(S01E05) Well, that was a bit of a shocker tonight, eh? Who would have thought that Dicko would propose marriage to the lead singer of Dot Dot Dot? I surely didn't see that coming, did you?

Okay, I'm lying. I just don't want to mention the band voted out before the jump in case folks reading the main TV Squad page recorded The Next Great American Band for viewing at a later time. Then people would be yelling at me and I'm sensitive, y'know. But I can't have blank white space here, so I should say something.

Read on for the lowdown on the tonight's episode ...

(S01E04) This series is clumped in with the reality show genre. But in the olden days of television -- you know, back when you were knee-high to a grasshopper -- The Next Great American Band would have been listed as a talent show. Or, perhaps even more appropriate would be a Battle of the Bands.

But a typical old-style Battle of the Bands has an edge over this show. The bands play their own kind of music. While I love the variety of the music genres on the show, it's that very variety in genres which I think throws things off a bit.

(S01E03) The field of bands narrowed by two tonight on The Next Great American Band. So, we're down to ten bands who specialize in various genres. I'm not sure how much I enjoyed the way they did the reveal of the two bands going home. It seemed a bit needlessly cruel, kind of like cruel and unusual punishment.

Each band sang prepared and rehearsed one of their original songs and then a song from the vast array of Elton John and Bernie Taupin numbers. The bands were called out one by one to perform. If they performed, they had made the cut for the week. The two bands who didn't make it had to go through all the rehearsals and sit foolishly and uncomfortably waiting, the camera panning them throughout the show, until the very end. When it was down to three bands, poof.

(S01E02) So there I was last night ... stuck in the crowds heading to see Bon Jovi in Newark and I said to myself, "No! I cannot succumb! I promised JJ Hawkins I'd sit in this week to review The Next Great American Band while he's on vacation!" No Bon Jovi live for me -- give me the Light of Doom! Unfortunately, a lot of the Bon Jovi fans heading to the concert looked like the Light of Doom boys albeit with shirts on. Odd.

This is going to be an interesting show to watch throughout the season. With such diversity and so many bands who excel in their own genre, I'll have to stick around to who wins in the end.