***SPOILERS REGARDING TONIGHT'S SHOW*** Read later if you don't want to know - also, the writer compares Dilana's look to Stevie Nicks and Axl Rose.
It's the 'tude, dude
Hanging with the Rock Star crowd, ANDREW RYAN finds the ability to embrace the lifestyle -- the catfights, the mansion, the chance to break stuff with Tommy Lee -- just as important as the singing talent
ANDREW RYAN
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PASADENA, CALIF. -- Rock 'n' roll is still a vicious game, except for the wide-eyed hopefuls who luck onto the Rock Star: Supernova fast track. The reality series has condensed the usual years of struggle and dues-paying into loud TV sound bites for convenient viewer consumption. Rock Star is not about the music, it's about rock attitude, and turning total unknowns into TV stars. And the Rock Star machine is even slicker when viewed up close.
Sometimes you have to discover these things for yourself. CBS squired a handful of TV critics to the Rock Star taping last Sunday afternoon. The taping was for the show airing this evening, a performance episode in which all 12 finalists were closely scrutinized by the members of Supernova -- a "supergroup" consisting of heavy-metal icons Tommy Lee, Jason Newstead and Gilby Clarke -- who happen to be seeking a lead singer.
Rock Star: Supernova is the sequel to last summer's semi-hit Rock Star: INXS, which found a singer for the 1980s Australian group. What was once was pop is now metal.
Rock Star is taped at the CBS studios in Hollywood. Tickets are free, and the network can't keep up with requests. There's no confusing the Rock Star followers with those lined up for The Price is Right, which tapes around the corner. The Rock Star fans are younger and most are dressed rock-star chic: jeans and T-shirts on the males; miniskirt, heels and tank tops on the ladies. Some rock traditions remain absolute.
The freezing-cold set is made up to resemble the Mayan Theatre, a legendary Los Angeles rock venue, and the studio audience was already seated when critics arrived. Except for the hundred or so people on the floor surrounding the performance stage, who were receiving instructions from the warm-up host: "The people around the stage should have the most energy of anyone," he told the crowd. "Put your hands on your heads or whatever; it looks good on TV."
The pep talk worked and the audience roared when host Dave Navarro was introduced. They went wilder yet for the arrival of Supernova. Last out was co-host Brooke Burns, who launched right into the show with a clip, taped days earlier, of contestants squabbling over the song selection. Two females fighting over Helter Skelter. Bad blood is thereby established.
And the victor went first. The stringy-haired contestant Patrice took the stage to sing Helter Skelter, delivering the song in short screeching bursts. The camera cut repeatedly to the other female singer, the one who lost the fight. She looked angry.
Navarro told Patrice: "Baby, you sounded killer!" Navarro subsequently referred to the female Rock Star contestants as "sweetheart," "sweetie" and, on a few occasions, "man."
The next singer was an unsure young fellow named Josh, who nonetheless executed a near-letter perfect impression of the late Kurt Cobain on Nirvana's Come As You Are. The judges seemed nonplussed. "Don't forget these guys [Supernova] are going to be playing Wembley Stadium, not a coffee house," Navarro said. Lee chimed in: "I want to see you break ****!"
Rock-star attitude is an obvious asset on Rock Star. The third contestant was a tawny bottle blonde named Storm who struck and held a defiant rock-chick pose throughout her version of The Cars' Just What I Needed. The performance was shambling and off-key, but the judges perked up. Lee suggested Storm show more skin; Storm suggested Lee look her up on the Internet.
During a short break, Rock Star staffers kept the energy level pumped by throwing T-shirts to the audience; the contestants danced, stretched and preened in the contestant box, where they sat for the entire 90-minute taping. The members of Supernova ran outside to smoke cigarettes.
Upon return, the taping resumed with a performance by Toronto-born Lukas Rossi, a slight young man dressed in an all-black Edwardian-style suit replete with wide white tie. Lukas wore ample eyeliner and his spiky hair boasted a skunk-like white streak. Dude certainly looks like a rock star.
The Canadian entrant performed a heavy-metal take on the Rolling Stones' Let's Spend the Night Together, and ran around the stage like a young Mick Jagger throughout the song. It was the most electrified performance of the show, and the Rock Star panel knew it. Navarro told Lukas he was arrogant, which was intended as a compliment. Lee said: "You're raising the bar, and I'm raising the bar stool!" Navarro added a proviso: "Dude, no matter what happens, at the end of this show, you're getting laid."
The second Canadian contestant, Vancouver native Jenny Galt, came out near the end of the program. A tall blonde, she stood directly in the Rock Star spotlight with, an enormous acoustic guitar strapped around her thin frame, and sang the soulful ballad Drive by the group Incubus. It was a credible performance, but Navarro spent most of the appraisal time praising her knee-high white boots.
The closing act was the weird and very popular Dilana, a 34-year-old woman from Houston by way of South Africa. She, too, has the look. Visually, Dilana is a mix of Stevie Nicks and Axl Rose; vocally, she's a Marianne Faithfull impersonator. Dilana sang a revved-up version of Zombie, a former hit for the Cranberries. The audience went berserk; the judges were wowed. Each judge told Dilana she made the song her own, compared with the original vocal by Irish singer Dolores O'Riordan. Filing out of the soundstage, the non-paying crowd looked exactly like any group of people leaving a rock concert: happy, sweaty and a little drained. Those people went home, but the TV critics' field trip included a bus ride to the Rock Star mansion for a post-show party and a taste of that decadent rock lifestyle. Good rockin' tonight.
The show's rules dictate that contestants must reside in the mansion for the 13-week duration. There's more room each week as the singers are knocked off one by one and sent home. The mansion is hidden in a remote location, somewhere up a hillside in West Hollywood, and the ride there took forever. On the way, we discussed the show among ourselves and there was near-unanimous agreement that the final two would be the strange Dilana and the Canadian kid, Lukas. Even the American critics were knocked out by him.
The mansion was, as expected, L.A. huge. I'm not sure where contestants slept, but the place just went on and on. The location doubles as a recording studio, and there was a swimming pool and a performance stage in the living room -- standard rock-star accoutrements. The party seemed to be sponsored by a vodka company, and there were cocktails with tiny glowing light sticks in them. The Rock Star hopefuls wandered in and I immediately sought out the Canadians, as anyone might do in a foreign country. I chatted to both, and they are entirely different rock-and-roll animals.
Jenny has sung in Vancouver rock bands for years, although she was working as a waitress when the call came from Rock Star. She was still shaky from the taping, but very polite and terribly sweet. And she was devastated. She seemed convinced that she had bombed, even though Navarro liked her boots.
"I'm pretty sure I'm going to be in the bottom three," she said, referring to the weekly ejection show, which airs tomorrow night. "I've just got to turn it around and hope for the best. And I should probably lose the guitar; they already know I can play guitar, right?"
The other Canadian, however, was a little more confident. Lukas kept on the eyeliner, smoked cigarettes and displayed a rock-star attitude far beyond his years.
"This is all bells and whistles, baby," he said, gesturing somewhere in the direction of the swimming pool. "All the grandeur of this doesn't really make sense to me. I'd be just as happy in a sleeping bag, living on the street, just as long as I can wake up and get on-stage in front of people, who really appreciate what I'm doing. . . . It's rock and roll, that's the bottom line, baby."
We may have a winner.
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