Queen and An Original - 12/07/07

:welcome1: To another episode of the Next Great American Band. 5 bands are in the Green Room but only 4 will be singing the music of Queen and performing an original. I am so glad they are having the bands perform an original which will truly show what we can expect when they are beyond this show. Sorry but because of this my posting will be quite long so hopefully you will not tire of reading this.

Dominic Bowden as usual opens the show with a welcome to the Green Room contestants and to our judges. Dom has gotten a haircut which made him look wierd. This week he is in a grey jacket and pants but come on Dominic get rid of those T-shirts. Dicko is always talking about style but Dom has yet shown he is listening. The judges however are quite color coordinated in black with just a splash of red from John.


This week the bands tackle Queen which is rather difficult for any band as Freddy Mercury is definitely a hard act to follow. Queen being one of the biggest rock bands to top the UK charts 1300 straight weeks is definitely one of my top favorites hands down. Every member has written more than one chart-topping hit and in 2003 was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. This is the only band in history that holds this honor. Way to go guys!


Our bands give us a brief rundown of how they like Hollywood versus their own homes which overall showed that each is definitely homesick and does not care for the hustle and bustle of this crowded Los Angeles area.


:holymoly: The Clark Brothers have taken Dicko's suggestion to heart and this week have added a drummer and bass player to their band which did give some depth to the group but not enough to take away the limelight of the original 3 members.

They choose to do a song that was on the last album that Freddy appeared on known as "Innuendo" which was released in 1991. The song is called "These Are The Days of Our Lives" which honestly I have never heard of so my opinion is somewhat at odds on this one. To be fair I did go and listen to the original before coming on here to write this re-cap. While done with different music it does sound pretty much the same lyrically. That being said, this was a pleasant country rendition of this song. Most of the vocals were done nicely but I did not care for the last line which sounded like it was being yelled by Ashley. Some call this type of singing passion but I call it yelling. All of the judges loved it however. My grade:B+

The original known as "Homestead" was indeed a country delight that I could see being loved immensly by the country folk. While the vocals were a little rough here and there I could not take my eyes off Ashley who is a gem on that fiddle. John and Sheila loved this but Dicko thought the actual song was crap even though he does like this group. My grade: A-

:nono: Dominic pulls sort of a fast one here by coming back from the break talking to the Six Wire group so of course you think they are safe but then he announces that the next band to go on is Light of Doom. Not so cute Dom!


If this is not Light of Doom's last week on the show I am going to think this show is fixed or the teenie vote is overwhelming which shows they need counseling in my opinion. This band decides to do the classical "We Will Rock You" which turns into a major disaster. Their opening shows four of the members playing big drums and saying the first line of the song. Vocally not spot on, then they erupt into a loud electronic mess which sounded like a psydelic nightmare. Even Erik who has sounded good in the past can not pull this into a decent song. John calls the vocals lacking and the music not thought out very well. Both Sheila and Dicko completely agree. My grade: D-

Another bad moment as the band does their original "A Matter of Time". While the Judas Priest vibe was there the band was so loud that Erik as the vocalist came across with very garbled lyrics. What I could get out of this was just too much repeat on the lyrics and electronically it was all over the place. All the judges were disappointed as was I. My grade: D


Thankfully Six Wire is the next group up and do a country version of "Fat-Bottomed Girls". Once again the harmony is perfect as is this song choice. This song fits so well in the classic country rock that was shown by this group with lots of guitar action. Each of the judges gave it very high marks and after the LOD mess it was truly refreshing. My daughter accuses me of showing favoritism with this band because I think the lead singer is so cute but I have to object. When a band is good each and every time it has no bearing on the looks. My grade: A

The original known as "Go On" by Six Wire will be a hit regardless of the outcome of this show. It has a great hook of someone leaving and their rendition of this song was again done with great harmony and this time passion just oozed out of the vocals. All 3 judges want to buy this song and so do I. My grade: A+


Denver and The Mile High Orchestra are the last band to be saved and it is farewell to Dot, Dot, Dot. I will comment on this departure in a few minutes. I never heard of the song that DMHO decide to do which is understandable as it was never an actual Queen hit but was on the Killer Queen Tribute cd and done initally by Los Lobos. How they managed this is beyond me. The song is called "Sleeping On The Sidewalk" and although not an actual Queen number it was okay. Done in a jazzy and sassy way Denver sounded fairly good and plays the trumpet during the song. John likes it alot as do Sheila and Dicko although these two talk about choreography and style more than the actual song. My grade: B+

:halo: Denver and the gang do their original known as "Big White House" which again show the way most of their bluesy big band songs sound like. Although Denver gave a decent vocal I must say I was kind of bored with this song. The judges however loved it. My grade: B+

:eyepop: Now I personally have to critique the way the departure of Dot, Dot, Dot was handled. In prior weeks, each of the judges have given some sign of encouragement to the band leaving. Also the band has been able to mention their future plans. This was not the case this week as Dominic only mentions that this group will be missed and good-bye to a great group. How disrespectful not to even say a word about their efforts making it this far and even ruder not to let them say anything. Shame on you for this travesty!


My top favorite this week: Six Wire

Who should leave: Light of Doom

: Until next time, take care!

:Gbreadman:

Thanks so much, I was going to watch this week and when I turned it at the right time something else was on, Not until later did I learn that the time slot had moved an hour behind the orginal time, It's a shame that the judges didn't give a little encourgement to this group, sad, regardless, they performed to the best of their ablity and they should have been reconized for that. Thanks for the spot on review, love reading them...

wietzema wrote:

Thanks so much, I was going to watch this week and when I turned it at the right time something else was on, Not until later did I learn that the time slot had moved an hour behind the orginal time, It's a shame that the judges didn't give a little encourgement to this group, sad, regardless, they performed to the best of their ablity and they should have been reconized for that. Thanks for the spot on review, love reading them...

;) I know what you mean about the time slot. Usually this show is on at 8 pm but this week they moved it to 9pm so we could watch a re-run of "Don't Forget The Lyrics" which was crazy in my opinion. The good news about this however was that the ratings were higher than in previous weeks.

Anyway thanks for reading this and posting. I do appreciate it!