"Rock Star: The Series" Auditions

"Rock Star: The Series" Auditions

Wannabe rockers sniff out the big time at 'Rock Star: The Series' auditions in S.F.: Aidin Vaziri | What's that smell? Oh right, it's the bovine musk of the leather trousers that were pulled out of closets all over Northern California on Tuesday in anticipation of the San Francisco open auditions for the second season of "Rock Star: The Series," held at the newly opened Rockit Room on Clement Street. For those who missed it the first time around (the ratings started slow but finished strong), that's the CBS reality show produced by "Survivor" and "The Apprentice" creator Mark Burnett in which aspiring rockers try out for the lead position of an established band. Last year's winner, 31-year-old Canadian J.D. Fortune, is fronting INXS, the Australian group whose original singer, Michael Hutchence, was found hanging naked from a door in a Sydney hotel room in 1997. This year's show, scheduled to premiere this summer, doesn't quite have such a grim air about it. The line of 100 or so people outside the Rockit Room snaked past a Chinese produce market and around the corner, with contestants nervously clutching lyric sheets and coffee. Some came with guitars, others with laptops. Some wore three-piece suits, others sweats. And while quite a few chatted or ran through scales, a good number stood around with iPods in their ears just trying to get into the rock 'n' roll spirit so early in the morning. "Most rock singers are vampires," said Brooks Lundy, the singer in local Police tribute band Stung, who was one of the first through the door. Inside the audition room, a group of four casting directors worked their way through a procession of contestants who belted out covers of songs by the likes of Journey, Duran Duran and Maroon 5, but mostly Led Zeppelin.