Who goes home tonight and who gets the Encore? Find out tonight on CBS.

I'm stunned.

So, Lukas sang a crappy SN song, and Toby got the encore (I personally thought both Dilana and Ryan were head and shoulders above Toby last night...)

Everyone was in the bottom three at some point last night except for Magni, and Storm, Dilana and Ryan were in the bottom three

Ryan did a pretty good performance of Baba O'Reilly, Storm sang Helter Skelter pretty well, and Dilana did a mediochre job with Psycho Killer.

The band complimented Ryan, and then with no explanation, he was cut. I still can't get over his awesome performance last night, and then getting the "Tommy-hawk" tonight.

The compliments are meant to make the blow seem softer. Similar moments have taken place on some of the other shows discussed on ART. There was a brief shot of Gilby's face as Ryan was trying to hold his pants up and climb the amps at the same time. It was clear then that his time was up.

I don't know if Ryan's seemingly manic movements on stage are irresistable urges from within or an awkward, yet determined attempt to respond to the bands request that performers do "something different or crazy".

Ryan was and still is a good performer. I didn't think there was much to know or to like about him at first, but I've come around. As soon as he puts something out, I'm buyin'.

Magni's campaigning must have worked for him. It was good to see him not in the bottom three.

Dilana in the bottom three. What???? :O Ok, I know she didn't get some votes because she said some unkind things about some fellow contestants, however, who among us has always spoken with kindness. Get over it. She made a mistake and has learned from that. If the others can move on with it, so should everyone else. It doesn't make her any less of a talented singer. lpatrick has stuck a foot in her mouth more than once... yes, I just admitted I'm not perfect. (Don't tell Mr. Lpatrick though.) :) I agree dflem, her elimination performance was just mediochre. Like with Supernova, she's built up a lot of credit with me.

Storm was a little crazy again tonight. She has a great attitude that being in the bottom three is just another chance to rock. I thought she had great energy with the crowd but she could have done a better job on Helter Skelter. Let's stop the screaming.

Ryan, Ryan, Ryan. I agree that he has been the most improved of the season. With that said, he was horrible tonight. His voice cracked more than once. I know it was probably nerves... you could see that when he was on top of the amps. It was just too much and not enough. :D

:O :O :O

Now that I have lifted by pregnant body off the floor, I can type again!! Ryan gone? I honestly thought that based on last night it would probably be Storm.

I do however believe that next week will be a harder choice for SN and that with only two week to go, they may chop 2 performers together. And you know what.....I am going to miss it!! We are going on our long awaited skiing vacation and Rockstar is not broadcast where we are going.

Wow is all I can say and I can't wait to watch the show.

I don't see Storm winning at all. I don't see why they don't cut her loose now. Ryan I thought still had a shot at winning and was blowing away the crowd every night. If Storm can get shown up in the background by Toby, how can she front Tommy Lee, Gilby Clarke and Jason Newstead?

I agree Epheks. The only way SuperNova would have a hard time next week is if Storm and Lukas were both safe. Lukas' performance of hte SN song "blew chunks man"! Granted, the song itself was horrific!

Storm's performance was absolutely high school talent show. She needs to get over herself.

Rayn's attempt was so embarassingly desperate and I was cringing while I watched.

I had to fast-forward through Dilana because I couldn't figure out why she was sacrificing her chances with that performance. I had flashbacks of Jordis' decline last season. :(

Hmm. Where to begin, now that we've all witnessed a pretty grim elim night, after having been treated to one of the best performance episodes the night before that.

A few comments pertaining to posts from you:

1) urbangirl: Cheers on your growing family! And happy hols --- sounds like you should get your skiing in while you can!

*sneaks in and places custom designed, clear, plastic barrier over BIF's Return/enter key*

-on the assumption that it was hit a wee bit too soon again. I do it too. Had to remove the right hand shift key to make it fit, but just use the one on the left.

