RS: INXS Third Week Discussion Thread

[Cindy]

Ok now that Neal is gone, there are some tears around the house...Ty, Brandon, Jessica, Daphna and Heather all express their shock and sorrow. And JD wonders "are you guys cool with me?" By the looks on most everybody's face, it doesn't seem they are so "cool" with him yet. Especially Brandon who he seems to be in tune to JD's strategy to win at all costs. That night there is a very touching scene where MiG phones his wife in London to check up on her after the recent subway/bus bombings. Your heart goes out to him, and we are all reminded of how alienated the rockers must feel...living in a bubble, cut off from the outside world--their family, their friends, and real life.

The clinic this week is called "Stagecraft" where everyone sits around this huge TV screen and watches all the performances and critiques each other and comments on their own. Both Tim and Gary are there from INXS as well as Dave Navarro. We don't really get to see Marty's critique so there must have been little or no drama or tension there. Daphna is called out on the way she moves around the stage, Brandon on his posture, JD on his cockiness and ego, and then Ty gets rather pissy at the comments INXS makes to him about the too theatrical quality in many of his performances. They tell him nothing looks spontaneous and it comes across as premediated....but TY tells himself that it is because his skill and ease makes it look like it comes too easy to him and so they are criticizing him because he is too good. Right Ty. And your over selling every song has nothing to do with it. The lessson from the stagecraft clinic is for the rockers to just be themselves, be spontaneous and feed off the audience. Let's see who remembers this going forward.

JD then tries to act like he is a good guy by fumbling through some rambling dialogue about how he knew the songs were all posted in the billiard room before everyone else, yet he didn't go in there to give himself an advantage. Everyone looks at him like he is speaking some foreign language....Brandon thinks that JD is rambling because he has had too much to drink.... but mostly the others just look impatient at the whole thing. Our boy Marty manages to placate JD by patting him on the head about his behavior while getting his drunk ass out of the way so they can go into the room and get on with the song selection already.

Song selection goes fairly well except JD wants to challenge Jordis for We Are the Champions. We see that she gives in to his cajoling and gives him the song and takes another choice...he goes off to practice in his room and we can tell he is struggling. Then he goes hunts Jordis down and tries to trade back with her. Smart girl that she is, she is having no part of that, even when he tries to flirt with her. The look she gives him at that point could peel paint off the walls. This episode really has some funny moments! So he leaves and at rehearsal that afternoon attempts to convince the band of the coolness of his "trip hop"version of We Are the Champions. Gotta love the band, when JD leaves rehersal they say to each other...."That is truly awful!"

We have no clue what song Marty is doing this week at this point, because they just don't give us any hints. The reality episode closes by letting MiG get the last laugh as he breezes through "We Are the Champions" just to show how it is done and then jokes at JD's expense that the others are having to learn this song, but he sings it because he loves it. I love MiG at that moment. Score mucho points for the Aussie boy!!

The performance episode redresses some of the conflicts of the song selection but then starts with Jordis's rollicking upbeat performance of Gimme Some Lovin'. She and the audience seem to be having a lot of fun during it. The band approves! Suzie takes on Stevie Wonder's Superstition and delivers a solid vocal even playing the harmonica, in a move that seems to win brownie points with the band, especially fellow harmonica player, Andrew. Then we have Jessica, MiG and Brandon. Jessica...not so hot. MiG does a very nice job with Lola. And Brandon tries hard but isn't stellar. Ty's next with a moving rendition of R.E.M.'s Everybody Hurts, and I do believe it is one of the best performances of the night. Then we have two subpar performances--Heather stuggling with a Sheryl Crow song and JD just awful as the band predicted on we Are the Champions. He tries to make excuses claiming he was thrown off his game by his sister's surprize appearance....but we know he had been struggling before, so this just makes him look bad. Then our ears get a brief respite with Deanna doing her Deanna thing--good but nothing spectacular. Next comes another stinker...Daphna looking bizzare in her shroud with military boots and not carrying a tune in a bucket as she struggles through Rock the Casbah. Tara looks good by comparison, even though I don't much care for her androgynous outfit and style....I do think her version of Suffragette City wasn't as bad as Dave and the band make out. So when Marty takes the stage...he just blows everyone else away with Lithium. He is intense and just delivers the song... great job! On a night when many struggled, Marty is the shining star. Although Dave Navarre has a bit of criticism for Marty's vocal, everyone else sings his praises. And the crowd sure loves him and so does the house band. They really look like they are into playing during Lithium. Best three of the night: Marty, Ty and Jordis with MiG not far behind. Worst three of the night....JD, Daphna and Heather.

