The Next Great American Band

Three weeks into the season and not a peep about this? I didn't plan to watch this, as I'd rather hammer nails into my brain than watch American Idol, but a friend who knows the Muggs got me intruiged. The first week was a little painful, as the judges were a little too obviously similar to the American Idol ones. We have washed up cheeseball rockstar Johnny Reznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, Aussie industry douchebag Dicko, and the alternatively scary and awesome Sheila E.

Part of the opening entertainment were the dozens of horrible bands that never make it to the first round. It started getting a little depressing, and the judges' tempers started running short in the desert heat. Unfortunately Zolar X suffered from their impatience and were cut off after only 20 seconds. It was kind of sad, you could almost see their antennae wilt. Yet it's unlikely that any of the winning bands would ever develop an interesting, awesome song catalog as theirs.

The first big surprise was Northmont. The singer gave this melodramatic sob story of how they're at the end of their rope and if they don't win they'll have to break up and get day jobs to feed their baker's dozen of bastard children or something. Their performance was embarrassingly overwrought, but professional sounding, with a song that had obvious commercial potential. Think Train or Creed, yuck. So the judges said the band sucked, but they had potential, and gave them another try. I thought, oh no, this is the band that's going to be groomed to win. But they didn't make it!

The other two most commercial bands were Hatch and Likes of You. Both were eliminated after last week's voting. Last week the twelve bands performed an original and a Dylan cover. Here the judges started lightening up on the hyperbole and offered more substantial criticism. Dot Dot Dot's arrangement of "Like A Rolling Stone" was lazy, and the singer was grating and didn't deliver on his vocals because he was out of breath running around the stage. There's something to be said for their exuberance though, and can see them being a crowd favorite. Rocket and The Muggs both suffered from weak vocals, and were advised to work on their delivery. Franklin Bridge seem to be big favorites, with the only criticism being Dicko's observation that they over-arranged their cover of "Tangled Up In Blue" to death. I agree. At first it sounded awesome and spare, like a Prince tune, but then there were too many keyboards and percussion fills. Overall I liked them the best, as they reminded me of Fishbone.

The other bands were pretty diverse and actually pretty enjoyable to watch, with good to amazing musicianship -- Tres Bien (retro mod rockers), The Clark Brothers (Christian folk/bluegrass), Light of Doom (13 year olds sounding like Iron Maiden), Cliff Wagner and the Old No. 7 (bluegrass), Denver and the Mile High Orchestra (big band) and Sixwire (country). Again, a surprising mix of styles coming from the cheesy Vegas karaoke tradition of the Idol franchise. I can't imagine being moved to buy an album of any of those bands, but they play well.

This week they covered Elton John songs. Dot Dot Dot again threatened to be too annoying, but their cover of "Your Song" was fun. Rocket truly bombed -- they sounded totally amateur, crucifying "Rocket Man." I'm not an Elton John fan, but I have to say most of the covers were pretty good. Franklin Bridge were impressive again, some nice guitar solos. Sheila E. advised the drummer to keep it simple, but they shrugged it off saying "the ladies love it." Though she's right, it's cool that they didn't kiss their asses like most of the other bands.

This next Friday they cover Billy Joel songs, heh. I predict The Muggs and Rocket will be the next to go. With at least five more episodes, I wonder who else they'll be covering? They should have the audience also vote for who to cover. I bet Cliff Wagner and the Old No. 7 could do a great version of "The Ace of Spades."