Modern Times Rock and Roll

I've officially booked my stay near the Continental Arena for the October Queen concert. I'm going to NYC baby! I'll be driving in on Friday of that weekend and leaving Monday after the concert. Hopefully I can hook up with Julie while I'm there. We need to plan our final itererary, but the Wife and I have decided that necessary touristy visits must include the Intrepid museum, the Empire State Building, FAO Schwartz, and probably St. Patrick's Cathedral. We're going to probably hit Central Park, but after that it's whatever we can squeeze in.

In other music related meanderings (Wife , you may safely ignore the rest of this of this post as I will be talking strickly music), as I was mowing the lawn tonight, once my contemplations of Einstein's theory of relativity and meditation on the sound of one hand clapping ran their course, I got to thinking of Rock Star INXS.

For those that haven't watched, the group INXS is looking for a new lead singer by doing a reality show. Their old singer commited suicide 10 years ago. They've basically fallen off the face of the earth until now. I saw a comment by Brian May on his website that the band basically sold out to Hollywood to get publicity. Unfortunately, I must agree.

I've been in the situation of picking a new band member. What it really takes is playing music with the person for about 30 minutes. If you don't get that "click" with them in that time, it ain't happening. I can usually tell after playing one or two songs. When my band Al's Neighbors was looking for a bassist, we auditioned many. The one we chose did ok on the songs that we asked her to learn. However, it was the third song that did it. We just pulled out something we all knew but hadn't rehearsed: Skynyrd's Gimme Three Steps. By the time we got to the first lyric of the song, I KNEW. The groove was there, the music was hot, it was HAPPENING! She was with our band a long time and is probably the best bassist I've ever worked with. It didn't take no 10 weeks with the public voting to figure it out.

All that being said, I hope JD gets the job. Of those left, I think he's the best fit. His style compliments thier old stuff, and he's a good song writer. Marty has a great voice, but he needs to be in an alternative rock band where he call be moody and evil looking always wearing black and screaming into the mike. Mig is pretty good, and has the advantage of being an alumnus of We Will Rock You, but I think his song writing skills are weak.

My biggest bitch with the show is how many times they mention the band's name. After all, what member of a band refers to themselves in the third person, "our band, INXS". It's like some cheesy wrestling thing. "The Rock says know your role!" And they mention the name, like 70 times a show. And don't get me started with Brooke Burke. Who is she anyway? Never heard of her before. And her wardrobes! Oh my God someone needs to bitch slap whoever picks those things out.

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