Magni’s fans seem to have woken up at last after his tongue-in-cheek vote for me campaign before the performance show yesterday. They came out with such force that the servers actually went down in some places on the official website for an hour! Maybe like me most of them were just so confident Magni’s talent will shine through that they didn’t previously consider actively voting for him. The fact that he was the only one who handled the whole fracas with Dilana with any dignity(despite being cut on the head by her antics) must have helped too. Well I know it’s just one weeks voting but for a change it’s real nice to see the best singer on top. Lively stage performance is good fun but for me music is not primarily a visual experience – it’s what I hear that counts most. So maybe that explains my support for Magni and Storm – the two people with the best vocal chops.First up today Lukas swaggered and mumbled his way(even more than usual) through the new Supernova song It’s on.[video link above] But to be fair Lukas sure opened up his throat today and soared above a fairly heavy song. So I’ll actually take back what I said about Lukas not having the range to front a rock band. But he badly needs a voice coach to help him enunciate the words clearly. I must have listened half a dozen times already trying to catch the lyrics – all in vain. It’s on is kinda long(needs some editing), more rock than the earlier 2 songs and has some good moments near the middle of the song when Lukas opens up vocally. Thankfully there are no prop dancers or silly choruses on this one. Toby then predictably got the encore for making the girls dance on stage last night. He didn’t repeat that act today so it was just his singing in the spotlight. Reasonable job full of energy on stage like always but nothing we haven’t seen before. Toby has stuck to what comes naturally and seems eager to follow band directives. He even went to the backbenchers today just coz Tommy Lee wished yesterday that Magni could have done the same. Hmm… shades of Ryan there. But he could make a reasonable compromise candidate if they don’t pick Lukas, Dilana or Magni. Or if he doesn’t go over the top and self-destruct like Ryan Star… Ryan: It seemed like Ryan didn’t quite get the comments Jason Newsted had directed at him for going over the top with his stage act yesterday. If anyone hasn’t realised already it spells trouble if Jason picks on you. He normally finds a nice, non offensive thing to say about every performance! Maybe Ryan thought like many of his fans that there was enough momentum going in his favour after his recent good performances. So he goes for overkill today singing The Who’s Baba O’Riley and standing on top of the speakers doing it, as if yesterday’s jumping on the piano on a ballad like Clocks was not enough.[video link above] Needless to say he mucks up the song again, going crazy up and down vocally and hitting some weird notes in a song he could have nailed if not trying so hard to impress with his stage antics. Storm seemed positively energised after getting her first bottom 3 and goes back to the wild Anything, Anything mode. Her spirited take on Beatles Helter Skelter turns out to be easily the best performance of the night among the bottom 3 which actually isn’t saying much since the other 2 were real bad.[video link above] Storm concentrates on her stage performance too(smart girl!) and after doing the customary walkabout, singing to the band(she actually sat on Tommy Lee’s lap!) she finally ends up falling on her back to the crowd. Ryan should take note – that’s the way you go wild on stage with the right song and context backing you! Anyway I still think Storm’s too pretty and electric on stage to fit in with a bunch of old rockers but at least she’s having a great time showcasing her talents Dilana for a change is rightly in the bottom 3 based on her wretched performance yesterday. I don’t think it was all just coz of the drama last week like she tried to explain away. After all she’s trying desperately to be in a rock band with the likes of Tommy Lee and Gilby so for fans to expect her to be a saint in a stressful reality contest is way too unrealistic. But the b3 call(accompanied by some audience applause!) did catch her by surprise. Maybe she thought the nice edit job portraying her as vulnerable & hurt would have helped her sail through. Anyway she tries to go one up on her last 2 performances by selecting Talking Heads Pycho Killer and for the most part screaming rather then singing it.[video link above] It is a close call after yesterday but it must now rank as her worst performance. Based solely on this weeks singing she should be shown the exit door(along with Ryan) but after the sympathy edit job yesterday that’ll be so un-reality TV like. Also I guess she’s been the band’s favourite right from the start along with Lukas and Toby so it’s too early to dump her(if at all).

Bottomline: Selling your soul in an attempt to get the job of fronting Supernova doesn’t work. That’s the moral lesson for Ryan Star as he pays the price by getting the axe for going so far out of his comfort zone that he started to look more funny than intense(which he probably is in real life). Gilby as usual makes inconsistent comments summing up the performances of the bottom 3. I now think he probably suffers from some sort of mild ADD. He now calls Storm’s past performances memorable but criticises her for not evolving as a performer. I hope Storm doesn’t take him too seriously and just stays her feisty self. So far she’s been the only one bold enough to take up the toughest songs each week regardless of whether they suited her voice or singing style. Storm’s fans too reciprocated this week by handing out the song most unsuitable for her Ryan’s degeneration from intense performer into a circus act gets praise for evolution. And Dilana has apparently enough credit with the band to not worry about singing or acting coherently at this point. Must say I really love the bizarre things brought about when a personal, subjective thing like music gets the Reality TV spin !