OK, I hadn't mean to send yet. Apologies; the tech literacy course I had wished to take was full, and I'm destined to keep making mistakes...

Back to urbangirl: Storm then Ryan, or Ryan then Storm: now we know which one went this week, and Storm should follow next week. If you think a double elim is in the cards for next week, who's your pick to leave with Storm? --- that's a tough call.

To lpatrick: Agree about a campaign that is surely out there for Magni --- and obviously a very successful one! Storm may have had a groundswell of voters, herself. At this stage, when half of the field was destined for B3dom, I'm prepared not to be too surprised about the voting outcome from here on --- and think it could be an advantage to keep performing. At this point, the band must have pretty much decided what their plans are, and no configuration of voting pattern will put them in a position where they'll have to send home the Chosen.

About Dilana: I'm in agreement with the opinions of dflem, fg and lpat --- this was a pretty disappointing performance from Dilana. It's a very unfortunate song selection she made, actually --- far more instrumentation than lyricism involved with it. It became tiresome very quickly with her barefooted frog jumps --- very repetitive and not at all creative. I'd not seen a goth Midsummer Night's Dream before, and I wasn't impressed. One of the SNers put it aptly when he observed she got "lost" in the middle of it. A Jordis meltdown in the making? --- um, I'm not quite there with that yet, but her insecurities are increasingly evident. I'm expecting her to straighten up for next week. The fact that she appeared in the B3 at all, after what I thought was an excellent Mother, Mother number, leads me to think that it was more because of the proactive voting campaigns for the other contestants than for her own performance skills or for her offsidedness with media and mansionmates. She'll be fine.

About Storm: I'm glad she's with us for another week. However, that was a pretty scattered Skelter. Having heard it twice now this season from B3ers, I'm convinced that that tune just isn't a showcase number for elim night, or perhaps not even for a show like this at all. It runs on fumes for the last half, no matter who sings it. Storm had no choice but to pull every audience participation trick she could muster, and it was still flat.

About Lukas: Don't tell anybodyhome, but I certainly got his point in that tune last night (about not being able to comprehend the lyrics when Lukas sings)... what the heck was that, was it in English? A blessing, perhaps, given that it WAS an SN original, after all...?? That's how I'll regard it, because he certainly has a way with the crowd [read "ladies", perhaps], and his interaction with his fellow finalists is loosening up nicely as well. No baby heading drainward with my bathwater... he lives on.

About Toby: Encore material? that caught me offguard as well. Unremarkable, as they say in the medical profession. And that's a good thing, especially on a night like last eve when the other performances were so weak.

But today, my intended subject was actually RYAN --- and I'm just coming around to it now.

And, may I preface, please, by saying that I am aware how many of you on this site are very big Ryan supporters... and, as you might know, I haven't been a good camp-mate. I can empathize, however, and I regret that the odds on your Dark Horse were proven to be fittingly long.

There isn't a phrase that chills me more than "most improved". You can make anything out of that phrase. For example, if we pick a dot.com stock and announce that it was up 50% in 2003, that makes no sense until you wrap a context around it. Oh, I failed to mention that from 1999 through 2002, the stock was down 90%. That means the 50% gain in '03 moves the stock from 10% of its original value up to 15% of its original value... reason to cheer? --- no, you just cry slower. [Should have had a stop limit on it in the first place!]

Did Ryan have the furthest to improve? --- I'm afraid he did. I think we learned a substantial amount about him in Week 1 --- he puscillanimously hid at the back of the class for the lay-down-lyrics-on-an-SN-track clinic; he wandered the mansion aimlessly singing "Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?". And he became the favourite brunt of Toby/Lukas pranks. And his early performances were truly both troubled and troubling... Yes, he had the furthest to climb, in my view --- certainly amongst those rockers still remaining.

Back to last night: that was embarrassing to watch at times. Like FO&B, I couldn't help but notice Gilby's reaction to the teetering amplifier stunt... and it's rather unfortunate, actually, that Ryan hadn't channelled more of the critter I had criticized him for only yesterday... because he looked over-cautious, geriatric and clueless about why he had even done it in the first place. Oops. That was big trouble.

