OT: Rockstar INXS thoughts
 

I preface this with saying I helped my friend Jordis get on the show. She is in a band I worked with here in the cities. Bout 5 months ago, I had to mix a song for her to sing at the tryouts.

Wasn't too thrilled with the show. Jordis sang Ba ba O'Reily really well. She was the first to go on.

There were other good singers, but I can't see any of them as the INXS singer. It's too bad the band was lured into the cheap marketing ploy. They were good, real good. They won't be any better than they were.

Anybody else watch?

DOLA: and my tolerance of Dave Navarro is shrinking fast. He seems like a nice guy, and had really good things to say (on camera) about Jordis. Yet, I am growing tired of him always popping up where he shouldn't be...like jamming with INXS. ;)

What is the format? Three judges or what?

Crud...forgot about this show due to the HR Derby. I'm not into reality TV at all but the previews for this show looked pretty interesting to me. I'll have to check out the next episode.

Dave Navarro makes me want to vomit. He deserves no acclaim, and it hurts me that hes associated with janes addiction.

For some reason, I thought the show was decent. The preformers were much better than American Idol, and the format is good. I'll be watching.

He gets to bang Carmen Electra. That deserves some acclaim.

touche!

It was decent for having to squeeze 15 songs into 1 show. Didn't get to really see much of any one, but at least they got rid of the right singer. She (forgot her name) just butchered Knocking On Heaven's Door. Just terrible. Everyone seemed at least ok.

Hurst: I thought her voice was good. There were parts of the song where I thought it didn't sound good. I don't think her voice was a very good fit for The Who, but still a nice voice. (Then again, Baba O'Riley is one of my favorite songs ever, so it not done perfectly, I'd have a problem with it. :D )

I agree about voice quality as a whole. The cast has some good singers top-to-bottom. There are only a handfull of "unique" singers, though, which I think is much more important in Rock. It sucks they are going to shrink the episodes down to 30 minutes. I want to see more of the performances, not less.

Are you out of your freaking mind? Dave Navarro is the very reason that Jane's Addiction was so amazing in the late 80s, early 90s.

I get tired of his attention whoring too - but he is an incredible guitarist. Jane's Addiction wouldn't be anywhere without him.

Not that I think hes a shitty guitar player, as Janes in one of my all time favorite bands. It just pains me to see my childhood rock gods whore themselves out. But, John Frusciante can kick Navarros ass backwards and forwards on the guitar anyday!

I actually thought she was the best one, but I also thought every single other person sucked incredibly hard. Are we really supposed to believe they 'scoured the globe' and auditioned 10,000 people to get down to this 15?? Seems weird they didnt do it American Idol style. If anyone saw the part where that JD Famous guy grabs some asian chick in the front row by the back of the head; that 'asian chick' is a good friend of my girlfriends.

Heh - I think they are both amazing, but just prefer Navarro for whatever reason. I actually loved One Hot Minute - thought the whole thing was brilliant. I loved the sound he brought to the Chilis...

Anyway - Dave Navarro's guitar work on Three Days might be my favorite ever...

I saw that. It was pretty lame. It was the kind of grab associated with a face-fu*k...not a rock singer singing to another person. One of the guys in the band even said he was uncomfortable watching it.

Jordis won't make it. She can sing very well, but she is a little too 'punk modern' for the band. She has her age (22) going for her. Very energetic as well. Still, I think they are going to try to find a guy to fill the role. Which, by the looks of it, won't be too easy to find on the show.

I was very impressed by the house band they have. The drummer is really, really good. Tight as hell. Of course they are playing other peoples' songs but a band like that has to be pretty professional to be ready for any screwups from the singer. If you ever played in a band where the singer doesn't know where they are, or you weren't sure that the singer would make it through the whole evening without forgetting something, you know how hard it is.

I know from the tryouts here in Minneapolis that there were better singers and front men that auditioned. My boss at Winterland Studios was approached personally to come up with some talent. That's how we got Jordis involved. Obviously she did the work to move on, but there were some other people that auditioned that were better than some on the show. I can see they were looking for personalities as well as talent due to the living situation and the drama behind it.

The contract for the show is really smothering. There were a couple people here who got asked to move on, but didn't want to sign their rights away. I don't know what it all said but there were clauses that didn't allow the singers to promote their likeness for a period of time. Other stuff like that as well. So, take that from a small city like Minneapolis and think what kind of people turned them down form the larger cities. I think the whole fiasco with the dude from American Idol dropping out to persue a career elesewhere with his 14 mintues of fame really made produces of other singing shows think about their contracts a little more.