Lately Gilby Clarke, the ex-GNR rhythm guitarist, is getting more and more frantic in his calls for more memorable performances. When you consider the bland, featherweight (rock-lite?) songs Supernova’s has put out so far the band’s desperation is probably understandable. I was just surprised the call came from the weakest link in Supernova, Gilby Clarke, who while playing lead guitarist on the original songs, has been predictably out staged by Jason Newsted and Tommy Lee in the live performances so far. In fact Rafael Moreira who plays lead on the House band has a lot more memorable moments this season then Gilby.

Since only 3 weeks remain we are bound to see more double eliminations. The recent targeted remarks(at Storm?) is probably more a way to try prepare the ground for future eliminations. There probably won’t be any justifiable reason (performance-wise) so Supernova will just hint at their likes & dislikes using general phrases. I would prefer the band to be direct and just say a person is not right for them. But probably that’s too much directness to expect from what has been so far an inconsistent performance by Supernova while judging talent. This week I’m thinking not memorable is the keyword for you are next to go.

Only six rockers left so my take on performances in the 9th week:

Lukas: A somewhat dodgy arrangement in Lithium and some more questionable singing gets praise for originality from Tommy and Dave Navarro. Even Jason Newsted, who’s normally objective in his criticism thinks Lukas opened up on his vocals. Well when you slow down the song so much it isn’t too tough to open out. It might not show up in live performances too much coz Lukas has great style on stage but I still think he gobbles up half of the words while singing. Also based on his performances so far I wouldn’t bet on his voice holding up for an entire concert either.Storm: She did a neat job on Evanescence’s Bring me to life showcasing her big vocal range[video link above]. Her voice of course is not high pitched so very different from the original song or even Jill(who did a great job in a song that suited her) for that matter. But Dave Navarro chooses to mention the difference while Gilby didn’t think it was memorable. He apparently still remembers Jill singing in that track. And I thought we should give more marks for performances where a singer is going out of his/her comfort zone. Jason the only one who’s listening(and not ogling at her!) likes the effort and is pleased.
Ryan: Lately he has been really bending over backwards (literally) to do anything that he thinks the band might like. So this week he’s busy aping Toby(last weeks standout in Supernova’s eyes) by concentrating more on his stage act then his singing. His antics, including for some unfathomable reason jumping on the piano(?) in Clocks, looked more funny then intense to me but predictably Tommy Lee & Dave Navarro loved it. Jason was the only one who pointed out that Ryan was losing the plot a bit with his stage antics. His singing was up and down and generally off key which is surprising since a stripped down Clocks version was right up his alley. Ryan’s putting too much pressure on himself by declaring himself as a contender after getting carried away by Dave Navarro’s(ill-informed?) praise in recent weeks. I don’t think he’s got the range required for a hard rock band and his look is too grunge to fit in with Supernova.
Toby: He is smartly concentrating on his strength’s now, which is to perform with a lot of energy on stage. The singing is reasonable enough though Lukas did a far better job on Rebel yell with both his arrangements and singing. But then Toby plays his ace by bringing some girls on stage from the audience. The band of course is predictably floored. I’m now tempted to think Toby will fit in nicely with Supernova if he improves his singing a bit. However he did get drowned a bit by Supernova in the original song last week so might have to work on his vocal range a bit. Magni: Magni seemed visibly disheartened after the bitterness of last week but nice man that he is, retains his laid back sense of humour and plays down the incident(check out his blog entry here). He seems a simple, mature, down to earth guy who finds it tough to put on an act even for the camera (as seen yesterday in the photoshoot). At this point he’s probably wondering in his heart if the job’s really worth dealing with such pettiness. His singing on I Alive(video link above) is all natural, effortless, and solid like all his performances have been so far, but maybe it’s not quite his best(has to be his take on Fire). But since he shows more stage presence and plays to the gallery a bit by wandering around among the crowds Gilby and Tommy predictably likes it. And Gilby actually says that Magni has finally shown that he wants the job and has the extra something(whatever that means) ! Seriously where was this guy when Magni was burning up the stage with The Dolphin’s Cry and Fire.
Dilana: This is her night since now the show editors go overboard(the same clips shown 3 times!) in showing how vulnerable she has become and how she’ll rock out fighting. Typical Reality TV to grab those eyeballs! On the actual performance Dilana singing Mother, Mother pretends to play the guitar(misses some chords), abandons guitar and then simply proceeds to do what had worked for her before. Unfortunately her timing is off and all she manages to do is scream & incorporate her chicken dance from Lithium(which I thought was quite awful). Her 2^nd worst performance(last week was the worst) is apparently Dave Navarro’s favourite of last 2 seasons. He’s of course just feeling sorry for(rightly) picking on Dilana’s bitching last week. Gilby goes further in the appeasement game by calling it her best performance(?) while Tommy empathises with her for being such a jerk(just like him na?). Jason is more direct and simply asks her if belting out the song(screaming?) did feel better. Playing the hurt victim this week after the superbitch revelation last week she demurely says yes of course!