The elimination episode.... Wonderful, wonderful that Marty gets the encore. Dave Navarre starts off apologizing for his comments the night before and how he got booed...and all seems forgiven as Marty encores just dandy. Then the elimination mess takes place with Jessica, Heather and Daphna in the bottom three...when probably JD should have been there in Jessica's place. The three ladies sing, Jessica is spared and the axe falls on both Heather and Daphna. The other rockers look stunned. Stunned because two got the axe, I think, not because they thought either should have been spared.

[chk]

Cindy you are so good at this, it's almost not worth adding my two cents. But I loved this episode too.
Not sure why everyone was so upset over Neil's departure, but then I wasn't there. JD obviously trying to backpedal on his behaviour and Brandon calling him on it too funny. I thought his whole weird ramble about not looking at the songs before anyone else was a lot of BS. "Methinks he doth protest too much" came to mind.
Isn't this the week with the weird "what did Jessica show them in bathroom" clip ? or is that next week. Whatever she did, brandon and JD seemed bonded again after experiencing that visual.
The clinic was strange. How about that Too Much Teeth comment to Suzie? She was so perplexed -- how does one work on the teeth thing? Ty too annoying. Ya know in the LPblog how they wrote that Ty has a lovely voice you never want to hear again? well that's it. I just want to hit him for some reason.
As for concert, I think Marty basically wiped the floor with everyone else this week. Lithium was amazing. I thought Dave Navarro was so surprised that Marty said in jest that he wanted to Kick his ass by singing Nirvana that it prompted the criticism. And Marty's "touche" was all class. Another great bit was after Marty's encore-- they cut to these two women in the audience and the one says to the other "he's hot!"
Amen, sister, Amen.

[everlong]

This week was the first week that I was able to figure out who was who and rank them. Half of them were really good and half were not-so-good to bad.

Here is exactly what I wrote in another list I'm on at that time.

Here's my first INXS list.

1. Ty
2. Jordis
3. Mig
4. Suzie
5. Tara
6. Marty - It probably sould have been higher but I'm not a Nirvana
fan so he's in the middle between who I liked and who I didn't
7. Deanna - Boring
8. Brandon
9. JD
10. Jessica
11. Heather - horrible
12. Daphna - horrible

I'm going to listen to the songs again and re-rank them to see how things have changed. The list was based on memory after one viewing of the show. I really didn't give Marty a chance at all & I'm not sure why. I became a Marty fan with 'Hit me baby one more time' and Lithium is now one of my favourites.

[lesley]

It was about here that I started watching the show. I've since seen all the shows, but up to this point I'd literally only seen Marty do "Take Me Out" and had seen nothing else of the show at all. I thought Marty was great at that first glance. Then I just happened to tune in to see the magnificence that was "Lithium" a few weeks later and I realized this dude who just did this awesome version of "Lithium" was the same dude I'd liked who had done "Take Me Out" a few weeks before. I started making it a point to watch the show from here on out, not because I was a big INXS fan, I admit, but because I thought that tall, blond dude was really good and compelling.

As for the reality show, everyone on the show talked about what a great guy Neal was. I wish we had gotten to see a little bit more of his personality since everyone loved him so much. Seems like he's probably a pretty cool guy. But his performances didn't warrant him staying around too long, so unfortunately we didn't really get to know Neal very well.

