THE CITIZEN ON MARS?

MIG AYESA is finally aboard the ROCKSTAR.INXS finale which will be staged on Wednesday next week. Asked if how he had grown in the past weeks,he said without blinking that he is just all too happy to be part of the show. Now, that's humility unparalleled. No wonder he is of Filipino lineage.

This sort of "good guy image" has certainly earned Migs a lot of votes across the Pacific basin but an INXS member (it must have been Gary Beers) had cautioned him that this overly sweet persona may do him more harm than good. He was told that he needs to have some kind of a "dark side" because as seen popularly, rockers are a little bit mean--meaning Migs must have some sort of an "attitude".

And so Mig was made to sing Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black", perhaps to check out if he has that "darker self". If you asked me, the song may have the word "black" on it but it's still difficult to hide his true self, where we all still know that he is such a nice guy. Could INXS take an overly nice guy as Michael Hutchence's replacement in the band? Well, why not? As what Mig had said, the audience vote (he was never in the bottom three except this week) proves something-- that he should be in the band.

And now there are only three surviving rockers going into next week's finale---Marty, J.D. and of course the ever popular Mig Ayesa. having heard how these three men howled and crooned on the stage, it would be all too difficult to make predictions. They all have performed so extraordinarily well lately that according to Kirk Pengily "it seems unfair for us to make a decision".

Of course my heart goes to Mig being our kababayan. If he were not rooted here, I might have seen him more of a pop star and not as a rocker although his vocal range is wide enough that he can resurrect any INXS song with ultimate ease. But as the INXS members noted in the interviews, he lacks that "rocker attitude". Not that he has an attitude problem but what they could possibly mean is that, a proper rocker must have some sort of an "attitude", a darker side, whatever that means. But Migs is surely popular with the girls and if he ever wins this contest, he could guarantee good sales for any future INXS record.

Now Marty seems to be most talented among the three and he had proven this when he sang an original composition of his titled "Trees", and Dave Navarro instantly blurted "That's a hit song right there". The problem with Marty is that his voice and look is more inclined towards the American side of rockdom, like he can be mistaken for a lead vocalist of any grunge band anytime. If he fronts INXS, it could entirely change INXS' image, like suddenly they have become an American grunge band and not the classic Aussie band that they have always been known for. One thing, Tim Farriss thought he was very controlling. Marty said he just wanted to take the band towards another level. These "brave" words from Marty may have trespassed some INXS ego. Who the hell is this guy telling us what to do? And that would be his own undoing. But on the one hand, he may just be exactly the guy that INXS is looking for---someone that is very talented and with a very strong personality; one that can get his own way almost always.

Now comes J.D. He almost matched the songwriting skill of Marty with his original composition "Pretty Vegas" and which was even voted as the one song that the audience wanted to hear as an encore. J.D. got that perfect rocker's voice and he seems to also have that rocker personality although sometimes he looked like a boy band member---with his good looks and overly-cropped hair. And his strongest point is that his voice has a very strong resemblance to that of Michael Hutchence, rendering the same vocal inflections and emotional emphasis. In fact, when he sang "By My Side" as an encore in today's episode, he sang it so good that I thought Michael Hutchence suddenly came back from the grave. When I close my eyes and hear J.D. without looking at him (with his boyish look), I thought I was hearing the same INXS of old. Would INXS settle for the one rocker that could clone Michael Hutchence voice? Or do they want something new and refreshing? It is very hard to tell at this time.