She did screw up Townsend's middle vocal part. Like Daltry, Jordis has a subtle rasp to her voice. I thought that it was in her range. For a first song, she picked a strong one. From the looks of it, the judges (band) appreciated it. It will be interesting to see what song she does tonight. I know there is 'Somebody to Love' by queen that will be done. Good luck to whomever has to do that!

No kidding. If they can make it through that whole song without making me feel pain in my ears, it will be an accomplishment.

My view of this is that the band only chose singers that they could control. Completely. I find it really hard to believe that there were 15 singers who would want to be the mouthpiece for INXS. Hasnt any of those 15 people seen the movie "Rockstar"?

oops, it was the Jefferson Airplane version. Same title I believe.

haha

I'm personally enjoying the show. It sucks to hear that their contracts are that smothering, though. These are people, whom I would like to see at a local club with their real bands. There are some that don't impress me that much, but I gotta say that I'd pay $ to see Jordis and a couple of others perform.

I don't know how open INXS really is to having a female vocalist, but they brought plenty of them to the show . . .

INXS looks really old. It just reminds me of how old I am. The result of this show is a disaster waiting to happen. It appears that they are scraping to get some respect for an album that they want to release and avoid the county fair circuit. The truth is that INXS will have to be comfortable playing 2nd fiddle to whoever they select. On the show they've made allusions to their ability to get 100,000 fans into a stadium. Sorry guys, it's not 1988 any longer. Reality check, they'll be lucky to sell out 10,000 person venues. The publicity that this show generates will help for a little while, but the truth is that they are doomed to the county fair circuit. It's only a matter of time.

On another note, my wife and I have commented that these guys show a level of integrity and professionalism that very few reality shows have attained. Most reality shows like to use the "I'm going to kick you in the balls" technique of kicking people off of the show. INXS has been very professional in letting people go, giving them suggestions on how to improve and by not doing it in front of all the participants. They have also been men enough to do it themselves instead of letting the show's host be the bearer of bad news. Kudos to INXS on this.

I saw parts of this on Tuesday and then watched last night. Maybe it's my rock bias, but most of these people are much better singers and/or performers than anything I've seen on AI in 4 years. Honestly, I don't think Bo would stand out among this group, whereas he was clearly the best performer on AI (aside from whether he'd be right for INXS, I'm talking just as a rock singer/performer). And the guy who got kicked off last night was Constantine, with his constant mugging for the chicks in the crowd (even after they told him to stop doing that), except with a much better voice. And he only lasted 3 days.

I think this is a brilliant marketing ploy. Take an older pop/rock band whose glory days are far behind them and make the search for a replacement member a show, all the while building a market for a new album that otherwise wouldn't exist, and at the same time showcasing your older material for those who were too young to remember it. Regardless of how good/bad it is, this new album is going to far outsell its quality and probably result in a big upswing in sales for Kick.

But regardless, I can't see a chick singing Suicide Blonde...

Now, to take this thread on another tangent...who's next for the Rockstar treatment?

My two suggestions:

Rockstar: Stone Temple Pilots

and the one that has to happen:

Rockstar Van Halen

Think of it...Eddie's getting desperate and he's a hothead. This would be a combination of AI and Hell's Kitchen. Eddie could blow up at the people being kicked off, and berate them while throwing shit at them as they leave. Must-see TV!

I really hope this is getting ratings (I think I heard it is not) because I love this game. I agree with you, Ksyrup, the talent here is better out of the box than AI.

My two favorites are both women and more than likely will not win. I absolutely love Jordis. She has a great voice. I also love Heather (of whom I informed my wife that I want her to have my babies. She said that was ok, because she wants to have her babies. :)).

Hurst... did I see her in the Fighting Tongs?

I haven't been able to form opinions of most of them yet, but I did like the Canadian chick with the husky voice. She can really sing. I don't know her name, though.

what happen to the original lead singer?

Killed himself while trying to perform autoerotic asphyxiation...

As far as I knew, that rumor was proven false. He died from a simple suicide.

The lead singer to Joy Division, however . . .

