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LAS VEGAS -- What happens at a Rockstar Supernova concert stays at a Rockstar Supernova concert.
That was the gist of the cocky and somewhat crass mission statement delivered by newly crowned frontman and Torontonian Lukas Rossi at Rockstar Supernova's first North American show -- held appropriately enough in Sin City at the Hard Rock Hotel's upscale club, The Joint, on New Year's Eve.
There was also talk of other unmentionables in Rossi's pre-taped "warning," that can't be printed in a family newspaper.
Needless to say, it seems the sneering, 30-year-old Toronto singer is taking the "sex" part of his rock-star job rather seriously.
Decked out in a white leather jacket, black shirt, black pin-striped pants, and white shoes, the eye-makeup-wearing Rossi often appeared to be one big walking hormone as he talked about how he wanted "to f--- each and every one" in the audience after the show.
"Is every one out there having a good time? 'Cause I sure am!" said Rossi, whose obvious excitement about his new gig sometimes translated into indecipherable stage ramblings.
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Incidentally, seen near the soundboard for a short time was Kendra, Rossi's "close friend" and an ex-porn star who was with him in Toronto during his recent promo tour in November.
Not helping to alleviate the show's overtly sexual tone was drummer Tommy Lee's so-called "t---y cam," which he's previously employed at Motley Crue concerts, to get women to flash their breasts, and two scantily clad female dancers, who joined the band on stage to gyrate their way through three songs in black leather bikini tops and g-string and denim chaps.
When it came to the actual music, Rossi and the group -- rounded out by ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and Black Crowes bassist Johnny Colt (filling in for an injured Jason Newsted formerly of Metallica) -- delivered a loud, if somewhat uneven, hour-and-20-minute set.
The foursome played a second show at the same club last night and will pull into Toronto's Massey Hall on Jan. 24.
Performing to just over 2,000 fans at The Joint -- a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of thousands gathered on the nearby Las Vegas Strip for New Year's Eve festivities -- Rockstar Supernova opened their set with Underdog from their self-titled album, which came out in late November.
But they didn't really hit their stride until the second, third and fourth songs, Be Yourself (And 5 Other Cliches), It's On and It's All Love.
Anyone expecting to hear any of the hits from the band member's more famous groups would have been disappointed as none were played. That could be a problem for Rockstar Supernova's longevity with no plans to draw on their collective hits.
Rossi and company also had an unexpected but welcome musical surprise in the form of an all-women string quartet who joined them on a riser above Lee's enormous drum kit for Can't Bring Myself To Light This Fuse, a cover of The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony, and The Dead Parade.
The second cover of the night was an aborted version of The Rolling Stones' Let's Spend The Night Together that closed the show. Rossi quite correctly stopped the tune mid-song and started over again when he discovered his vocals were being drowned out by the instruments.
"Hey, this is our first show, there are going to be some glitches," Clarke said.
In that regard, Clarke was one of the worst offenders, introducing Rossi as being "from the great state of Toronto, Canada!"
And even if this latest group to spring from Mark Burnett's reality show Rockstar hasn't achieved the same level of success or buzz as the first-season band, which featured Aussie dance-rock veterans INXS (and yet another Toronto singer, J.D. Fortune), Rossi and his bandmates definitely have enthusiastic fans. The Rossi Posse, as they were coined during the run of the TV show in the summer, were in full force waving Canadian flags, or in the case of one enthusiastic male concert-goer, wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs Jersey with the word "Rossi" emblazoned on it.
Rossi himself seemed unable to stop moving, whether he was jumping around the stage, twirling his mic stand around or high-fiving fans at the front of the crowd. He finally stood still for the show's emotional high point, Headspin, a song which Rossi reiterated that he wrote for his mother. In concert, the tune was slower and heavier and more powerful than it is on the new disc.
Balloons and confetti were also provided inside The Joint as the clock struck midnight and each band member popped a bottle of champagne -- but there were no fireworks like on The Strip.
It'll be a few more weeks before Rossi arrives to play his hometown show at Massey and, hopefully, by then he'll have toned down the sexual swagger.