INXS- Backyard Austin

Is this kinda like the American Idol tour?

 

I wanted to see INXS, but I think Scott Stapp was opening, so i was like **** that ****.

 

I would have totally gone to see Scott Stapp for the comedic value.

 

I just threw up a little in my mouth....

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4006901.html

INXS proves the music doesn't die with the lead singer

By MICHAEL D. CLARK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The members of INXS never believed that their music died with lead singer Michael Hutchence in 1997. But the band faced a problem: how to take 17 years of music, including several big '80s hits, back on the road without its most familiar member.

Nine years ago, nobody thought the answer would be found on a reality television show ... least of all J.D. Fortune, a former Elvis impersonator who now fronts INXS. But after several failed attempts to get the band going after Hutchence's death, the band was open to an "outside-the-box" approach to finding its new voice.

"It's been a mad time," drummer Jon Farriss says of INXS's world tour, which touches down in Houston Wednesday at the Verizon Wireless Theater. "It's taken a long time to trust it. To get to a place to trust that we could do this again. Obviously it was a very long and winding road."

A year ago INXS wasn't talking about world tours, recording albums or hit singles. The band's members were concentrating on being judges for the CBS show Rock Star: INXS.

Canadian singer Fortune was one of several contestants seeking the chance of a lifetime. The winner would no longer sing What You Need and Suicide Blonde into a hairbrush in the bathroom. He or she would be the new lead singer of INXS.

"We didn't know if it would be a tenor, an alto or a girl or guy," says Farriss, laughing. "Everything's been baby steps."

Rock Star: INXS premiered on CBS last July as a rock 'n' roll alternative to Fox's pop-oriented American Idol. The allure, making the show more riveting and dramatic, was INXS's history. Unlike Idol, where the winner gets a recording contract and the chance to make it on his or her own, the winner of Rock Star: INXS walked into a band with a catalog of hits such as Need You Tonight, Devil Inside and Never Tear Us Apart.

Fortune turned in blistering performances of the Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want and INXS' What You Need. He also penned the lyrics to Pretty Vegas, which would become the first single from INXS's new album, Switch.

"It became clear that J.D. could sing the back catalog and that he could write, so we didn't have to worry about that," says Farriss, who adds that Fortune had to hit the ground sprinting to get Switch prepped and recorded in a month. "He also fit into the internal dynamic of the band, which was also very important."

The band's finding Fortune ended years of frontman misfires that had many thinking INXS should call it quits: Soul singer Terence Trent D'Arby and Australian rocker Jon Stevens (also a reality TV show host, it turns out) both served short stints with the band.

When Hutchence died, "it was like this was all stolen from us really fast," says Farriss. "Until now we'd never really committed to another record with another singer.

"We all had different ways of coping, and we simplified things a bit. Now we've come back, and we're ready for world domination again."

Farris laughs at his hubris.

And to the loyal Hutchence fans and band critics who feel the whole Rock Star: INXS competition and continued vitality of the band are disrespectful to the original singer's memory, the band replies, "What about us? We're still here."

"You know what? We did suffer. Everyone suffered. Let's be happy now," says Farris. He's proud of the band's new songs. "I think Michael would have loved them all."