I think the best story out of the whole Hutchence thing is what happened between him, Bob Geldof, and Hutchence's wife (Geldof's ex). Geldof had a kid with his then-wife, who left him for Hutchence. They had 2 kids together. Then Hutchence killed himself, and his wife killed herself a year later. Geldof ended up getting his kid back, plus adopting Hutchence's 2 kids. Talk about the ultimate revenge...

Geldof and Paula Yates had 3 children together ( Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches and Pixie ) while Yates and Hutchence had just one child - Heavenly Hirrani Tiger Lily.

The fuck is with those names? It shocks me to find out that their parents were mentaly unstable.

I think you hit the nail on the head.

I've been watching the show, but I am not sure why. The first episode was interesting, but the past two sucked.

Some of these people are really good singers, I just don't know why they'd want to be a part of a band where all the members are 25 years older than they are. Oh wait, they just want to make some money.

That's the big reason for the show. I think that the band's new album will be a moderately successful seller - something like an AI CD - but the big money will be in the band's old material.

The band is going to pick whomever does the best rendition of their old hits - doesn't have to be Michael Hutchence-like but got to do the songs some justice. I think the best thing that the producers decided was to have the people sing INXS songs in that sing-off part to decide who goes. That way, the public gets a taste of the old material without getting bombarded by it - and have them wanting more.

And yeah, the band members do look old. I said to my wife that they all look like me - I'm 41. I actually ( barely ) remember seeing the band in 1980 or 1981 at the local pub. I was blind drunk so I think they were good. :)

Yep. They are broke up now.

4 of the 6 people in the tong's formed a new band. Jay and Jesse left. the new band is called Liar's Club. They have done a couple shows already.

When did Adam Rich change his name to Garry Beers and start playing with INXS?

i think jordis is way way ahead of the competition, i think she will no doubt wint his show

Seeing parts of this tonight for the first time. These people suck! INXS is in trouble. Atleast Brooke Burke is hot....

The other dude from INXS looks like Jason Patric all strung out.

I'm still enjoying the show, but it's gotta switch up quick. If they keep the same format that they've been using for too much longer, I'll be bored with it. The house stuff was stupid. I don't even know why they showed it. So far I think that they have gotten rid of the right people. Tara will be next to go. Her style is too pop to rock.

Though Jordis didn't do quite as well with her song, she did make a smart move by picking that hoobastank song. I think it was the most current song of the whole selection. That will help her get some of the younger people to vote. Plus, she needed to mix it up with a slower song. She is still one of the favorites (IMO).

I like the fact that she isn't really saying too much. She is sitting back and letting her talents work for her. There is going to be a point where she will be in the spotlight a little more. She has the rock chick personality and is very approachable and likeable.

That JD fortune guy seems to have his shit together. as much as I don't like him, he will be one of the last people standing. I think his decision to change the score of each song he gets can help him early. however, he will need to show that he can sing other peoples' songs the way they want him to.

Lol, JD convinced Jordis not to take "We Are the Champions" so that he could take it last night, thinking he was all slick and shit. Then he got the song and realized that he doesn't have the range to sing it. He kept trying to switch songs with Jordis, but she wouldn't have any of that. I hope he falls on his face and Jordis rocks her song. This was an entertaining twist, but they will still need to do something more to hold my attention for the long term.

All they need is Jordis and Heather. I'm signed on until they are gone at least.

I think a lot of people are staying away from this show because they disliked the Idol shows. It's a pity because it's a lot better. I watched the "JD murders 'We Are the Champions'" set last night and it was good to see. The singers are way ahead in talent.

I think Ty has it. His first night performance had all the energy, stage performance and rock-song ability that they could need but by his third performance he was beginning to look a bit one dimensional. But his performance last night of Everybody Hurts was superb and revealed that he has the melodic ability that INXS need. By contrast Brandon didn't. Only Jordis can compete in flexibility but I don't think INXS are going to go for a female lead. (though I personally have a thing for Suzie - a bit trailer-trashy but all the more attactrive for that ;) )

JD got his comeuppance but in truth I don't think WATC is the great song they make out. It's appeal is in the lyrics and suitability for a large outdoor concert but the melody is a smorgasborg of unconnected musical phrases that reveals just how good Queen was. Freddie Mercury could make the telephone directory sound good but I've never heard anyone else make anything of it (I've heard Mig sing it fairly badly too from the London musical). The song's like a football shirt that was made famous by a great player and needed to be retired when Mercury went. JD never had a chance to rework it or the vocal range to sing it.

I'm looking forward to tonight's show and the elimination. I figure JD and Brandon with perhaps Heather to be voted down by the audience and INXS to decide Brandon should go.

