This week was viewer’s choice on Rock Star: Supernova. What does that mean? We get to hear the remaining supernovices sing songs that other contestants sang earlier in the show. With only 6 songs during the show there was a lot of filler. We must have seen nearly half of this week’s reality episode repeated on the performance show, plus a little feature on how each singer felt about their song. Yawn.
As fas as the performances, these were all among the better ones from the entire season.
Lukas, “Lithium.” A good cover song will either change up the song from the original in a new an unexpected way or remains more faithful to the original, but simply amplifies what makes the original good. Lukas strove to reimagine the Nirvana song and created a dynamic version. I was less sold on his take than Dave Navarro, but it was a good performance.
Magni, “I Alone.” Wasn’t Magni the singer in Live? He wasn’t? He could well be Ed Kowalczyk’s Icelandic doppelgänger. Magni earned an encore performance with “The Dolphin’s Cry” and this Live song fit him well, too. Great energy to this performance. But, if he ends in the bottom 3 for another consecutive week, might that spell the end for the Ice-man? Even if it does, that might not be such a bad thing.
Ryan, “Clocks.” Ryan looks incredibly awkward whenever he’s trying to rock out. And trying to rock out to a Coldplay song is incredibly awkward (even with the House Band de-suckifying it as much as possible.) He’s a good performer, but trying to hard to be what Supernova wants.
Storm, “Bring Me to Life.” Storm’s gotten stuck with some of the worst songs available over the last few weeks. Her performance was solid. Having Toby sing backing vocals shows how confident she is in her performance. But getting stuck with a song that’s less memorable and interesting than a Coldplay song did not help her. If she ends up in the bottom three, she’s the obvious candidate to go. Supernova doesn’t feel her vibe. But, like Magni, I don’t want her to win and be subjected to having to become part of Supernova.
Toby, “Rebel Yell.” Like Magni, Toby lucked into a song that was perfect for his voice and persona. This was one of the few memorable performances he’s given. And, coming after the week when he played with– and sonded right for– Supernova, I have to think that he’s jumped into the group of leading contenders if not to the front of the pack. Plus, bringing the audience on stage worked for him. (Imagine the awkwardness that will ensue when Ryan tries this…)
Dilana, “Mother, Mother.” Dilana also lucked out with a song that was right for her voice. She remains the obvious front-runner, but after hearing both her and Toby sing with Supernova, Toby sounds like a much better fit for the band.
The usual suspects weigh in:
Sepinwall: Rock Star: Impending Doom?: “First of all, can I give a resounding “Boo!” to the “Rock Star” producers for padding the hell out of what could have been an awesome show. You’re down to six contestants. You’ve squeezed as many as 14 performances into an hour; why not let everybody go twice, once with the Fan’s Choice and once with their own (whether an original or something from a list of covers)?”
ALOTT5MA: Dilana, the Glass Tigress: “This will be an interesting elimination week, to be sure. No one sucked.”