My soul mate and I built the foundations of our friendship on a mutual obsession with rock music. High school is a very tricky time to be forthright about your musical preferences, so it was to my amazement that I was made to sit across from a girl whose cassette tape collection was an amalgam of Poison, Skid Row and Warrant. While the painstakingly manufactured sound of same-sex pop groups reigned as the dominant musical trend (and yeah, we got sucked into it for a while), it was good to know that I had someone who would pass me the left earphone of her Walkman so we could secretly listen to Quicksand Jesus in religion class and have a good laugh. We loved rock music through and through – in its purest form, in spandex and Aquanet, in Kohl-lined eyes and blood-colored lips, in cowboy boots and whiskey-coated wails… and even in toady’s re-recycled versions of what began as a guttural cry from the social underdogs that momentarily managed to shake the foundations of modern civilization.
I wish contemporary rock could vouch for itself without facing the critics’ hackneyed guillotine of sex appeal, fashion sense and clever lyrics. Because it can. So what if it all seems formulaic? Rock and roll, like the great Lester Bangs once said, forever goes on a cyclical journey from glory to self-destruction, only to reemerge again in a different form.
You can imagine the disappointment I felt when I found out that Mark Burnett was about to violate one of the greatest rock bands ever by producing a reality show intent on replacing Michael Hutchence with a glorified impersonator. That was until I heard Suzie McNeal bring down the house when she belted out Roxanne by the Police. I was hooked all summer, and to be honest, quite stunned when I realized that the dark horse of Rock Star: INXS, JD Fortune, had come out on top.
The first thing I remember about JD Fortune was his performance of fellow-Canadian Alanis Morissette’s Hand in My Pocket on Rock Star: INXS. Wow. Not only did this dangerously attractive hopeful manage to pull it off, he also revamped the musical arrangement to turn a whiny, mid-90’s feminazi anthem into a raw and grungy animal of a cover that left me mystified. While Fortune came off as arrogant and temperamental when he was on the show, my soul mate and I agreed that he deserved it most – if not for his sinful good looks and talent, then because he understands what it’s like to love rock and roll with every fiber of your being. By the time they were airing the video of Pretty Vegas on television, my soul mate and I were converted and obsessed. We spent the new year of 2006 with my family on the beach, drinking rum, listening to INXS on repeat and professing our undying love to each other and, of course, to JD Fortune.
The concert was an experience that resurrected my love affair with rock and roll to greater heights than I can explain. Meeting the band backstage before the concert was amazing, although we grew suspicious when the manager/organizer/photographer lined 30 of us lucky groupies up against a wall, did a head count and ran through a set of rules for us to follow ("You can’t touch the band, let them come to you"). I felt like I was facing a firing squad in a strip club, but it was well worth the wait. I shook hands with the Farriss brothers, Kirk Pengilly (I adore him for complimenting my cowboy boots), Garry Beers and the new number one on my secret list of rockers I want to marry: JD Fortune. The band’s new front man struck me as cocky and aloof to all the wide-eyed fans. It made me even more attracted to him. I was at a loss for words. All I could manage to say was, "You guys are awesome, you rock," and "I think I love you." Oh dear. At least I managed to walk away from it with a signed CD and JD’s autograph on my hip.
The show was phenomenal. Though highly entertaining, MiG Ayesa’s performance with The Dawn was a staggering understatement next to INXS’s opening number, Suicide Blonde. My group, bitter that the gatecrashers had flooded our front row seats and pushed us back to the nosebleed section, fought for our slots at the very front row and found ourselves at Kirk Pengilly’s feet. I have never seen a musician switch between playing the guitar and sax several times during a song as if he had been born with an extra set of arms. I was equally amazed when he waved, remembering me from backstage. The Farriss brothers and Garry Beers were equally as brilliant (from what my 5’2" height permitted me to see), playing with the energy I thought they’d lost when Michael passed away. JD Fortune owned the audience, writhing onstage as if he had been possessed by shrieks resonating throughout the coliseum. Feeding on the attention, JD reciprocated with eye contact, violently serenading each and every member of the audience in a tortured, visceral voice that you would only hear from a voracious lover. There were several times he tried to dive into the audience, much to their road manager’s dismay. He was totally different from the stoic dude I had asked to sign my hip a few hours back. I cried when the band played one of my all-time favorite songs, By My Side. They encored for almost another half hour, kicking off with New Sensation. I was so blown away by their performance that I forgot the verses of Devil Inside, Original Sin and Don’t Change. By the time the band performed Perfect Strangers, my favorite off the new album, I was in love. And somehow, I knew my soul mate felt it too.
INXS is often slapped with the misnomer of "pop group," but their performance rose far and beyond my expectations. Full of passion and hunger, INXS has been rejuvenated with a fever that I can only describe as the heart of rock and roll. JD Fortune still has a lot of people to prove wrong, particularly with those big shoes to fill. But for now, he’s doing an incredible job showing he’s got more to offer than just the charisma and sex appeal. You can’t help but root for the guy, especially knowing that if he wasn’t onstage, he’d be down in the mosh pit with us, sharing the dreams in our heads, tears in our eyes and rock and roll in our hearts. It’s pretty clear to me, INXS is back and they’ve got places to go… so much further than we can see.