Las Vegas NV-What can be better than ringing in the New Year (or so we thought) with seeing one of last years most talked about projects Supernova . Supernova opened up their tour with back to back shows at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on December 31st and January 1st. Before we start with the review, I want to give special thanks to Spencer Villasenor and Kyle Markman who work for the Hard rock and went out of their way to make sure that GlamMetal.com TM was taken care of! Thanks guys! One of my Las Vegas cohorts Cari Baloun, was gracious enough to help me with this review.

The show was very disappointing to say the least. I guess when you take a blues rock bass player, a blues guitarist, a glam showman drummer and an unknown vocalist and put them in a band together the results wouldn’t be as promising as you may think. The project started heading south before the tour began when bass player Jason Newsted (Metallica) was injured while trying to catch his 90-pound bass head that had fallen from his amp. Newsted was replaced with bass player Johnny Colt (Black Crowes, Train).

As stated before, the tour was scheduled to kick off New Year's Eve weekend in Las Vegas at the Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. I attended the second night of the show on New Year's Day. One of the coolest parts of the show was the introduction, where a computer generated outline of vocalist Lukas Rossi's face was shown on a big screen where he proceeded to read a warning list of things to expect at the show that night. They opened up the show with “Underdog”. Aside from Tommy's completely played out tittie cam (editors note: if you want to start fresh with a new project, then leave your shenanigans with your previous band so you can be taken more seriously) there was little to get excited about! The crowd did go wild when they took the stage but crowd participation began to wane after only the 3rd song “It’s on”.

Although Rock Star Supernova winner Lukas Rossi was indeed the best fit for this band, there was no depth to the lyrical content of the bands songs. Even with producer/songwriting genius Butch Walker involved, the project lacked in so many areas that even his wizardry could not compensate for the lack of good quality songs, which matters most. Rossi does have an excellent stage presence and his voice is decent enough, although I'm not even so sure of that since much of the time you could barely even hear him over the music. It’s unfortunate but during the show you can tell that Rossi was trying desperately to compensate for his inferiority to his own band mates.

Individually, Colt, Lee & Clarke played their parts with enthusiasm and vigor like the true pros they are. Yet, something tells me they each had to have stopped for a moment to wonder how they ended up in the middle of this project that seemed to be doomed from the beginning. Especially Colt since he was not part of this since the start.

My favorite part of the show was when an all female orchestra section played the string parts to the cover “Bittersweet Symphony”. Of course it wouldn't be rock n’ roll if there weren't a couple of barely dressed dancers onstage too. After the encore, the crowd was showered with massive amounts of confetti which my friend Cari found stuck to herself in strange places many hours later. I can't tell you how much I really wanted to like this band. I truly respect and admire the players but yet I was bored to tears with their product. I guess it just proves that it takes something more than three talented, famous guys to pull off a real “Supergroup” project!

The set list:
Underdog
Be Yourself
It’s on
It’s All Love
Valentine
Social Disgrace
Headspin
Bittersweet Symphony (cover)
Make no Mistake
Dead Parade
Leave the Lights on
Encore:
Let’s spend the Night Together (cover)

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