“The Next Great American Band” Is No Longer Tres Bien In Our Book
Last Friday, the five remaining bands took on the catalog of Rod Stewart, a choice which raised many questions. Would the noxious Denver and the Mile High Orchestra somehow make Rod’s cover of Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train” even worse? Would the teen metallers Light Of Doom play a “funny” version of “Forever Young”? Would something happen on this week’s episode to make me even less enthused to keep tuning in? One of those questions can be answered with a definitive “yes!”
WHO’S OUT: Denver and the Mile High Orchestra’s “Christian big band” status apparently blessed them with another undeserved week in the competition, as last week’s complete muffing of the Rolling Stones’ “I’m Free” was swept under the rug by the few people still calling into this show. This week, they gave “Baby Jane” the Tom Jones treatment; I’d say they were goners next week, but tickets for shows on the East Coast that they were scheduled to play this week have been “suspended”, so maybe that means they have to stay out in Los Angeles for another week–or four!–of tapings.
So who got eliminated? The moptopped Florida combo (and my personal favorites) Tres Bien–and the timing only adds insult to injury, since Rod Stewart’s catalog is pretty much tailor-made for their moddish pop. The judges were pretty nice to them upon their being eliminated, with Dicko saying that they could get a deal (although is that a good thing in today’s climate?), Johnny Rzeznik calling all of them better musicians than he is, and Sheila E. saying that they deserve their own Saturday-morning TV show. Given the market these days, Sheila’s advice might be what helps them the most in the long run…
THE FRONT-RUNNERS: The bluegrass trio the Clark Brothers vaulted into the “favorite” spot with a whsipery version of “You’re In My Heart” that rendered Sheila E. speechless; she called their performance “overwhelming,” and said that they were why she was there. (And here I thought it was the paycheck.) Dicko, however, missed the original song’s fiddle part, and made what could be a potentially game-changing announcement: The bands are allowed to hire and fire members at will over the next few weeks. Does this mean that the annoying guy from Dot Dot Dot will finally be sent his walking papers? Will one of the bands try to poach the drummer from Franklin Bridge? Can the audience just fire Denver and the Mile High Orchestra outright? (If only.)
Anyway, the now-second-fiddle Sixwire contributed a ragged bar-band version of “Hot Legs” that was fine, although I probably would have talked over it were I out at a watering hole with pals. (On a related note, when I was at karaoke last week the book had not one, but two Sixwire songs.)
THE GONERS: Denver et al. have managed to stick around this long, and Sheila interviewed them about their faith (ugh) in the post-performance chat, so I’m going to say that America will keep their flame burning one more week. Given that Tres Bien’s first-up status was probably what hurt them more than anything in last week’s vote, I’m going to posit that the first band on Friday night’s bill is the most likely to go next week. And that band was… Dot Dot Dot, who ran through “Young Turks” in a manner that was, according to Sheila, marked by “sporadic panic” as far as the tempo went. (Also, the frontman? Still pretty annoying!) They’ll likely get the boot, but if they do, they can at least partly blame the lousy mix.
The Next Great American Band [Official site] Earlier: Idolator’s American Bandom archives [Photo via Reality TV Magazine]
