Rock Star: Meet the new boss?

Well, for about 10 or 15 minutes there it looked like Dilana had "Rock Star" season two all won. Not only was she the only one brave and smart enough to want to perform with Gilby, but she kicked all kinds of ass on the "CSI: Miami" theme song. But then Storm, and Magni, and Patrice (sort of), and Lukas and Toby proved that we still have a competition here. While it wasn't brilliant from start to finish, there were more highs tonight than on any episode this season to date. In order, after the jump...

Dilana, "Won't Get Fooled Again": The House Band always rocks the hell out of The Who, and I loved Gilby's intro. I prefer Insane Witch Dilana to last week's Biker Bar Dilana, and even to tonight's Rock Goddess Dilana, but this is the incarnation that actually has a shot at fronting Supernova, and she proved she could command the stage even when not completely losing her shit. Only bad part was when Gilby did the Springsteen-esque lean-in to harmonize; his voice didn't mesh with Dilana's at all. But a lot of fun, and the wail at the end was awesome.

Jill, "Mother, Mother": What Jason said: vastly improved stage presence, bland vocals -- especially on the chorus, which is where she should have really been going berserk. Other than the leap off the stage, nothing too exciting.

Ryan, "Paint It Black": I'm sorry, but I was too busy laughing at Ryan's Zoolander wardrobe and makeup to even notice the performance first time through. And on replay... no, still laughing. Take three: he definitely has a lot more energy than he did the first few weeks, but the vocals were screamy without being that interesting. And did I mention that I kept waiting for him to show us his Blue Steel face (or, at least, Le Tigre).

Storm, "We Are the Champions": With Dana gone, Storm is the best pure singer left by a country mile, and aside from one misstep on the first "we'll keep on fighting," she stared Freddie's ghost right in the face and didn't blink. Great theatricality, and I loved the new harmony on the middle portion. But, like Tommy, I'm looking forward to Storm going nuts again, and soon. (Her "Oh, I'll spank the crap out of you again, for sure" was almost as funny as Ryan's eye make-up.) And her support for everyone else stood out more this week than ever. On the webisode, she's completely rocking out as everybody else performs their version of the Supernova song, and she was on her feet and dancing for virtually everybody tonight.

(Side note: what kind of box was Brooke standing on to seem almost as tall as Storm when they stood next to each other?)

Zayra, "All the Young Dudes": Continuing her superhero costume motif, she seems to have appropriated Lemuria's original outfit from "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?," with a top hat and stripper heels to complement it. Whenever Marian and I see Penelope Cruz on TV or in a movie, Marian likes to riff on how annoying it would be to have to listen to that voice after about a week of living together, especially once the pillow talk ends and she starts saying things like, "We're out of toilet paper" and "Where are the Hot Pockets?" Listening to Zayra always reminds me of that, even when her vocals are completely overpowered by the band (plus Magni) the way they were tonight. On the rare occasions when I could hear her, she was both flat and annoying. Not nearly the bizarro entertainment value of last week's transformation of "8675309" into a lesbian punk anthem. Be crazy or be gone, Z.

Josh Logan, "Interstate Love Song": If Dave felt Patrice disappeared in front of Tommy, then the space-time continuum folded in on itself to erase Josh from ever having existed. I appreciate his attempt to rock out for real (and his Supernova adaptation was one of the two or three best), but after the opening bars, his voice pretty much ceased to exist. The House Band and Tommy were hot, though.

Magni, "When the Dolphins Cry": Awww, his baby has noise-canceling headphones! Sorry, dad moment there. Having his family in the room sure inspired Magni; this was his best performance by far, with strong singing and palpable emotion. For the first time, I can actually see why Jason and some of the others have been lavishing so much praise on him.

Patrice, "Instant Karma": My favorite Lennon solo song, and this was a cool arrangement of it (not to mention a song for which Patrice's incessant smiley-ness wasn't out of place). Nice move with the mic stand, proving that you actually can play guitar on this show without having to superglu your feet to the stage. But at the close of the show, she was in the freakin' bottom three again. I have to think that Dilana and Storm are overshadowing her too much (she's the Jennifer Hudson in this scenario), which is a shame, because I'd much rather she stick around for a long time than, say, Josh or Ryan.

Lukas, "Creep": In the webisode, Dilana all but dares Lukas to sing this one as a put up or shut up moment about his ability to sing a song, and you could see her on stage tonight looking really pissed at herself for giving her biggest competition such a great showcase. Turns out the stupid hobbit can actually sing a little -- and, more importantly, that he can bring some serious emotion when he's not just preening and staggering. Hell, I even loved the stupid wink. He's obviously Tommy's favorite, and unless he really stumbles moving forward, I think the producers need to either limit season three's talent pool to only homeless Canadian assclowns or ban them altogether to keep things interesting.

Toby, "Burning Down the House": Was I the only one who, when Toby pulled out the megaphone, expected him to start belting out Spanish gibberish? No? Just me? To that, I have only one thing to say: Sanchez, go! Anyway... Toby had some of the boy-band moves back for the beginning of this, but as the song kept going, he got legitimately weird, which is something I think you have to do while performing anything written by David Byrne. Good modern arrangement, House Band burning up the studio, etc.

What did everybody else think?