Yeah, I watched the debut of The Next Great American Band. And I've got opinions about it.
- Shiela E. is possibly the most highly qualified judge for one of these shows ever. She knows her shit, and she values actual talent and musicianship as much as the marketability that "Dicko" is looking for.
- There's something inherently creepy about pre-pubescent kids playing Iron Maiden. In this case, it's probably their parents. I think the singer may have been with the Paul Green School of Rock All-Stars at Lollapalooza, but I'm not sure. Fun, though.
- By and large, the judges did a good job of separating decent bar bands from bands with actual potential. The guy with no arms playing bass was probably the best example of that.
- All the fake "drama" around that one band was a bit much, though. The singer wasn't really all that good, mostly because he didn't stray outside of that low range.
- Is it just me, or did Chicago's own Dot Dot Dot sound like they were horribly out of tune? Maybe this is me being out of touch, but they seemed all style and no substance, and are probably the least deserving of the bunch who advanced to the next round, in my opinion. The invisible hand of Jeff McCluskey?
- Didn't dig the girl band, either. If the line about "having to be twice as good as the guys" was really true, there's no way they were good enough. Average high school garage band, at best, at least based on that fairly lame reading of "Blitzkrieg Bop."
- Having seen guys who have come out of the gospel scene here in Chicago, and knowing the influence of The Roots on the Philadelphia scene, I knew Franklin Bridge would be good, but they still beat my expectations. My clear favorite so far.
- Four country bands is going to be a bit much, but you have to figure the zombies won't last, despite the awesomeness of zombies playing bluegrass.
- After teasing the submission video from the little old ladies in the ads, I have to figure they didn't want to risk having them play in 130 degree heat.