Not going to spoil it for you, but only one of those were in the bottom three.

Well one outa three ain't too bad :)

Hurst - was Jordis talking about the guy from American Head Charge last night? She said the song she picked made her think of a friend who had recently died, and that whole situation came to mind. Just wondering.

Yeah. I noticed that too.

She is the g/f of the other AHC guitar player. She was traveling with the band during a few shows on the tour when Brian died.

That makes sense.

BTW, Dug's solo album was released today. Rawk!

Jordis probably wont win this thing, but I dont think I really want to see her win. I think singing INXS songs will not do her justice. She is the best singer in this competition, but I think she will go so much farther with another band allowing her to sing songs to her strengths.

I think Marty will win. I think he will fit the band the best out of all.

JD is good but I dont think INXS really wants him to front the band.

Hurst is there anywhere on the net to hear what Jordis was singing before this? I would love to check out anything she has done earlier.

From Jordis' blog at rockstar.msn.com:


By the way she totally destroyed the rest of the competition tonight. My wife and I had it Tivo'd and ended up watching her performance 4 times in a row. Awesome. Just friggin awesome.

I agree with SegRat that I almost don't want her to win. If she does win, INXS will have to realize that they can't just use her to sing their songs. They'll need to adjust their song writing around her and write songs for/with her.

She was great last night. I wonder how many kids(20-somethings) watching thought that she did a Nirvana song...not realizing that Nirvana covered it when they did the unplugged thing. ;)


Here is Jordis' bands myspace site.Liar's Club The songs on their are stuff they did post Fighting Tongs. I had no involvement with these. In fact, the stuff I did never made it to CD (other than ruffs I did). They disbanded and formed Liar's Club. The songs on the myspace site are ruff mixes...not finished product.

Now that I think of it, I could mix the songs I have sitting on my drive and sell them if she becomes big...hehe.

The thing about her and the band is that they were never really motivated. The band isn't that good, and they rely on her ability a lot. They are all cool, but they won't be part of Jordis' success if she gets signed by somebody.

Yep, she was great last night. I thought Dave overstated a bit with his "greatest vocal performance ever" line - I hope he meant on this show, or on any TV reality show, or compared to Peripheral or Butthead. It was great, but not that great.

I would agree. Dave can overstate things quite a bit from what i have seen. I mean shit, has he never listened to Michael Bolton?!?!?!

She should get the encore tonight

I thought Ty was one of the worst last night, even though he didn't know the song. It surprised me because he is usually one of the best.

He didn't have much to work with.

/not a FF fan

NBC's "Law Firm," which premiered with only 5.1 million viewers; CBS's "Rock Star: INXS" and ABC's dating game "Hooking Up" are all summer duds.



Not that this show is great, by any means, but c'mon - it's not actors dancing, it's not R&B/disco warbling by people with no stage presence, it's not retread one-hit wonders. It's just rock n roll, so no one wants to watch. Boooooooo, America!

I guess my dream of a real "battle of the bands" reality show has been flushed down the crapper for good.

Dola.

I suspect this is part of the reason why they cut 2 people last week. Watch them go to a bottom 5 next week and cut all of their sorry asses. We'll have a winner by August 17th.

You would think they would end it soon...for season premiers and stuff. Isn't that towards the end of august?

didn't paul schaffer host that a while back? Celeb judges and stuff. The bands had to be able to play something on the spot. Not a real battle but it was kinda cool.

They should have done something similar to The Bachelor - ctu a bunch of people early on, and focus on 5 or 6 decent people. There are too many people still in the competition, when we all knew by the second week at least who should be gone.

I was leaning toward Marty being the winner, and they all loved his performance last night, but I thought his vocals were terrible. Even compared to Scott Stapp. Maybe I just heard it wrong, though. Still, I can't hear him pulling off some of the INXS songs.

I pretty much agree with what's been said. Ty was crap last night. Marty didn't impress me either. But this is slow and drawn out. Like Ksyrup said it would have been nice to separate the wheat from the chaf early on, then let the wheat compete. There are certain people that you know aren't going to make it and it's just painful to see them week after week barely escaping elimination.

The top five are pretty easy for me to pick out

Jordis
Mig
Marty
JD
Ty

Everybody else is just wasting my time.

For some reason, I like Deanna, but not for this gig. She's got a nice husky voice.