I fear he did not redeem himself by interfering with Nate's cymbals at the conclusion, either... try THAT with TLee... swoosh, you'd have no functional paw left.

And his vocals: in recent weeks, I hadn't found Ryan offensive to listen to, and on occasion, even quite OK. But from Note One last night, he was just plain off. It was painful, the bloodletting kind of painful. I'm very sorry, but what magic may have been brewing has now eaten through the cauldron.

And, perhaps it IS all about the magic with Ryan. Today, he may very well be off to find the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, seeking new tricks and gimmicks to use in his upcoming performances. He was all about the tricks, that Ryan, and he treated them as disposable commodities, using a fresh one in each and every song he performed. Some of them worked, and most, not much at all.

He actually must be a pretty fine prestidigitator: he successfully managed to make any sympathetic sentiment I had for him totally vanish with one tersely-worded and inappropriate exit sentence... Poof! Ta da!



ASIDE TO FO&B: I love how you described Your World on the thread prior --- where the remaining five contestants get together, form a band, and fire SN! I am very much with you, and think it's brilliant!

Ha! Too cool, FO&B --- you frighten me with your clairvoyance, but I like you sneaking in with good ideas! I indeed hit the right return key... thanks for the tip; can't promise I'll be fault-free going forward without one of your custom -designed gadgets, or without cutting off the fifth finger on my right hand.

Now, what am I having for dinner, oh wise one? I need ideas there, too!

Cheers for.

Completely onboard with that- a horrible sequel to what was the best evening of performances to date.

You'll recall Jordis Unga doing Baba O'Riley last season and it was an acceptable rendition. When Ryan let the first note escape I stood up and walked to a spot nearly 5 feet further from the screen while cringing. The Ryan Chainsaw Massacre just laid out The Who with one swipe of his voice. I, too, saw the look on Gilby's face when he attempted to climb the Marshall stack- I know there's a 5-second delay, but we still would have seen someone scraping him off the stage... The moment he finished the tune I said to my wife, "He just screamed his way out," although I had just yesterday stated Storm was next.

Storm's delcaration of "Helter Skelter" being one of the first punk songs had me thinking the entire performance, which was probably a good thing I wasn't completely focused on her. By the time she was walking off the stage I immediately began to think it was 2-for-1 night and we'd say goodbye to Storm and Ryan.

Not to be outdone, Dilana struggled with a pretty simple "Psycho Killer." Maybe that was the problem- it's a pretty simple song, not a lot of instrumental or vocals to contend with and she overworked at trying to make it work. Sorry, there are just some tunes you can't do a lot with. This a mere 24 hours after killing "Mother, Mother" where she looked and sounded as good as she has the entire season.

BTW, a younger, fresher Dilana Smith has a 2000 release titled, "Wonderfool" available on iTunes. A couple tunes worth checking out on that CD.

It's pretty common sense to figure out one needs to stash a few "ringers" in the back pocket for a possible bottom 3 appearance. That handful of songs you know you can blow up when needed to save your a$$ from elimination. Anyone remember Sweet Suzie's rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody last season? One of the best. Magni did it last week with Hendrix's "Fire."

Magni is now clearly the front-runner with Toby a close second.

Yeah, and I'm not in line to get any of the tour tickets to see these guys. The 3 songs we've been "treated to" so far have been pretty bland, almost 80's poppish with little edge and pretty sophomoric lyrics- why not place a call to Vince, Axl, Slash, James... you know, the guys who wrote the stuff that made you famous?

anybodyhome:

Pithy, succinct! Cheers, anybody --- just one of many gems in your post.

SuZie's BoRhap: I've referenced that tune as a near-substitute for Auld Lang Syng. "Remember, sweetie, in the days when you could hear a tune that had magic and clarity and stunningly powerful emotion...?" Got it.

