Rockstar INXS

I’ve read that many people find this show a joke, and why shouldn’t they? For MONTHS they’d held on to the premise of finding a new lead singer when the truth is, you know right away whether someone is right for your band or not. Trust me, I’ve been through many auditions and you can tell in an instant.

So last night was the finale where 3 singers had one last chance to impress the members of INXS before they get kicked back to obscurity. Correction, that also includes INXS themselves. The band had two quite impressive singers (Marty and Jordis) to choose from all along, but in the end, chose a boy band karaoke singer who really doesn’t fit in with them at all.

I find their choice revealing because instead of relying on their music to bring them back to superstardom, they think a relatively good looking young kid who can barely strike a chord with the audience is what will put them over the top.

Marty, the runner up, kicked so much ass during his final song with INXS that I honestly thought it was a no-brainer for the band. His performance was such a stark contrast to the winner, J.D., that I just couldn’t imagine him losing. He looked like he was a part of that band and didn’t seem nervous about his new role. His stage presence was powerful, the audience was paying attention to him constantly and he wasn’t “leeching off” off the other members of INXS like J.D. did.

What do I mean by leeching? Well, I speak from experience when I say this. When you play in a band and you’re not the lead singer, you do NOT want the lead singer constantly running up to you. His/her job is to pay attention to the audience MORE than the rest of the band members. That position has the most responsibility to maintain a strong connection with the crowd and to gauge how they are feeling.

J.D. spent his entire last song (prior to winning) just essentially buddying up to each guy in the group. For one split second, I could have sworn that I saw their keyboard player (who was on guitar for that song) subtly motion to him to get away and go back up front. I wish I had a picture of that facial expression and slight shrug of the shoulder nudging him back to the crowd.

I also recall thinking, man, INXS is going to play back that tape for him and say, “c’mon mate, your back was to the audience 80% of the time during that song! What gives?”

Anyways, I got hooked into the show toward the end and was shocked to see the winner be the one who wasn’t the best fit. I’m sure Marty is glad he didn’t get picked because he probably would have frustrated INXS as he can actually write songs by himself. I’m not completely aware of INXS’ band dynamics but I bet the brothers in the group were the driving creative forces.

1 Comment

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dave
September 22, 2005 at 9:44 pm

i think you’re wrong. marty wasn’t selected because he changed his style depending on the songs they were covering… and his rendition of INXS’s songs weren’t the best.

JD, while phony and Canadian (not that there’s anything wrong with that) actually sounded like Michael Hutchens when they debuted the new INXS song. I don’t know why they bothered picking someone that sounded like their old singer, but that’s exactly what they did.