Rock Star: Supernova - Week eight

To no one’s surprise, Patrice Pike was eliminated from Rock Star: Supernova this week. I thought she was going to go sooner, but I’m glad she didn’t. I thought she was deserving of the opportunity to sing an original song of hers in front of millions of viewers. Patrice’s song “Beautiful Thing” really took me back to the ‘90’s, like I was watching a second-stage performance at the H.O.R.D.E. festival, and that’s meant as a compliment. I’ll probably be purchasing a 99 cent download of the song from MSN Music. Her Wednesday performance of the Pretenders’ “Middle Of The Road” was adequate, but adequacy doesn’t quite cut it at this point in the competition. I hope to see more of Patrice in the future.

Magni made a second undeserved appearance in the bottom three. He did well with Nirvana’s smash “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and probably would have done it even better if he wasn’t feeling ill. On Wednesday, he brought down the house with Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire”, keeping him safe for at least another week.

Toby’s modern rearrangement of Eric Clapton’s classic “Layla” was awkward. His vocals weren’t bad, but I wish he had remembered to keep singing while he was running around shirtless. This is a vocal competition, right? For his first trip to the bottom three, Toby did STP’s “Plush”. His rendition of that song was good, but not great. But this was still Toby’s big week, because he was the one who was chosen to front Supernova for this week’s band-written original. With Toby singing, Supernova sounded something like the Offspring, and that may reflect well on him. Despite his missteps, Toby could be a frontrunner again.

Ryan Star was the other contestant who got to perform an original song on Tuesday. His song “Back Of Your Car” was impressive, with intense vocals and fairly potent lyrical imagery. Still, his girlfriend ought to smack him for what he told the world afterward. And Dave Navarro ought to buy him a new guitar after encouraging him to break the one he used.

Storm did a good-enough job on Aerosmith’s difficult “Cryin’”, avoiding the trap that Jordis Unga fell into last season when she sang “Dream On”. But at this stage of the competition, Storm's limitations are beginning to show through.

Dilana did a fine job with the Police’s “Every Breath You Take”. Her consistency is remarkable, although her cocky attitude is beginning to rub me the wrong way. Maybe she wasn’t kidding when she said that she and Lukas are much alike.

When Lukas began his performance of the Killers tune “All These Things That I’ve Done”, I thought we were getting something special. His intro sounded great, but then he reverted back to his usual voice for most of the rest of it. I’m still not a fan, but I thought he looked cool this time, especially when he looked at his reflection in someone else’s guitar. Either the guy’s in love with himself, or he’s a clever showman, or both.

I apologize for the error I made in last week’s post, when I said that this would be the all-request week. Apparently, that’s next week. I hope the contestants get to sing their original songs next week along with those meager choices.

And…Brooke Burke has been saying that September 13th will be the day of the season finale. That’s just three short weeks away. Assuming that they are following the same basic format that INXS went by last year – that is, finishing off with three contestants for the final show – we can expect another double-elimination, either next week or the week after.

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http://rockstar.msn.com

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