I wish that instead of having their insipid “get to know the band better” snippets, The Next Great American Band gave the time over to letting the bands do an original song: because, after all, we’re not looking for the next great American cover band, but someone who has great songs of their own. That said, the bands that are left, with one glaring exception, are showing themselves to have musical talent and showmanship. So on to my brief and belated opinions about the last episode….
I like the Rolling Stones, but testosterone rock doesn’t really fit with a lot of the bands. Sixwire and Denver and the Mile High Orchestra seemed to be especially stretching to fit their style around a selected Stones song, and even Tres Bien was surprisingly dull. There weren’t any technical or style complaints I could make, but I was just bored. But then the Clark Brothers appeared and turned “Gimme Shelter” into a dark emotionally charged song: a take I had never imagined, and which is now definitive. And Dot Dot Dot followed with a spunky version of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” that was almost as good, in a different way; more importantly, exciting in a way the earlier bands’ performances hadn’t been. So it’s clear, that when you’re good, you have to take it to the next level, and the Clark Brothers and Dot Dot Dot showed themselves capable of doing that.
And then there was Light of Doom. Once again, they proved they were weren’t in the same league as the other bands by being completely out of sync and out of tune. It was especially clear on the snippet at the end, that their lead singer sounded tone-deaf through the entire performance. And what pisses me off even more is the fact that they continue to be judged on a completely different standard than the other bands. While the judges rightly criticized Dot Dot Dot’s singer for singing a few words off tune, they heaped kind words on Light of Doom, and only gently hinted at missed notes. Light of Doom may be a bunch of kids, but they’re not competing against their peers here: they’re up against real bands, and they should be judged by the same criteria.