I had the dubious privilege of watching Australian Idol and INXS in sequence last night. They were broadcast simultaneously and my wife and daughter insisted on AI first :rolleyes: The comparison is astonishing - like watching Kidderrminster and Manchester United play in sequence (sorry don't know gridiron well enough to make a suitable comparison). How the first can be so popular and the second a flop is astonishing and depressing.

I agree that Jordis is too good for INXS. She clearly has a terrific individual career ahead of her and being lead singer for an established band would be too limiting for her. I don't think she has the right image either.

Ty still does it for me though I agree his performance last night wasn't great. But with that song it was something of making a silk purse from a sow's ear. But he too might be too versatile and individual. Marty has certainly picked his game up over the last couple of weeks. He also has the image. JD did well last night but his failure the previous week said more than just one bad song - it said much about his limitations. MIG, for me, doesn't have the power and too stagey.

Jessica surely has to go soon and Tara and Suzie can't be far behind. Still, as the popularity of Australian Idol shows - what the hell do I know? :rolleyes:

Edit: since when has the rolleyes smiley been removed from the list or is this just another problem between my broadband and the forum?

Ty just smoked that!

Looks like the Monday show got canned.

Yeah, I wonder if the whole show will not end up at VH1 eventually.

If they insist on dumping one person per week, this could go on for months...

I really think they had very high hopes for the show. They imagined AI kind of support, and honestly I thought they might get it. I enjoy AI, but this is much more my cup of tea. It is strange what hits and what doesn't.

I agree completely. I've thought about what they would need to do to make this show work, and the sad fact is, it doesn't work because it's rock music. Brooke Burke is not all that great, but the format of the show is otherwise fine - Navarro, although a bit Paula Abdul with praise at times, is pretty good, and the guys in the band seem to be somewhat honest in their opinions. The performers aren't all great, but neither are the AI contestants. Again, the biggest thing they could have done was dump 10 people in the first 2 weeks and focus on the remaining 5. But I still don't think that would have gotten people watching. It's the fact that this is a band, and they're lookingfor someone to fit in with the band, not concentrating on finding a personality to market by him/herself. And of course, no one is covering I Will Survive...

I thought maybe they should have gone with a band that was either more relevant to now, or a legendary act, but I'm not sure it would have mattered. This might make a good thread, actually - alternative versions of Rockstar. I've come up with Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, and the mother of all shows, Van Halen. But I'm not sure any of those would garner better ratings. VH would be great, because with the dick Eddie involved, it would be like a combination of AI and Hell's Kitchen - Eddie could berate the worst singers and throw shit at them as they left the stage. And they could get Hagar and Roth to give commentary.

The sad thing is, an R&B/hip hop version of this show would probably draw a large audience.

You're right on both the VH and R&B thing. Honestly, the thing I love about this show is the lack of a "Simon," who while entertaining, takes away from the performances. I think that this show would have been much more successfull with a Simon, though. A real dick, not just someone pretending to be.

Found this interesting, on the following blog:

http://ultragrrrl.blogspot.com/



"I have been holding back for a while, but I can't take it anymore!!

I was one of the final 50 selected to go to LA for the final round for the INXS:Rockstar show. I wrote a journal about my experience and described all 50 contestants I saw when I was there. From day one we were told 14 people make it to the show...14...14...14...14!!! I have contracts to prove this. Anyway, all of sudden the show airs and there are 15 contestants...go figure! I recognize all of them, except one...MIG! He WAS NOT at the audtions. I promise you!!

So I came to realize, Mig is the mole..the plant if you will. INXS probably recorded the album with him already, though that I can't prove.

Check this out: One of the songs we were given to learn was "We Are The Champions"...then it was pulled. They changed it. Could it be because MIG was the lead in the London production of 'Queen: We Will Rock You'? A Broadway type show. And isn't the TV show supposed to be about guys and girls who are struggling to make a career out of singing?? MIG has a career...go figure!!

The icing on the cake was tonight. Great reality setup. One guy slaughters a Queen tune last week..then Mig comes in to show he can save the day and really sing a Queen song...go figure!!
He has been singing them for a living!!!

Anyway, if you are a betting man...call Vegas and get the odds on Mig. You walk away a rich man/woman...trust me!!

It's just disapponiting to know the band is using this program to jusat market themselves and a singer they have already selected. The auditions were really to surround MIG. Pretty sad..."

Interesting...

