Rock Star: Supernova – Recap – Episode 2-7

Archive

It’s time for Week 4 of the 13 week interview process for the “band” known as Supernova. Brooke Burke is wearing a short gold dress, but because she’s wearing a white thingy overtop of it and is rather bronzed this week, it actually looks even shorter. Ordinarily it’s something that would make you go “daaaaamn” except that I’m not that enamoured with Brooke and a couple of singers outdo her. But I digress

Brooke introduces the “band”, and of course Dave Navarro, and because this is a Mark Burnett show, we get a look at some of the “reality” bits from the Rock Star Mansion – specifically when the “band” drops in for a visit. I flipped over to TSN showing the 2005 US Poker Championship (for the 200th time) last night and I FF’ed through it now, because honestly I don’t care. But basically, they demonstrate the “sound” that the “band” is looking for.

Now let’s get to the songs.

First up tonight is Lucas Rossi, and he takes on The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” by ratcheting up the guitars and providing a great performance. Tommy and Dave love it, but Jason thinks that Lucas should perhaps growl less and sing more. OK.

Zayra Alvarez is wearing an insanely tight blue… thing which I think she’ll need to be cut out of later. She sings “Call Me” by Blondie, and sex kitten look aside, it was an average performance, and the “band” agrees. Gilby notes that she’s gone back into the “I don’t get it” category.

This week’s Nirvana recipient is Dana Andrews, who has chosen to go the “Unplugged” route with “About a Girl”. And I’ll admit, I had my doubts about her doing things this way, but Dana’s apparently been taking some mean lessons from Dilana and Storm, because she gets down and dirty with her sound and gives the song a gritty feel which, frankly, I never expected from her. And Dave appreciates it, because he doesn’t believe in nice, well-adjusted rock stars.

Now it’s time for Patrice Pike, who sings “Remedy” by The Black Crowes. It’s not a bad performance, but it’s about what you’d expect out of any cover band. Dave is concerned that she’s not showing variety in her performances. Patrice asks if Dave shows diversity when he plays. Dave is all “well, kinda”, but then reminds us that hey, SHE’S the one in this competition.

Toby Rand tries to rebound from his poor showing last week by singing Billy Idol’s “White Wedding”. And rebound he does, showing more energy and emotion than he has in the past three weeks. He’s been a frontrunner to win the whole thing, and this week, he shows us why. The “band” gives us the impression that he has Encore potential for the second time in two weeks.

Magni straps on the guitar and sings David Bowie’s “Heroes”. He does the song justice, but I’m just wondering if the “band” will like the fact that he’s not moving around here. The answer, apparently, is “no”, although Magni notes that what was he supposed to do, run around in blue spandex? Wow, he managed to tie that into both X-Men and Zayra’s outfit.

Ryan Star has, unsurprisingly, gotten Live’s “I Alone”, and while he jumps around like a maniac (and smiles like one as well), his vocals are, how do you say, shit. I know that you don’t have to have the greatest voice in the world in this competition, but this guy knows about as many notes as a punk band knows chords. Still, energetic performance and the band is thrilled that he’s, you know, having fun out there. And in keeping with the “fun” theme, Ryan puts his arm around Brooke, in a slightly creepy manner, and then makes a motion to the other singers which seems to indicate that he doesn’t get to do this all that often. Hey, I’m just saying.

Well it’s time for Gilby to play, and the lucky singer is Jill Gioia, who shockingly wears a top that doesn’t show off her abs – this one just shows her boobs. She’s singing “Brown Sugar” by the Rolling Stones. She’s having the time of her life, but after the performance Gilby mentions that he wasn’t all that enthused about Jill’s grinding, thinking that that’s unnecessary for female rockers in this day and age.

Phil Ritchie is on a high from last week, and that all comes crashing down after he sings “One Headlight” by the Wallflowers. Who the heck chooses these songs for the singers? This is quite possibly one of the most boring hit songs, ever, and in Phil’s hands, it doesn’t really improve. The
“band” agrees, thinking that Phil’s regressed from last week, and what’s up with the bobblehead movement, anyways?

Dilana has decided to take a softer approach this week, and she’s singing Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” with just an acoustic guitar to accompany her. And she nails it. It was pretty true to the original, but she adds her own twists to the song to really make it something special. There’s something about this woman that makes you take notice of her every time she sings, and Dave makes note of that.

Josh Lucas is up, and he will, of course, smirk his way through Blind Melon’s “No Rain”. I’ve really got nothing to say except, seen one Josh performance, seen ’em all. The “band” is pretty much in agreement. Josh notes that he wants to get back to bringing the soul to his songs, but it just kinda shows that he doesn’t get it as far as this competition goes.

Storm Large wins the “daaaaaamn” award for the night as she is wearing a short, short skirt that really just accentuates her height, and probably frightens the CBS censors as she nearly shows us what she’s got on underneath (if anything) more than a few times during her performance of Dramarama’s “Anything, Anything”. All that aside, it’s another fine performance from Storm, and the “band”, of course, loves it. I figure they’d love anything that comes from Storm, but that’s besides the point.

That’s it for the performances, and the voting window opens.

Ad Break

Brooke reveals the results of the first few minutes of the vote, and the bottom three (so far) are Jill, Josh and Zayra. The results show… tomorrow.

Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).