Welcome Back to Chicago, Marty!

Marty Casey won the real prize by finishing second to J.D. Fortune on the finale of Rock Star: INXS. Even though J.D. was named "Rock Star," Marty and his band The Lovehammers will be opening for INXS on an upcoming world tour. All that, and a new car, too.

Mercifully, the first portion of the show proceeded as many viewers hoped it would. After the contestants performed their solo songs, Mig was eliminated. I'm not sure what hurt him more, tonight's lousy performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody" or his past stint as Wags the Dog on the kids' TV show, The Wiggles. I'm sure INXS took in to consideration the fact that Mig's core fan base isn't even old enough to earn an allowance.

Following the elimination, INXS performed one of their songs with each of the two finalists; Marty sang "Don't Change" and J.D. performed "What You Need." Both did well, and it turns out that the members of INXS are still kind of cool. Well, Pengilly's as cool as you can be playing sax while sporting a Snidely Whiplash moustache. But Garry's over forty and still looks good in leather pants, and Tim's sunglasses are actually appropriate when he's on stage.

J.D. finally won me over tonight with his response when Dave Navarro asked early in the show if J.D. had considered driving his new car into the pool: "Where am I gonna live if this doesn't work out?" INXS made the right choice, and good luck on the world tour, J.D. Sorry, but I'll be busy visiting http://www.suziemcneil.ca and won't make it to the concert.