Rock Star: INXS - Week Eight

Belated, but I'm wistfully hoping you'll forgive me. Probably the best, most consistent performance week yet. Now that we're down to six singers (take that Brooke Burke!), the chaff is really gone. All wheat baby! Everyone at this point is pretty much talented enough to lead this band even if I personally don't like some of the remaining (Oh, hey J.D., didn't see you over there). This week's theme seemed to be musical excess, wit ha string section a horn section, and a small choir supplementing the house band. The song selections were designed to take advantage of such resources and, for the most part, they did. So--the performances:

Ty - You Can't Always Get What You Want (The Rolling Stones)
I missed the choir at the beginning, but this was an excellent, soulful performance. Ty can still come across as a bit too mannered and rehearsed, as if every half-smile and eye-twinkle;e has been meticulously mapped out, but none of that takes away from a strong, technically very proficient voice.

J.D. - Suspicious Minds (Elvis Presley)
Probably the night's most underwhelming performance, but still not bad. J.D.'s hyper-kinetic, spasmodic style of singing and moving doesn't really work for the song, and by the end he seems a little winded--not good for someone auditioning to front a band and do 20+ songs a night on tour. No matter how he sounds though, the sheer arrogance and ego are just too much for me--an, I suspect, the band.

Marty - Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
The band, Navarro, and the audience all loved it, but to me he sounded way too breathy and soft singing this ballad. Very whiney, almost, with not enough strength behind his tone. With Marty, I'm starting to feel like the little kid pointing at the naked emperor.

Jordis - Imagine (John Lennon)
Brilliant. Beautifully sung, but more importantly she got that this is a sad song, an almost tragic song. "Imagine" gets a bad rap for being idealistic and twee, but what makes it a brilliant song is that the point is that we will never achieve the imaginary scenario the singer is laying out. Lennon was lamenting a world he knows we could never have, and indicting himself in that failure; the irony of a rich man singing "imagine no possessions" was not lost on him. And Jordis gets that, she completely nails the sadness in the way she gets at the heart of the lyric, in the plaintive tone in her voice, and in her refusal to gussy up the song in sunbeams and lollipops. Great.

MiG - Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney)
A very good performance; MiG is starting to grow on me, much to my surprise. He sang the slow parts with great power and expression, and was able to rock out on the fast sections without a problem.

Suzie - Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
A great way to end the evening. Suzie sings the expressive first part (I wish they had taken the time to let her sing both verses, though) with a wonderfully full tone, belting out the high notes with aplomb. And she nails just the right tone of cheeky irreverence for the middle operatic section, which, of course, is pretty much just nonsense. She didn't go for the famous high b-flat at the end of that section, alas (someone sang it though--a choir member?). Still, the final section got an appropriately heavy and rocking performance, and as a whole it was great to hear a strong female sing the song.

On Wednesday night, it was revealed that Ty, Jordis, and J.D. ended up in the bottom three. I did like to get to hear Jordis sing an INXS song. Her energy was a bit low, as was J.D.'s, oddly (a function of being in the bottom three for the first time?), but I thought her voice was a near-perfect fit for the band's sound and style. Ty, having been in the bottom three for a third consecutive time, got the boot, despite probably having the most energetic performance yet.

I'm less optimistic than I was about Jordis making it to the top, with Marty and Suzie emerging as favorites and with MiG being a pretty good fit for INXS. My bold, sure-to-be-proven wrong predictions for the final weeks' eliminations?

J.D.
Marty
Jordis
Suzie
MiG

Until Whenever