"We will rock you" is not a hard queen song to sing. I am more interested in the fact of the 14 singers with 'the mole'. That is some cool news.

Mig

You love him. He's your boyfriend.

DOLA:

I was thinking about that blog post. I was checking some online books and wondering if it would be worth it to lay down a c-note on this info.

I thought that it would either be JD, Jordis or Mig. JD seems to be plateauing while Mig is slowly getting into the spotlight more. Jordis is doing it rock solid, but isn't showing INXS 'frontman' desires. Being a chick is something that I stated will hurt her chances to win it all.

Now then, if Mig is actually a mole, and the writer of the blog is not somebody stirring up trouble...wouldn't the bookies have taken this into consideration? I mean, I was looking at 3:1 on both Jordis and Mig. Shouldn't Mig be around 3:2 or something similar.Its hard to resist the temptation of putting down a hundred on him. If I wasn't leaving for Seattle next Wednesday I would probably do it.

Thoughts?

They haven't hidden the fact that Mig was from the "We Will Rock You" show in London - it was said in the very first show that he had given up that job in order to take part in the INXS search. The band have also commented a couple of times that he needs to change his stage persona to a more spontaneous "rock concert" one. I don't think there's been any attempt to hide his background.

I would have thought the fact he's Australian would have more influence over the band's judgement. Of course that may be seen as further evidence for the conspiracy theory. But it wouldn't suprise me at all if the band themselves knew Mig and suggested he take part even if he didn't originally apply.

But he doesn't have the talent of either Jordis or Ty.

I get the impression that we're beginning to see some divergence between the public's judgement and that of the band. The different reaction of the two to JD's and Ty's poor performances struck me - JD's "We Are the Champions" was the worst performance of all so far and was severely criticised by the band but the public didn't even put him in the bottom three. Ty's performance was not his best but not that bad but he was voted into the bottom three despite superb performances elsewhere. But there was no way the band were going to drop him.

I'm very surprised to see that he's 35. That lends even more credence to the idea that he might get picked. Nothing worse than a band of 40-50 year olds fronted by a 24 year old.

I didn't realise he was that old and I think you might well be right. One characteristic that the band will be taking note of that the public probably isn't is how well the winner will fit in with the band on tour. Mig may fit in. Maybe Brandon and Marty. JD would be a nightmare and Ty seems to be on the arrogant/egotistical side. Fitting in could also go against Jordis - young girl and a bunch of guys suffering a mid-life crisis :rolleyes:
.

One thing to note is that most of these people are older than you might think. Jordis is the only one who is under 25. Most fall into the 28-32 age range. I think Ty's up there with MiG.

Someone on another board says that he watched tonight's (supposed) episode last night on VH1. Last week, they said the next episode was Tuesday, which I took to mean they had canned the Monday episode. Apparently, what they meant was that Monday's episode wouldn't air on CBS on Monday, but on VH1 on Sunday. What a bunch of idiots. There were no performances, so it's not like I missed anything, but since I've been watching, I would have liked to have seen it.

Can anyone confirm this was on last night?

Ksyrup

there no episode tonight on CBS. i check.


damn if they took it off Monday on cbs and didnt warn us it was move to Sunday on vh1


Tuesday and Wednesday episode is on cbs still. i check.

VH1 is showing it 10:30eastern tonight 7:30pm pacfic monday night again.

so if you miss it on vh1 sunday. your ok still.

why did they move the Monday show from cbs to Sunday on vh1 without letting us know?

They got half of it right on Wednesday's show - that it wouldn't be on CBS on Monday. Odd that they wouldn't promote it on VH1, though, considering Viacom owns both CBS and VH1. Thanks for the info - I'll watch it tonight.

The INXS programs are shown on Fox 8 here (Australia). It might be worth checking to see if that's the case in the US also. According to the schedule there are no changes here (I'm glad to say).

so, who liked Brooke Burke's skirt, or lack thereof ;)

I guess they hope the higher she cuts the skirt, the higher the ratings will go :D

I kind of liked the format tonight though, with little pieces in between songs...

FM

I really like this show. I don't even care that it's a washed-up 80's band. It's just so refreshing to get real rock singers, most of whom have the talent to arrange their own songs and play instruments. It's too bad no one is watching. I hope this turns into a regular series on VH1, but I'm not holding my breath.

