Rock Star: INXS, August 23 – Don’t Change

After a Sunday episode that was virtually J.D.-free, it’s time for the Tuesday night performance show. Tonight, two of the rock star wannabes will perform their own song creations (well, in Deanna’s case, mostly Ty’s song creation) while the others do some true classics. It will be interesting to see how they match up against each other.

Brooke Burke introduces the band and Dave Navarro. Dave, in turn, says that Garry Beers is not there tonight, as he is attending to some personal matters. Brooke says he’s going to miss a hell of a show, as she introduces the remaining contestants.

Before the performances, we get a recap of what happened Sunday for those who didn’t watch VH1 or read my recap. Brooke sets up a comment from Dave by noting that each week the singers are told to fight for what they want, but this week they drew names out of a hat to determine who would sing an original – “what’s up with that?” Dave agrees (of course, since it was such an obvious set-up) and asks Suzie why she wanted to draw names when she wanted to do an original song. Suzie says when Mig’s and Deanna’s names were drawn, her heart just sank because she was counting on doing her original to impress INXS (because apparently she thought that having a two in seven shot was good odds – Suzie, don’t go to Vegas!). Dave, thinking as I did, notes that such is the danger of a random draw.

Dave switches to Mig, saying he was impressed that Mig stuck to his guns in order to do an original. He then asks if there was any reason. This is such a softball question, I have to wonder if Dave has been secretly replaced by Larry King – this decision was explained fully in the Sunday episode – Dave and INXS told him to fight for the song he wants, etc. But that’s not how Mig answers. He says he thought about it but it was doing nobody any favors if he had swapped (the look on Suzie’s face says otherwise) and it was showing that he really wanted to fight to win.

Dave is curious why more people didn’t fight for that chance… which brings him to J.D. This would have been a great week to show off his songwriting skills (Dave doesn’t say it, but the hint is there that J.D. was so eager to show off his individual songwriting skills the week before, during the collaboration challenge, but when he had the chance, he didn’t do it). J.D. says with the classics like the Rolling Stones and Foreigner, you’d better have a good rock song on the stage. Dave notes they only had about 12 hours to write the songs, so “it could have been a smart play.”

Marty is next on the list for Dave’s questions, and is asked if there is a reason he tends to favor more recent hits. Marty says INXS is trying to move into a modern direction, and their dance rock from the late ‘80s is coming around again. He wants to make sure they get credit for having done it earlier and also make sure he is current so their direction can be current. INXS thinks it’s a good answer.

It’s finally time for the performances, beginning with Suzie. Brooke says she is banking on a classic to turn her luck around, so she will be doing “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones.” She hopes it will “start up” her rebirth.

I have bad news for Suzie – this song will not start her rise from the bottom three. Frankly, when she has done well, she’s still been there, and this is not her best performance. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that one downside of doing a classic has not been previously mentioned: It is indeed a classic, so you’d better do it justice. Suzie does okay, but it’s very “bar cover band” to me. Suzie will be in the bottom three, and likely sent packing after too many times there.

I wonder if she realizes that it may be her last performance (other than an INXS song on Wednesday), because she goes over to the other contestants to sing along with them. Ty starts sticking out his tongue again. I don’t know if he thinks it’s cute or what, but it’s not. Stop it. At the end, she falls into the arms of the audience.

INXS gives her a standing ovation, so they apparently like it more than I do. Honestly, if I were there live, I probably would have enjoyed it more, if only for the energy she brought. But I wasn’t, so I didn’t. Anyway, Dave says it was a great performance and he is in shock that she is ever in the bottom three. Jon Farriss calls her vocals exceptional. Tim says she looked like she meant business – and it sounded that way too.

I still predict she’s going home.

Brooke introduces J.D. by saying he’s disappointed that he won’t get to perform the song he wrote. J.D. himself says if he had done it, INXS would have thought it was one of the best things they ever saw on that stage. Oh, B.S. He purposely and strategically didn’t want to perform his original. Anyway, she says he’s going to do his own take on a classic – that’s so unlike him. He’s performing “Cold As Ice,” and he still thinks it will be one of the best things they’ve seen on that stage. At least he hasn’t lost his (over)confidence. He says he’s going to have to knock the crap out of the song and make sure INXS remembers him. Guess he’s upset that he wasn’t featured in 90% of Sunday’s episode, like usual.