David Symons wrote me last week saying “The part you missed is that Ryan was not unaccompanied; if you listen and/or watch his performance, you will notice that the fellow who plays keyboards accompanied Ryan (where do you think the string-sounding noises came from?)”
Which is very true, except that in the world that Rockstar exists in, keyboardist Paul Mirkovich was allegedly not playing (although he’s right, it was blatantly obvious). And if you look back at the encore, he was indeed not playing. But hey, judges on these things contradict themselves all the time, so I’m putting all the blame on them for messing me up.
Brooke Burke is rather conservatively dressed, as she tells us that the singers are going “acoustic” this week (in quotes because you’ll notice the bassist Sasha Krivstov is using an upright electric bass) so there’s a string quartet in addition to House Band. Speaking of bands, here’s the “band” and Dave Navarro.
Reality Segment – The remaining eight and the “band” go to Vegas and get hammered. So naturally the next day involves song selection. “I love hungover song selection”. This week has yet another performance with Gilby, and Toby and Dilana both want it. Dilana gives it to him after Toby runs naked around the pool. Child’s play for an Aussie, I guess.
As well as The Gilby, there is also a chance to sing an original song. Zayra is the only one who really seems to want it. Ryan says he wants it, but really, it’s a token challenge – although the idea of the two fighting for it is amusing (Zayra would probably kick Ryan’s ass). So yeah, Zayra gets it.
Back in the theatre Dave is again shocked – shocked I tell you – that noone jumped on the original song. He fails to mention that last year, J.D. sealed the contest with his original lyrics. However, I don’t see that happening with Zayra.
And indeed, Zayra Alvarez is the first one up, and her original song is called “Lluvia de Mar”, and as you may have guessed from the title, she’s singing it in Spanish, which is a brilliant move. Why? Because at this point she probably understands that her time on the show is almost up, and she’s essentially showing what she’ll be doing when she gets booted. The song, I think, sounds good enough to be a typical Hot AC radio song, and by singing the song in front of a national television audience, she may have just carved a place for herself on Spanish-language radio.
Of course, by doing this, she leaves Dave and the “band” unsure that she’s fit to be their lead singer, but props for singing your own song.
The second singer tonight is Magni who is singing David Bowie’s “Starman”. It’s great, the “band” loves it, and I think we can just move along here.
Following Magni is Patrice Pike, singing “Message in a Bottle” by The Police. And someone needs to send out an S.O.S., because Patrice’s performance was pretty bland, pretty bad, and I think that she’ll hit the bottom three this week. Dave and the “band” more or less agree, saying that the intensity wasn’t there. Has it ever been there with Patrice?
Lucas Rossi bleeds red and white, as he adds a little extra Can-Con with Chad Kroeger’s “Hero”. And it’s pretty good. Lucas is doing all sorts of things with his voice here, and it’s pretty much not what I expected from him. Great job by Lucas here.
Tommy doesn’t like that Lucas was sitting down for the whole thing. Gilby is ok with it, and Jason – who obviously has some sort of man-crush on Lucas – gets on him for using the growl too much this week.
Storm Large gets the odd song of the evening, singing Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” – a song that I think is designed to fail given that it’s “acoustic” night. And fail it does. Storm gives it a good effort, but without the disco beats and people doing the Hustle, it’s just not the same.
Dave makes an interesting comparison to Marty and his rendition of “Hit Me Baby One More Time” last year, but I feel it’s kind of unfair, since there’s no way you can transform this song into a creepy stalker anthem. He also mentions Dilana’s rendition of “Time After Time”, but again, it’s not really the same thing. Storm has no problem with the criticism though, although I think she maybe protested a bit too much about trying to redo Gloria Gaynor while hungover. Tommy goes for a Simon Cowell-type comment and says that the performance was “sautéed in wrong sauce”.
As noted before, Toby Rand is accompanied by Gilby Clarke, and he’s singing “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel, which is one of those songs I always hear but never know the name of. But because it’s an acoustic, stripped down-type of night, it’s probably the worst time to play with a member of the “band” – you really can’t interact with them like you would in a “real world” setting. But Toby does show off his voice a bit more, and that’s not a bad thing to do.
Dave thinks it was a good performance, and after Toby mentions that he bought the new Panic Channel album, Dave jokingly says that it was the best performance of the night. Tommy notes that running around naked says a lot about his commitment.
Ryan Star is up now, and he’s singing Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight”. He sings it ok, but I was kinda left bored with it. Not really sure why. I think that it’s just because it was Ryan.
Dave then says that THIS was the best performance of the night. Then, he hits on the blonde violinist. The divorce papers were sent in, what, last week, and he’s already back in the game? Works fast, Dave does.
The final performer is Dilana, singing “Cats in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin. And if you think that she didn’t nail this song, well, you really haven’t been watching this show. Dave gets chills, and then calls THIS the best performance of the night. Gilby tells her to keep it up, and Dilana says that she told them – she’s The One. The kids from the cancelled ABC show can be heard crying.
Now the early results are in… or maybe not. I may have missed them entirely, but I’ll blame CBS Detroit for it anyway.
That’s it for tonight – results tomorrow.