Did anyone else notice trouble with the audio last night? I don't know if it was a problem with our local affiliate or if it was a problem with the show. For whatever reason, both Burke's and the singers' mics seemed to have the volume turned down. We could hear the band fine, but the vocals just seemed muted. Made it difficult to tell who was doing the best job.

I didn't notice a problem. Our local channels are ALL muted, but that doesn't affect just vocals versus music.

I'm really enjoying this show too. I cannot stand the Idol-type of talent shows but I'm really liking a lot of the performances every week on this show.

For me, I'm seeing two performers being cut this week - Brandon and Jessica. They both had the kiss-of-death critique from the band plus it will help to move the series to the end a bit quicker.

Marty has been a real standout the last few weeks. He looks like the winner at the moment if he can keep it up.

I like Marty as a performer, but not so much as a singer and definitely not as the singer of INXS. He just doesn't have a strong enough voice. He's a great talent, though - I know some folks on another board that is based in Chicago who know him pretty well and have always thought the same thing. I think he has what it takes to front a band, I just don't think he can be as melodic as he would need to be with INXS.

I still like Ty, but I've always been a sucker for black rock singers. And I'm not sure how he fits in with this band.

Jordis, again....best talent on the show, not right for INXS. Could/should be huge in the right situation.

JD has the attitude, voice, and talent (his arrangements are, overall, excellent), but I think he's too self-centered to be a part of an existing band. He needs a band built around him as the focal point, so a gig with an established band is not right for him.

MiG seems to have everything they need - confident performer, good voice, Australian, mid-30's, ringer (at least according to that blog I posted). I just don't see them going for anyone else in this competition, if they have any thoughts about playing old INXS material.


The rest of the singers are either too one-dimensional (Brandon, Deanna) or just not that talented (Jessica, who I thought should have been gone by week 2).

Suzie seems to be the odd woman out. She is definitly on a level above Deanna, Brandon, and Jessica, but I don't think that she'll make the top 5. She did an excellent job last night.

Get rid of Brandon and Jessica this week and save us the pain of having to watch them struggle to survive for another week. They're not bad musicians, but they're obviously not up to the level of everybody else on the show.

Jordis came up short in my eyes last night. This was her worst performance so far.

Bad choice of clothing too. she does not wear stuff like that around town. Only stevie nicks would wear something like that well...or ok.

I thought Jordis was OK. SHe still was better than most even with an off-performance. I even thought the clothing matched the song. Stevie Nicks is right on-target.

I agree that her performance wasn't great Tuesday, but I actually loved her outfit. I'm probably going to get slammed for saying this, but I wish she'd do something else with her hair.

Anyway, Brandon deserved to go. Blow lyrics to one of their songs is the kiss of death. He wasn't right for the band anyway.

I was disappointed they didn't can Jessica along with Brandon.

Jessica's time will come next week when she's voted into the bottom three for the fourth time. I'm still surprised that Suzie was in the bottom three. She rocked that REM song.

Brandon and Jessica were obvious choices for the bottom three and I can't see Jessica surviving much longer. Coming up with a third was difficult this week but even so Suzie was a suprise. I suspect it shows the conservatism of the public audience - change the arrangement of a well known song and you'll leave a significant part of them behind.

Once Jessica and Deanna (too limited) go then it'll be very difficult to separate them. Ty has the talent. Marty has come good recently and I think will fit in well with the band (they seem to make excuses when his pitch is out). Mig has done nothing wrong but, for me, never quite has the power. Can't make my mind up about JD - a flawed gem perhaps. Jordis, extremely talented but will be better off as a solo artist and not right for INXS. Suzie has the rock-chick image and the band clearly responds to that but she never really sparkles.

It's still Ty for me with Marty coming up on the rails.

Anyone else puzzled by the way they have to launch into an INXS song when they find themselves (unexpectedly) having to sing for survival? Presumably they're each told beforehand what song they will have to sing if they're in the bottom three to allow them to rehearse it.

I thought so, too, but Brandon's comment last night that he was surprised by the choice they made for him has me thinking that maybe they give them 3 songs and tell them they'll have to do one of them if they are in the bottom 3. Either that, or he was trying to cover himself in front of the audience that he forgot the words to the only song he was given to perform.

Yes they do seem genuinely unaware of what they will be expected to sing which does suggest they're given the three songs beforehand and only know which one is theirs when INXS tells them. It does seem like an awful lot of reheasal time though to be proficient in all three.

Enormous credit does have to go to the backup band who have to cover a hell of a lot of ground in supporting every artist and song.