I found the stagecraft clinic frustrating to watch because they focused on a couple of people, particularly JD, for longer than they needed to, while entirely excluding even a hint of the comments some of the other singers received -- Marty being one of them, Jordis another. Later, MSN did post a tiny clip where we see that at least one of the comments Marty got came from Gary, who told Marty that he wouldn't be able to keep up his high energy for a 90-minute show, the implication being that Marty should tone it down. Whether Marty agreed with that critique or not, he simply smiled and nodded. But I still would have liked to have seen more of the comments directed to all of the singers, not just by INXS, but by their fellow performers too.

On to the performances... I can't honestly say that I can remember and separate my immediate feelings for some of the performances from the feelings I've since formed about some of the performances in hindsight. But I'll just highlight a few things that stick out for me now:

Jessica - Because the Night I had very much the same reaction that Dave Navarro had. I took her way more seriously seeing her do this song than I did seeing her writhe around on stage. In retrospect, I actually think this is in the top 3 of Jessica's performances on the whole show.

Brandon - Tempted Here is where I think I knew Brandon wasn't long for this competition,and not because of his southern rock style, but because he just plain struggled with everything about the song -- tone, rhythm and melody.

JD - We Are The Champions The looks of amusement/confusion/revulsion on the faces of MiG, Ty and Jordis during the performance were certainly entertaining. I doubt that JD told anyone he was having trouble with his song, but they may have figured something was up after he tried to give the song back to Jordis at least 4 times. I wonder if they were anticipating this?

Tara - Suffragette City I thought this was on the good side of alright when she did it. Now, I look at this performance and think she looked much more comfortable on stage for this one than she did in maybe any of her other performances.

Marty - Lithium One word - Wow!

My top three:
1. Marty
2. Ty
3. MiG/Jordis

My bottom three:
1. JD
2. Dapha
3. Heather

Elimination:

Jessica shouldn't have been there; JD should have been. I'm not surprised that Daphna went but I am surprised that Heather went that week. She didn't turn in a good performance that week, for sure, but I thought her previous performances were quite good and should have earned her a little more goodwill.

[jomarti]

Later, MSN did post a tiny clip where we see that at least one of the comments Marty got came from Gary, who told Marty that he wouldn't be able to keep up his high energy for a 90-minute show, the implication being that Marty should tone it down.
-----------------------------------------------------
The last laughs on Gary. I guess he doesn't know Marty very well at all!

I watched these on DVD as I didn't get to watch the show until the following week.

It wasn't a good night for a lot of the rockers. Of course, Marty never had an off night, but he really did an awesome job. I hadn't heard the bands and Dave's comments until I got the DVD. I saw a cut to Dave while Marty was singing and it looked like he was swooning over Marty lol! So, I don't know what was up with his comment - maybe a little offended from his sweetie's comment about kicking a@@.

I think JD's performance was the worst performance of the whole entire season. I thought it looked like he was going to give up at one point and stop singing.

I liked Tara's song, but couldn't stand the outfit ewwwwww.

Jordis and Mig did well too. I liked Ty, but his performance still didn't get me - I didn't feel it. I actually liked Somebody Told Me from the week before. I agree about the theatrics, but I think he did a nice job singing it. I was into it.

[barbara123]

I'm glad to get week 3 started and thanks to Cindy for a really good recap. I started watching since week 1 and I have the full season on dvds to refresh my memory.
In short, for me JD's WATC had a good beginning, but he was distracted seeing his sister and never recovered. His worst performance. Marty was electric and the crowd loved him. Mig always cute as a button and he had a good song. Ty's song was a good ballad and I enjoyed watching him on this one. I remember Daphna's performance with the elegant white gown so out of place with her song "Rock The Casbah". And then poor Heather trying her hardest with a bad cold.
My favorites for this week were:
1) Marty - Lithium
2) Mig - Lola
3) Ty - Everybody Hurts
I post at the DB site as JD is my man. I lead the discussions on the weeks performances there. For week 3 overall, Marty came in #1 with 9 first place votes, well above #2 Ty, #3 Suzie, and #4 Mig. A good share of us there also love Marty. I'll be looking forward to discussing week #4 when ready.

