They Rawk!

When I saw the promo for this year’s Rockstar: Supernova, I was like what’s with aging rockers and reality show auditions? And when I heard Supernova was the unholy trinity of Tommy Lee [former Motley Crue drummer/ former Mr. Pamela Anderson], Gilby Clarke [former Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist] and Jason Newstead [former Metallica bassist], first thing that came to my mind was “the show should be renamed Rockstar Dinosaurs”.

I really had no plans to watch this one, this ‘I need a reality show to pick and choose a [wo]man to front my band’ thing. But then, when you’ve got only two options – watch the soaps or watch a reality show – watching aging rockers act like they're still super-cool seem like a healthier option!

So what have we got here:
* The three dinosaurs we discussed earlier.
*Some beautiful, scantily clad female host whose name I forgot because it was not worth remembering anyway.
* ‘The producer of the year’ - Mr. Butch Someone. Damn, I’m so bad at remembering names!
* Dave Navarro [ex-Jane's Addiction/ Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist] who’s probably there to offer his opinion on the beautiful curves of a curvy contestant – no, Mr. Cheeseball was referring to that Les Paul being strummed by the contestant during performance, not the contestant herself, as he later clarifies!
* And, of course, 15 contestants from America, Canada, Australia and Iceland.

So am I gonna talk about all 15 performances here? Hell, no way. I was not even gonna write in the first place. My blog had almost ODed on American Idol Season 5 recaps recently and I wasn’t going to repeat that mistake. I was just gonna relax, watch the show and forget about it till next week until the next episode. But you see, things don’t always go as planned.

Somewhere between the first and the fourteenth performances, I saw the phoenix rise in all its glory and I instantly forgot about all the performances I’d watched so far! This fiery-haired, pierced and tattooed Dilana sure is a force to reckon with. Her rendition of Nirvana’s Lithium [one of my all time favourites] is simply stunning. For the first half of the song, she stands motionless, staring into the camera. Hell, she even looks scary! Then suddenly it’s all frantic fury working the stage. She is insane; she is I.N.T.E.N.S.E., and she’s one talented singer. After her performance, I had to pick up my jaw from the floor. I was awed! I guess that’s why I didn’t forget her name.

Another name I didn’t forget is that of Lukas Rossi, the Canadian who says he’s here to win. Last on the list to perform, Lukas bears an uncanny resemblance to Chucky the killer doll, and he can kill you with his song, and I mean that in a good way. He does an awesome job with Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell [though not one of my all time favourites] and shows he’s a born performer. This guy can deliver.

What about the remaining thirteen? Most of the Rockstar: Supernova contestants are good. In fact, they are way better than this year’s American Idol Top 10 finalists. But then, being good is not good enough, one has to stand out. That what Dilana and Lukas did – they stood out without making an effort, grabbed the judges/ audience by their whatever with their awesome renditions of great songs and equally awesome performances, and made everyone stand up and take notice.

I got one word for both of them:
Respect.