Bottomline: It’s all going to be very subjective from now on. Since Supernova themselves have shown little inclination(or ability?) to discriminate amongst actual performances I suspect image and stage performances will be the key. I’m not so sure if the band itself knows what they want or what counts the most for them – stage presence, songwriting skills, vocal range, distinctiveness or the overall image of the singer. BTW if Supernova themselves were up for elimination my vote would be for Gilby to be booted off. His guitarwork is not distinctive enough and I don’t think he has a clue about how to judge talent. Gilby focusses way too much on the stage act and even there his tastes leave a lot to be desired. At the very least they should let him just play rhythm guitar and either pick a singer who can play lead(Magni?) or add another member(more likely). Also Supernova should let Jason Newsted do the majority of the writing on future songs instead of Tommy Lee or Gilby so that they become the hard rock outfit they proclaimed to be at the start.

And that too for the imminently forgettable song Lotions and Thongs she came out with at the songwriting clinic in Rockstar Supernova. I was browsing through some of the coverage of Supernova among bloggers and found this interesting post at Heavily Broken with links to the original sources. The halo seems to be lifting from Dilana in the last few days first all the bitching and now plagiarism. Even her performances are actually getting more tepid. I didn’t like her last weeks cheesy take on Every breath you take one bit. It’s one of my favourite songs and her version was flat with no emotions in it. All I remember is some gaudy makeup – crazy eyelashes that Supernova predictably liked – some yoga lessons(everybody breathe) and her singing her own name in the chorus. All waaaay too tacky!

So far all Supernova has given us is Leave the lights on, a silly song which needed props like scantily clad dancers to spice things up. And Be yourself and five other cliches a slightly better effort but not still not quite a song that will fill out stadiums.[video link above] With their own songwriting skills being kinda dodgy it will be interesting to know if it becomes an important selection criteria. Lukas, Toby, Ryan or Magni probably are much superior than Dilana as far as songwriting goes. So will the egos of these veteran rockers permit more participation by newbies in their record ? INXS did put Pretty Vegas written by JD Fortune in Switch and it was received well. But then Supernova is a rock Supergroup wannabe who wants to bring back stadium rock. So probably all they want is a young pretty face to reach out to teenagers. In that case hopefully they’ll come back to senses and try playing some serious music to achieve those goals. With people like Jason Newsted in the band they sure have all the talent to kick some serious butt.

Right now the only people who are kicking some butt on the show is Magni who stepped up one more level to belt out Fire by Jimi Hendrix[video Link above] on the elimination night in week 8 and Storm who did a cool job on the difficult Aerosmith song Crying[video link below]. I don’t expect either of them to win since they probably won’t fit in with Supernova. Storm is too independent, mercurial and sexy to front a bunch of old rockers while Magni is too talented to stick around with a band that’ll likely play only 80’s style glam rock. I’m just hoping that they’ll go out rocking in a blaze of glory like Patrice.

[I've an update to Dilana's lyrics controversy in this post where you can compare lyrics to both songs. She didn't exactly steal, just borrowed some similar lines. ]

Toby sang his heart out today but the song itself was hardly something you’d expect from the ex-members of Metallica, Motley Crue and GNR. And when they say in their blog that they want to bring back the era of stadium rock I do expect big things. Either they bring out a killer anthem or say something really meaningful with the lyrics. Right now all we are hearing is some semi-retired legends putting out songs that are… well to put it mildly kinda confused[Video link to Dilana singing Supernova's "Leave the Light's on" below]. Maybe I’m being too harsh but expectations are bound to be high when such marquee names get together.

The bottom three was a bit of a surprise again. I expected Lukas and not Magni. Icelanders need to back their man and get up a little early from now on(show’s on at 4-5 am there). Since we got to hear him sing a pretty good rendition of Fire by Jim Hendrix maybe it wasn’t such a bad deal. Especially since Toby’s rendition of Plush was inconsistent and after a good start he kind of completely lost his tempo midway through the song. Was it coz of having to sing two songs on one night I wonder. In any case I’m not convinced Toby can do justice to any of the grunge classics. Simply doesn’t put in any emotions just bland singing/screaming.

In the end Patrice was the one to go as expected. Some of the songs she performed in earlier weeks got a bit big for her voice. She still managed to have some good moments[including My Iron Lung- video link above] so guess should be quite content to get so far. Anyway after this week I’ll probably view Supernova as just another Reality TV event, not much more. Have my doubts if I’ll consider buying their records unless the other original songs are radically better.