INXS

Last night while doing dishes I ignored the tiny, nagging voice of reason in my head that kept whispering No, no, oh God, please no… and watched a bit of Rock Star: INXS. I’m not entirely sure why, as there was a perfectly good episode of Mythbusters on at the time, but I watched, and that’s twenty minutes I’ll never get back.

It’s not that the performances where that bad, and I could almost tolerate the aura of ample cheesiness cast by co-hosts Dave Navarro (of Jane’s Addiction fame, and little else) and Brooke Burke (the vapid, sexed-up, eye candy). I reckon it’s the whole concept of the show that bugs me.

I’m not sure what Paula Yates (original INXS frontman Michael Hutchence’s widow) had to say about the deal, but it seems kind of a slap in the face of Hutchence himself. I just can’t fathom the scenario where Michael pulled his bandmates aside and said: “Alright, fellows, I just want you to know that, should I ever accidentally suffocate myself while whacking off, you lot have carte blanche to replace me via a poorly constructed television show.”

I hear that the surviving members of TLC are doing a similar show to find a suitable replacement for Left Eye, but that doesn’t exactly strengthen the argument for it.

INXS was a great band, and I was a fan. I was bummed when Michael Hutchence snuffed it, but this just seems a bit too silly a way to “revive the group and court a new generation of fans.”