That horrible song, SOS by Rianna, came on the radio while I was driving on Monday. I am still hearing it. At least this DJ acknowledged that it's a rip-off of TAINTED LOVE. Damn, what a horrid, horrid song. My radio statio, the NEW B93, has also added JUSTIN TROUSERSNAKE to it's playlist. His song is basically an eight second snippet of drum machine mixed with record scratch and a vocal played about fifty times. Thank God I got that out of my head. I freakin' hate this synth-pop/psudo-rap/hip-hop garbage. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Thank goodness I have a CD player with me today.

***
On to better and brighter music conversation. Now that we're down to eight rockers, it gets harder, because eventually rockers we like are going to be dismissed. It's a much more dangerous time to have a bad perfromance, and sadly, two of my favorites had bad (or so-so) perfromances last night. Zayra made the Preliminary Bottom Three, even though I didn't think she would. It could be her time, then again, anything can happen. Okay, onto the summary.

Summary: (my grade / band's grade).

ZAYRA (Lluvia De Mar (Rainy Days)): I know a lot of people reading this want The Puerto Rican Princess gone, including Ben and I, but you have to admit, she was brilliant with this performance. She's deinitely NOT right for SuperNova, but she is a performer, and she nailed this one. She was the first one to offer to do an original song, and I think that counted for a lot, espeically since only one other person ponied up.(A / A)


MAGNI (Starman - Bowie): As is becoming usual, The Iceman gives another very solid performance. I do think he's been told more than once to involve the audiences, either by having them join in, singing TO them, but that's easy for him to do. I just hope he does it. I love seeing him perform.(A / A)


PATRICE (Message In A Bottle - Police): I hate saying this and much as I hate realizing this, but The Austin Rocker's time is running out. I don't want to see her go, but she's got to step it up. I hope she takes Dave's advice and gives that perfromance that lies deep inside her. I think they will keep her around to see if she brings it out, but she's got to do it and do it soon.(B / B)


LUKAS (Hero - Chad Kroger): Another good performance by Lukas. I haven't come up with a nickname for him yet. Any suggestions? I like that Jason will continue to hold him to the high standard and told him so. The last thing any rocker should do at this point is back it off, and this comment leads to our next performance.(A / A)


STORM (I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor): I understand that the band likes to throw an occasional hideous song into the mix to see what the rocker who chooses it will do with it. I also understand that a stripped-down set means that you take a hard song and ~soften~ it without losing the edge, but it also means that if you get a weenie song like I WILL SURVIVE you need to step it up. Just like Marty Casey did last year with the BRITNEY song. This was a challange for my favorite lady, and sadly, she wasn't up to it. I told Ben that I hoped she would bring back the spunk and energy she used early on, like when she did ANYTHING a few weeks ago. She didn't. It was her first and only bad performance, though, and it seems that at least initially, the fans will cut her a break. What a horrid song to have to perform, though. SHEESH!!(B/ F)


TOBY (Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel): This was a good song choice for The Aussie (With The Nice Ass). Thanks to T-Lee for the nickname. You can't go wrong with Gilby picking the strings behind you, and this performance was near perfect. And it's great that the band recognized Toby's commitment.(A / A)


RYAN (In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins): The Dark One probably had the best song to perform. What better song for a stripped down performance. He nailed it, as I knew he would, earning him the "Best Performace Of The Night" from Dave, but Ryan only held that title for about four minutes. It sucks to have Dilana follow you.(A+ / A+)


DILANA w/GILBY (Cats In The Cradle - Harry Chapin): Awesome, awesome, awesome. Dilana is The One. Enough said.(A+++ / A+++)


If any of you missed the show, go to the website and watch some of these performances.

I thought PATRICE and STORM would be in the Preliminary Bottom Three, not that I wanted them there, but they had the weakest performances. Turned out to be PATRICE, ZAYRA, and TOBY. With only eight in the running, I think we'll see most of them will at least have spent time in The Bottom Three. I can't guess who will end up there when all the votes are counted.

Dilana will get the encore. Again. And she deserves it. Tommorow, and going forward, I am going to list the rockers in the order of probability they will win. Not how much I like them. Before last night my TOP 4 were: DILANA, STORM, RYAN, LUKAS. Not sure STORM is still #2, but she'll get back there. She's one excellent performance from reclaiming that spot.

Yes, and how about that hot blonde violinist!!!!!