Not too much. Yet
More reality TV? About the search for a new singer for the in-hiatus Oz-rock outfit INXS? Hey, if it works, and Rock Star: INXS kind of works, you gotta embrace it.
Put to one side, please, the always weird display of instant let’s-party enthusiasm and public camaraderie that these programmes seem to foster in the contestants. Forget their beautifully lit and styled intro portraits, making them always preternaturally relaxed and hip. Ignore the dispiriting case of yet another band of aging rockers who won’t (literally, in this case) give up the ghost but instead embrace the current suspension of the traditional rock=young coolness paradigm, and you have the makings of a vaguely compelling show.
Out of the same stable that brought you the dog-tired but ruthlessly slapped back into life Survivor/The Apprentice franchises, Rock Star: INXS has 15 wannabes squawking and strutting to win the right to replace Michael Hutchence. They’ve got names like Ty and Wil and JD and Jordis. They’re mostly north Americans, and all but one are pretty white people. Perhaps the most surprising thing was that eight of the 15 are women. All of them can sing, and all can perform on stage in front of 1000 ready-baked fans. Well, one got a little bit too Boyzone with an Asian audience member, and another had a little fit in lieu of coordinated dance moves. One went too high and too low on Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. One forgot her words.
But it was Dana, who looks like a young Kyra Sedgwick (there’s also a young Willem Defoe and Richard Ashcroft), who got booted out the Rock Star mansion for screeching. Dana sang Knocking on Heaven’s Door, but had an attack of the banshees towards the end. This desecration of an untouchable classic fatally offended the INXSers and Dave Navarro, who had been to that point forcing themselves to nod heads and tap toes while clearly inwardly grimacing.
Dana should be fine. She’s got a band, and if it doesn’t pan out she can fall back on her showgirl and adult cable acting credits, at least according to the official site. The profiles are great, but don’t linger, as the site gives some of the game away.
The best bits of these shows are the bit when the freaks come out to play. Daphna (not to be confused with Dana) had a toe-curling wail about her recently deceased father. I’m all for showing grief, but was this really the time and place? If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no TV-grade video camera to film it, did it really happen?
Put to one side, please, the always weird display of instant let’s-party enthusiasm and public camaraderie that these programmes seem to foster in the contestants. Forget their beautifully lit and styled intro portraits, making them always preternaturally relaxed and hip. Ignore the dispiriting case of yet another band of aging rockers who won’t (literally, in this case) give up the ghost but instead embrace the current suspension of the traditional rock=young coolness paradigm, and you have the makings of a vaguely compelling show.
Out of the same stable that brought you the dog-tired but ruthlessly slapped back into life Survivor/The Apprentice franchises, Rock Star: INXS has 15 wannabes squawking and strutting to win the right to replace Michael Hutchence. They’ve got names like Ty and Wil and JD and Jordis. They’re mostly north Americans, and all but one are pretty white people. Perhaps the most surprising thing was that eight of the 15 are women. All of them can sing, and all can perform on stage in front of 1000 ready-baked fans. Well, one got a little bit too Boyzone with an Asian audience member, and another had a little fit in lieu of coordinated dance moves. One went too high and too low on Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. One forgot her words.
But it was Dana, who looks like a young Kyra Sedgwick (there’s also a young Willem Defoe and Richard Ashcroft), who got booted out the Rock Star mansion for screeching. Dana sang Knocking on Heaven’s Door, but had an attack of the banshees towards the end. This desecration of an untouchable classic fatally offended the INXSers and Dave Navarro, who had been to that point forcing themselves to nod heads and tap toes while clearly inwardly grimacing.
Dana should be fine. She’s got a band, and if it doesn’t pan out she can fall back on her showgirl and adult cable acting credits, at least according to the official site. The profiles are great, but don’t linger, as the site gives some of the game away.
The best bits of these shows are the bit when the freaks come out to play. Daphna (not to be confused with Dana) had a toe-curling wail about her recently deceased father. I’m all for showing grief, but was this really the time and place? If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no TV-grade video camera to film it, did it really happen?
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