Rockstar: Supernova ~ Week Six Performance

It was yet another interesting night at the rock and roll boot camp, with large doses of theatrics to boot. There were performances by Tommy Lee and Gilby Clark, Ryan Star revealed the reason behind his wearing dark glasses indoors and Toby showed there’s more to megaphones than just making public announcements. But the one overshadowing all the glitter and glam, including Lee & Clark, was Zayra with the tightest pair of gold, full-body leotard ever designed, tallest pair of platform heels, topped with an enormous top hat! Well, I told you it was an interesting night, didn’t I?

Okay, let’s start from the beginning. The show rolled with Rockstar nanny Dave Navarro tongue lashing the contestants for not killing each other for a chance to play with Gilby Clark. That guy is such a Supernova suck-up! But then, the guy has a point. If the prospect of playing with your future band scares you, you need to pack your bags and go back home. Now, let’s see how the remaining ten contestants fared this week.

Dilana Robichaux – Won't Get Fooled Again: The Who
Whoa! That was a nice intro from Gilby. Dilana did a good job with this classic as was expected of her, but something was still missing. The opening was a little too quiet, and then there was a little too much vibrato. It was good, no doubt about that; it’s just that I feel she could have done better. Gilby also added some weak backing vocals, following which the Supernova guys are now thinking of sending him home tomorrow night instead of Zayra.

But you have to give it to Dilana for effortlessly commanding the stage every time. This week, she had no theatrics to fall back on; no crazy stage antics. Even the look she had for this week was pretty clean with her hair back and makeup toned down. [Though the t-shirt and red leather pants she had on were hot!] Still she did not get lost on stage with Gilby there. That’s two thumbs up for her. And she’s now definitely a Supernova pet, since she jumped at the chance to perform with Gilby. Dilana was all smiles when Dave said that if he had his way, he’d give her the gig right now. Dilana, mission accomplished!

Jill Gioia – Mother, Mother: Tracy Bonham
It gets scary when would-be stars like to pretend they are someone else. And it gets scarier when they take this impersonation business a bit too far, which is just the case with Jill. First it was that Courtney Love act that almost got her thrown off the competition. This week, Jill looked like an aging version of Avril Lavigne with a bad case of too much hair extension! Watching her perform tonight was like watching a girl trying to rock the house, depending majorly on the power of her hair extensions. Too much hair-banging! Though Jason Newstead [or was it Tommy?] said it was her best performance yet, I found myself agreeing more with the part where Jason noted that her vocals were not quite there.

Ryan Star – Paint It Black: The Rolling Stones
Have you been noticing the pattern? They are now alternating between Stones and Nirvana songs. Last week – Nirvana, this week – Stones, next week – Nirvana again I guess. I first heard this song on that Tour of Duty TV series and absolutely loved it. Tonight Ryan gave the song a whole new meaning, literally, sporting horrible black eye makeup [obviously, he didn’t get the time to approach Lukas for a tip or two] and a hood with horse mane. When it came to upping the theatrics this week, Ryan was right up there. It was creepy, big time, but he sang okay. Though Dave thought that was the shit [and shit means good in their part of the world], I’m not so sure. Last week, it was sincere intensity. This week, it was out and out drama.

Storm Large – We Are the Champions: Queen
It requires steel balls to do a Freddy Mercury cover and Storm proved she has it. It was a good, toned down performance though not anywhere near great. Over the week, Storm has shown she can do a bit of everything, from rock to punk to just about anything. If there’s any female competition for Dilana, it’s Storm.

Zayra Alvarez – All The Young Dudes: David Bowie
Accompanied by Magni on guitar, Zayra razzle dazzled us with the universe’s tightest gold full-body tights, tallest pair of platform heels [how can you friggin’ walk in those things?!] and a huge top hat. This was definitely her least irritating performance. And this week she even sounded better than on her pervious performances, that is if you ignore her going off key and flat. Dave cracked me up when, commenting on her costume, he said if this were Rockstar: Planet Pluto, she would have had a landslide victory!

Josh Logan – Interstate Love Song: Stone Temple Pilots
One of my favourites [the song I mean] and Tommy’s on drums. Sweet! Even though he was surprised by Tommy’s decision to join him on the drums, Josh did a nice job, though I feel he should have gone a little lower on the pitch. And I seriously did not get his bobble head act. Trying to pick up from where Phil left?

Magni Asgiersson - The Dolphin’s Cry: Live
Though this song is labeled by many ‘hardcore’ rockers as the lamest rock song of all times, the Iceman picked this Live track [the bald-factor being the motivator I guess]. As his kid – wearing a massive pair of headphones – watched him, Magni shushed the crowd before launching into an acoustic version of the song. He stood there accompanied only by his guitar and still sounded great. Impressive!

Patrice Pike – Instant Karma: John Lennon
Though Supernova said they liked her performance, or rather her song choice, Patrice’s performance tonight didn’t work for me. To be honest, she disappears even while singing her heart out, and I’m not only talking about tonight’s performance. And that fixed smile of hers doesn’t do much to win her case. Her performance was not bad, it was okay. It’s just that she’s not rock star material. I think she’ll be back tomorrow to reclaim her spot in the bottom three.

Lukas Rossi – Creep: Radiohead
Ah, my favourites – Creep, Radiohead and Lukas. After last week’s disappointing performance, Lukas proved once again that he really does have what it takes by taking on this Thom Yorke number and showing an entirely different side of him. Though he was a bit too breathy and a little off key, he totally nailed it when it came to sweetening up the vocals. No growling and no mumbling through lyrics either. He took up the challenge and altered his technique, which is an amazing thing to do since it’s not easy to change your technique after years of singing that way. The performance was very fresh and very cool, winning Lukas some major praise from Supernova, with Tommy confessing he got goose bumps during his performance. At this point, the camera zoomed in on Dilana who was not much happy with Lukas stealing her thunder.

Toby Rand – Burning Down the House: Talking Heads
Pretty cool job by Toby. Things were going well till he decided to let a megaphone draped in Australian flag join him on stage and the world was suddenly divided into two groups – one that liked Toby with the megaphone and the one that didn’t. Personally, I kinda liked that stunt though it was a bit OTT. The vocals were great and he worked the crowd pretty well.

So my pick for the bottom three: Zayra, Jill and Patrice, though I’m not sure here since Zayra has a knack for not winding up in the bottom three. Ryan could also be in trouble for his ‘paint it black’ look. As for the encore, I’m guessing it’ll go to Lukas.