Mind if I ask about some of the bands you've mentioned in other posts? I'm not familiar, and would like to know more. Are these folks at all like the bands the SN trio used to play with? or something the SN team should aspire to sound like? Thanks for helping me better understand this aspect of the musical sector. By the way, I'm not enamoured with what SN has tossed to us thus far --- which one(s) of those bands would you say is very good, but least like SN?

Cheers, and thanks, again.

Minor interjection: Just heard a Stone Sour song. Gotta say I like the way they sound.

Oh and BIF, can one ever go wrong with pizza?

For the benefit of bif and others who may care to read my thoughts on the groups I've mentioned more than once in the same vain as SN.

Temple of the Dog was a collaborative effort among members of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam as a tribute to Andrew Wood, a former roommate of Chris Cornell and singer of Mother Love Bone. Their album of the same name was released in April 1991 and really shows off great vocals by Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder. While I was never a big PJ fan, Eddie's voice fit the album exceptionally well. The album did have a big radio hit in "Hunger Strike" and it is but one of several very well-crafted and introspective numbers on the release. Although it is 15 years old, it is still a great listen and continues to grow on me.

Godsmack is a group of Boston boys who just hit you in the face with their hard-driving guitars and solid bass and drums. I saw these guys open for a reunion concert of Black Sabbath (complete with Ozzy) in 1999 and they ripped. A few CDs later and they still crank it out, but you can definitely hear the maturity, new vocal ranges, lyrical and instrumental growing up, but they still rock. The US Navy even uses an exerpt from "Awake" in their television recruiting commercials. I highly recommend 'IV', their April 2006 release and 'Godsmack' released in August 98 as primers for this group. Aside from Metallica, these guys are about as heavy as one can go without being labeled as something other than "hard rock."

Three Days Grace plays very well off other groups such as Staind and Nickleback, just as examples. With only 2 CDs under their belt, they have the ability to play in several different modes; quirky and somewhat comic to angry to blissful. Friends have told me they are very good live and I still find myself either liking their music very much or disliking very much with little or no gray area to let something grow on me. Perhaps their brand of rock is what I seem to hear with SN.

Black Stone Cherry is a group of kids- yes, I said kids- from Kentucky. Look, I'm 50 and none of these guys are over 23. The new breed of Southern rock starts with this group. While Skynrd, .38 Special, Molly Hatchet and the others are now solid classic rock favorites on the airwaves, they still don't have their own XM channel... yet. Since those bands came and went, nothing about Southern rock has evolved, until you hear Black Stone Cherry. Don't kid yourselves (pardon the pun), but these guys sound talented and mature beyond their musical years. With a single CD released in July of this year, they may either stick around for awhile or the listening faithful of the 1970s and 80s Southern rock may turn a deaf ear, we'll see.

Voivod has been around since the mid 80s. They really made a name for themselves doing these conceptual covers of Pink Floyd tunes and went through several lineups and in 1998 began a slow, laborious reunion of sorts with 3 of the 4 original members and Jason Newsted joining in 2002. Newsted became interested in working with the group during the years it took Metallica to get their collective crap together and record and release St. Anger. While there were some rumors that Jason was leaving Metallica because of a hearing problem, the real issue was with James Hetfield and the egomaniacal, pseudointellectual Lars Ulrich. Neither approved of any bandmate becoming involved in outside projects and ultimately led to his dismissal/walking away- depending upon the version you may read. What I find interesting is that Jason's pet project was a group called Echobrain, yet Voivod seems to have garnered the attention of Jason's departure from Metallica. I listen very selectively to the music of this group. I keep a few tunes on the iPod, but fair warning to those willing top try- this stuff can be very manic and surreal at the same time. You have to be in the mood for it.

With many thanks to you, anybodyhome. This is an incredibly thoughtful review, and you've armed me with terrific crib notes for what I believe is a shopping venture in my near future...

Cheers, and much appreciated.