prison Break’ (Global) – Unlike you folks down south, we Canadians could completely ignore President Bush’s address and watch our shows in peace. The Season Finale gave us the following:
– Tweener is on his way to the Lou, no doubt to hook up with Nelly and the St. Lunatics.
– Haywire is headed to Camden County on a bike in white coveralls. And a football helmet. Safety first, kids.
– Westmoreland is dead.
– Prison Hurley is in a lot of shit.
– Sara Tancredi may or may not be dead
– Veronica confronts Dr. Phlox in Montana.
– The five remaining escapees (Michael, Linc, Sucre, Abruzzi and C-Note) look to be in deep shit, but of course that’s the nature of the cliffhanger.
– T-Bag may have some trouble trying to turn his left front pocket out. And stop whining. Chase took it better on 24.
– And finally, the writers take from another show, this time the late-but-not-lamented Commander-in-Chief (which took the idea from Battlestar Galactica anyway) as the female VP becomes the President.
’24’ (Global) – Thank goodness Aaron’s still alive. Looks like he and Novick will be taking down Logan next week in the finale. Meanwhile, the item that they spent a good deal of time trying to recover (the recording) becomes a non-essential issue within about 5 minutes. It’s times like these that I wish that they didn’t move things at such a breakneck pace.
Scott’s been advocating an Emmy for Gregory Itzin, and while I won’t go that far, I will say that the man at least deserves a nomination as recognition for his role this season.
‘CSI: Miami’ (CTV, CBS)
Tuesday:
‘American Idol’ (CTV, Fox)
‘The Unit’ (CBS)
Wednesday:
‘The Amazing Race’ (CTV, CBS)
‘American Idol’ (CTV, FOX) – Nice numbers, Ryan. Sure, it looks close, but that’s still a likely 6-figure difference between the top vote getter and Elliott, based on the alleged number of total votes.
That’s it for this week.