[keysunset]

This was the week that Marty really "grabbed" me. I loved, Loved, LOVED his performance of Lithium. Even though I never really got onto the Mig bandwagon, I enjoyed his Lola.

I agree with the JD "lookee whut I found but I didn't touch it" others mentioned. That was strange and didn't Marty look so in control with his "let's get on with the work" attitude.

Enjoying the discussion! Carry on!

[radioclash]

Reality -

Everyone pretty much mentioned exactly what went down. I also wish that there was less editing on what was said about each performer's stage presence.

The whole JD trying to seduce Jordis so she'll switch songs with him is hilarious!

Performance -

It's really hard to imagine how much fire Jordis would lose by the end of the show, because she has so much energy during this song.

JD ends his performance of "We are the Champions" by saying 'It was for all of us (points to other singers) because We are All the Champions' - wtf

Marty - Lithium! He just came out and had the crowd in his hands - perfect. Dave's comments were surprising, but he would do some major backpeddling the next night.

Jessica, Deanna - those are songs that they should have just blown away, but both were just - eh for me.

Elimination -

The first time I watched this I remember thinking how horrible Heather and Daphna were, but when I saw this the other night I actually thought all 3 girls did a good job - although Jessica was the best of the night. At the time I was not shocked to see the two women eliminated, but during my review I am pretty surprised that these two both got the axe so quickly after only being in the bottom three once.

[everlong]

jomarti said:

Later, MSN did post a tiny clip where we see that at least one of the comments Marty got came from Gary, who told Marty that he wouldn't be able to keep up his high energy for a 90-minute show, the implication being that Marty should tone it down.
-----------------------------------------------------
The last laughs on Gary. I guess he doesn't know Marty very well at all!

That was my initial opinion as well. Of course Marty can keep up that energy for a whole show. He does it all the time. But I think you have to look at the criticism itself rather than at Gary's stated (but maybe not completely meant) reason for the criticism. There was something about Marty's energy level that just wasn't working for Gary. Marty took that criticism and changed his energy to be more internal and that's how he improved so much as the weeks went on.

I wonder if Marty's initial reaction was the same as ours. (Of course I can keep up that energy level). He was really smart to keep his mouth shut and let the criticism sink in to find out how he could use it to improve, not losing the energy that he had, but transforming it into something even more spectacular.

[Cindy]

FYI....everyone get ready for Fourth Week Discussion. I will be posting it this weekend. So if you have the contraband....go watch it and be prepared. This is the week Marty does "With Arms Wide Open." If I remember correctly, it is a week that nearly everyone turns in a solid performance, give or take one or two folks.

[keysunset]

Otay, Cindy! I'm pretty much just lurking on this discussion, but looking forward to the next installment.

[chk]

heh heh heh I LOVE any excuse to rewatch episodes. can't wait for next one, Cindy!

[barbara123]

I'm also ready to discuss week 4 here as soon as you are ready.

[Cindy]

Sorry barbara

All the concert activity and pics to post have totally consumed all my non-working, waking hours.... but since there is no concert Sun. night right? maybe I can get this posted. I have it about 1/2 written so I should be able to get it on the board then.

[barbara123]

To Cindy. I really enjoy reading your recaps and I know it takes a lot of time and effort. My thanks to you!

[kellysgirl]

I thought, where has he been? Marty Marty Marty. What a performance.
I felt bad for JD on this one tho.....he knew he blew it bad, but it really could have been because of his sister. Others have posted they thought he was faking just to cover up, but I don't know. At this point in the series, my dollar was still on Mig, Jordis or Ty. It is interesting how things progressed after this episode.