By: David Schultz

In the liner notes to Devil Without A Cause, Kid Rock claimed, "If it looks good, you'll see it. If it sounds good, you'll hear it. If it's marketed right, you'll buy it. But . . . if it's real, you'll feel it." Apocryphal as it may be to introduce an article on Tommy Lee's Rock Star Supernova with a Kid Rock quote, it bears relevance towards the Motley Crue drummer's super mess of a "supergroup" that came to play Radio City Music Hall last Wednesday.

Playing in front of a light show worthy of a group named after the cataclysmic explosion of a star, Rock Star Supernova sure looked good. Although probably not what Kid Rock meant, pairing Lee, former Metallica and current Voivod bassist Jason Newsted and Gilby Clark, a tangential Guns N' Roses guitarist, with Lukas Rossi, an unknown singer who went from fry cook to "Rock Star" overnight, sure sounded like a good idea. With CBS devoting 2 hours of prime time summer programming each week towards the band's search for a lead singer, the marketing couldn't have been more skillfully orchestrated. But in the end, despite the application of the "reality show" nomenclature, Rock Star Supernova isn't real and whatever anyone felt at Radio City last week, it wasn't the feeling Kid Rock described.

A large part of the problem stemmed from the simple fact that but for being on network television, this band had no business playing the cavernous Radio City Music Hall. After numerous weeks of telling their slate of potential lead singers that they had to earn their right on stage, Rock Star Supernova hypocritically headlined Radio City with nothing to their credit but a failed self-titled debut album and an inflated sense of entitlement. In starting at the top, Supernova leapfrogged a number of steps in getting to such a grand stage. As opposed to working their way to Radio City, it seems to be assumed that the name recognition earned from appearing on TV justifies their appearance. As Rock Star Supernova had no history before the reality show, their appeal as a concert attraction roughly falls into the same category as other TV creations like The Monkees or The Partridge Family.

Ideology aside, the project has also been besieged with logistical difficulties that placed the project's foresight into question. As the show entered into its final stages, Supernova, a relatively obscure punk trio from California whose biggest claim to fame was the inclusion of one of their songs in Kevin Smith's Clerks, waged a successful battle to reclaim their name. Apparently, no one affiliated with the reality series checked out whether the name was available. After demonstrating their ownership and continued use of the Supernova name, a California District Court ordered the reality show creation to change their name, resulting in the clunky Rock Star Supernova appellation. To further compound matters, shortly before the beginning of the band's tour, bassist Jason Newsted suffered a torn labrum, shelving him for the duration.

Taking the stage with former Black Crowes bassist Johnny Colt in Newsted's stead, Rock Star Supernova did little to improve on their sub par cache of songs. Despite access to Radio City's excellent sound system, the band was mixed horribly with Rossi's vocals practically unintelligible throughout the night. However, the sound wasn't the worst of the band's problems. Essentially, Rock Star Supernova is a competent band with lousy songs; even their selection of covers worked horribly. The Ataris already beat them to their thrashy rendition of Don Henley's "The Boys Of Summer" and with an all female string section, they offered an absolutely dreadful version of The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony." While Rossi threw everything he had into his performance, the other members of the band seemed to be going through the paces. Guitarist Gilby Clarke tossed off a couple nice guitar riffs but was otherwise unmemorable, Colt seemed pleased to play on a big stage one more time and Lee acted like he couldn't wait to get to the post-show party and play "rock star." Lee's drum solo, which had great potential, fell flat. Instead of a full-out arena rock drum solo, he and Colt took the solo in a hip-hoppier direction draining it of any coherence or enjoyment.

Rossi's heartwarming rags-to-riches story gives Rock Star Supernova its silver lining. Even though his prancing and posing bordered on goofy, it seemed sincere and Rossi's clearly enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame. Halfway through the show, Rossi took center stage with an acoustic guitar, getting a couple minutes to play Radio City Music Hall on his own before fellow contestant Toby Rand joined in on vocals. Given Rock Star Supernova's minimal long term prospects, a bittersweet aura loomed over Rossi's solo performance: it defies logic that the Canadian singer will ever have a bigger moment and if this is the apex of his career, the downward ride on this roller coaster is about to begin.

The booking of the band into Radio City Music Hall demonstrates that there were lofty expectations for Rock Star Supernova. With ushers passing out ticket upgrades at the door so that the lower seats wouldn't be conspicuously empty, the optimistically half-capacity show came dismally short of a sellout. However, in looking at the glass as half full, the fact that anyone bought tickets at all illustrates the vast marketing power of the airwaves. Dana Carvey used to describe this allure as the "Grapefruit Factor." Assume someone created The Grapefruit Network, devoting its entire programming to simply showing a single grapefruit for 24 hours a day. Although the ratings would be abysmal, people would know of the grapefruit and if it appeared at the mall, someone would walk by with their spouse, point at it and say, "Look, it's that grapefruit from TV." Ladies and gentlemen, meet Rock Star Supernova, your 21st Century grapefruit.

Labels: Lukas Rossi, Rock Star: Supernova, Tommy Lee