I lurve Storm, I lurve her eyes, & I lurve her facial expressions. I really think that if Storm *really *wants to front this band, Dilana is out of luck.
I think the band was glad that Dana was finally in the bottom 3 so they could send her home. It would have happened sooner if they had the opportunity. That tatoo was just too funny. In a non visible place and a treble clef? How rocker can you get?
Writing an original song is going to be very interesting. All these “rockers” grousing about doing covers get to put their money where their mouth is.
No surprise that they sent Dana home. She wasn’t right for them. However, I tend to cut the girl a little slack. I mean, she’s young. Is there absolutely no hope for someone who isn’t born into the rock image but wants to be a rock singer? Lukas and Dilana didn’t emerge from the womb looking the way they do. At some point in their lives, they made conscious choices to look the way they do. It’s just that with Dana, we watched (the beginning of) her transformation on TV. What Dana does have is a great personality and a willingness to work her ass off to get what she wants. She took all the criticism and tips really well and really improved these last couple of weeks. If she keeps working at it, and wants it badly enough, I think she could go far. She obviously has the raw talent to work with. She’s also wasn’t the only one up there who’s not all tattooed and pierced up (see: Jill).
It was a strange coincidence that after we were all ripping on Lukas for his looks yesterday, he suddenly got rid of the raccoon eyes and combed his hair down over his forehead a little. He looked much, much better. I wonder if these guys are working with stylists at all, a la American Idol?
Well they’ve already done this in groups this year. Everybody seemed fairly adept at writing. I’m pretty sure they’ll all do fine, with 1 or 2 exceptions.
MtM
I just caught up with this episode today.
I must say, this is the first time I saw a few of these contestants as musicians in their own right and not just contestants in show. Ryan blew me away with that arrangement of “Losing my Religion”. It was very cool, and he didn’t need a backing band behind him to make him sound good. That guy could easily have a solo career, or become a star even if he isn’t picked to front Supernova.
Same with Storm. I wasn’t buying the crazy devil eye schtick, but she did a great job on Changes. She just sold the song - made me believe every line she uttered. Great performance.
And the surprise for me was Josh. It’s clear he wasn’t singing his style before. It was very, very smart of him to decide to abandon the hard rocker and just sing the music he loves. He was very good on this episode, and again I can totally see him becoming a solo act that could go a long way.
Patrice is unimpressive, because I just don’t buy her schtick. Every move she does feels like it was practiced in front or a mirror.
And I think Lukas went from being a front-runner to a longshot in the last couple of episodes with his attitude.
But overall, this show was full of great performances. Jill sucked, and Dana was okay but she looks like she should be fronting a country band. I just can’t buy her ‘rock star growing up in front of you’ thing. So it’s about time she left. Too bad they couldn’t boot Zayra with her. But I imagine she’s good for ratings, and if that helps the show, it’ll help the band.
One other thing I noticed recently - at first, when the singers were doing stuff other than what Supernova thought ‘fit’ them, they were getting lambasted for it. Comments like, “That was good, but just what band do you think you’re auditioning for?” were common.
But now, the singers are being encouraged to ‘do their own thing’. Josh was told to just keep doing what he likes, even though it’s clear that Supernova is not about to become a Reggae band. Same with Zarya. They’re keeping her around because they like watching her do her thing.
So here’s my thinking on this - at first, the band had to find out if any of the people in front of them could front their band. So they wanted these people to show exactly how they would play in front of Supernova. They wanted to see them doing Supernova-ish material.
But now they’ve got a short list of people who can make the cut. They may even know who they want. So from here on in, the show is going to be about the ratings and seeing quality performances, and that means freeing the singers to do what they do best. It’s also generous in the sense that the ones who don’t make the cut now have an opportunity to show what they can do, to help their own careers once they leave the show. Watching Josh strain to be a heavy metal rocker week after week would be boring and uncomfortable, and it would also taint him as a rocker wanna-be and perhaps ruin his career. But if he can get up there and knock them out of the park by doing songs his way, even if they aren’t songs Supernova would play, then not only does that make for better television, but it gives him a chance to showcase his own unique talent.
So I’m guessing that what Supernova wants now is for the short-list candidates (and I’d guess that would be Dilana, Magni, Storm, Ryan, and maybe Toby) to compete against each other to show how they can front an actual rock band, while the others are encouraged to just go nuts and do whatever they want, so long as it’s good.
Anyone else agree?
I hope you are right Sam Stone!
Yep, Sam, I think you’re dead on. We were saying basically the same thing the other night. They already know at this point who has a serious chance and who is just not their style. I agree that they’ve already got one or two people in mind and are now picking them off in “overall talent” order to give more exposure to the ones most likely to succeed in some way. Well, Zayra may be an exception! Actually, my SO commented the other night that he thought she’d do really well in musical theater and I could see that, although she may not agree!
Yeah. As far as who has a chance, thinking about it I don’t believe Storm does, for the simple reason that being a female she’d have to beat Dilana out of job, and I just can’t see that happening. If Supernova decides they want a woman in front of the band, they’d be nuts to pick Storm over Dilana.
Dilana is, I believe, the most authentic and best stage performer out of the bunch. She’s just electric to watch. But I’m not sure this band is ultimately going to want a woman leading them. That’ll be a marketing decision they’ll have to make.
So that leaves the guys vs Dilana. If they decide to go for a male, then it’s pretty wide open as far as I’m concerned. Magni has turned in a few big performances, and one or two that were so-so. Ryan has been relatively unimpressive until now, but that performance of “Losing my Religion” was a real eye-opener. I suspect he’s the guy with the most raw musical talent. A multi-instrumentalist, and the power of his solo arrangements suggests to me that he’s probably a good songwriter as well. I think he may be a real musical talent of which singing is just one of his abilities.
Toby is good, but his comment on the reality show that if he loses he’s got to go home and sit around and be bored suggests that he hasn’t had much of a musical career until now, which isn’t a good indicator of either his drive, personality, or overall talent. Hard to say which.
Lukas won’t make it. He’s fun to watch, but his attitude is just a little too young and too punk for Supernova. I suspect Gilby has had enough of the prima-donna crazy vocalist thing working with Axl Rose. These guys are middle aged music professionals, who despite their image are probably more interested in making music and going home to their families and other projects than partying hard and dealing with 20-something rock star idiocy.
I can’t see Josh making it, either. He seems like a nice guy who truly cares about his music, but it’s not the kind of music Supernova wants to play.
My money is on Ryan or Magni among the guys so far, and Dilana among the females. And if the gender of the singer is no issue, Dilana has to be the front-runner.
Ok, I’ve just gone through all of Zayra’s performances online. Her voice actually sounds good. (Except a bit weak on Call Me, but she was moving around so much the mike was out of sync w/ her face, & House Band was loud as usual.)
So, I have to revise my opinion. She is actually a good singer. My TV speakers are just crappy enough that, somehow, when I watch her on TV, it sounds like her voice is only half there. Or she sounds better on earphones, somehow.
Crap, now I want her to win.