Tonight's Rock Star love

Tomorrow, they announce the winner of Rock Star. Therefore, tonight is likely my last blog on the subject. Unless they really screw up the decision. Then I might have to rant. But other than that . . .

So, I'm going to approach this like the lawyer I am. It's a closing argument, of a sort. I'm going to show you the evidence, give you my analysis, and let you take it back to the jury room to deliberate.

So, to begin, I just need to state for the record once and for all that Dave Navarro is awesome. MTV News had a great article today about all of the different projects he's working on right now. And damn, the boy can wear eyeliner better than most women.

Love him.

On the other hand, there's the band. We can't really call them Supernova anymore, can we? They're just a weird mix of personalities. Tommy Lee is like a giant silly puppy dog, Jason is like a geeky technical music nerd, and Gilby seems like a slightly edgy soccer dad. I'm also not entirely convinced that they have any kind of cohesive sound as a band -- each song they performed seemed so different -- but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. When all is said and done, if it sucks, I don't have to buy it.

So, on to the actual show. First, it was Ryan's encore. He's clearly not right for the band, such as it is, but he's got something about him. I've said that before.

I like, but don't love, his original song. And, as always, he's a little bit of a spaz during his performance. But he's hot, so I'm cutting him some slack.





Love him. I might even download something from his album. But what I'm really waiting for is Storm's song from last week -- which was the best original song of the entire show.

And now, for the performances:

First is Toby. What can I say? Boy knows how to work a crowd. I'm not entirely sold on tonight's perfomance of Karma Police, but his original is, once again, the bomb. He's just so much fun to watch and to listen to. While I'm not sure how he would fit in with Jason, Gilby, and Tommy musically, I'm sure that the tour bus would be, um, interesting.

Also, it was pitch perfect for him to play with Magni tonight -- although, if I were Magni, I'd beat the crap out of him for writing on my head with permanent marker.





Love him. He's perfect if the band wants to go in an old school hard rock direction -- like if the Killers somehow blended with Guns N' Roses.


Next is Lukas. He's rumored to be the predetermined winner. If that's true, I probably won't be listening. He reminds me a lot of the new Depeche Mode album: I really wanted to like it, and some of it is really good, but mostly, it's whiny, annoying, loud, depressing, and occasionally unintelligable. But enough about that. Lukas's mumbling distracts me, and I think his look is WAY overdone. You can be rock n' roll without being a walking, talking cliché. I think he's a little alternative for the band -- more Fall Out Boy and less Green Day, but hey, if that's what they think'll sell records . . . more power to them.

Tonight though, he gave us his all. His performace of Coldplay was very good, and this was the best performance of his original -- you could actually understand the words.




Eh, whatever. I guess he's right if the band wants to go in that direction, whatever it is.


Next is Dilana.

Dilana, Dilana, Dilana.

I went from loving her, to hating her, and back again. I'm still not convinced that she can write.
Tonight, I loved her performance. Maybe it's because she brought all the boys up as her backing vocalists? Or maybe it was because her performance of Roxanne was flat-out amazing. And even though last week I thought that her original song was the weakest, this week I liked it more.

The long and the short of it is that even if her song isn't that good, she definitely makes up for it with her performances -- she brings something different every single time. Clearly, she would be the most visually interesting with the band.

Plus, she's a girl.





Hmmm. She's right if the band wants to go in a Concrete Blonde or Pretenders-meets-heavy metal kind of direction -- with a little bit of Stevie Nicks thrown in for good measure.


Finally, there's Magni. Everyone always picks on Magni, saying he's boring. I disagree. I mean, you don't get to be the 10th most popular singer in Iceland by being boring.

I think he's a great singer, a great performer, and -- of everyone -- seems to be the most musical. He also seems the most like a "band guy" -- not a solo artist. Actually, that might be some of what everyone thinks is boring -- he just fits in with the band so well.

Every time he plays a classic rock song, his performance goes up a notch, so tonight, it was not surprising that he did a phenomenal job with Hush (click here for the video). And even though Dave said his original wasn't that memorable, I really liked it.

Unfortunately, last night's version wasn't posted on YouTube, so this'll have to do:




Love him. He's good if they want to go in an Live or Wallflowers kind of direction. Plain no-frills alternative rock music.

And, as an extra added bonus, he'd generate a big following in Iceland. Big in Iceland. I'm sure that's high on T. Lee's agenda.



So, if it were my band, I'd send Lukas back to Canada, Dilana back to the underworld, and pick Magni or Toby. Actually, I'd pick them both. As long as they keep playing these:








Now it's in your hands. What do you think?