Los Angeles - If you weren't paying attention, you might have missed it. Moments after Storm Large performed on Tuesday night's performance episode of the reality show Rock Star: Supernova, the Portland artist showed the peace sign and called out "Free World Famous". Supernova band members, including Motley Crue's Tommy Lee, seemed unphased by the comment, but did show a moment of confusion.
And not surprisingly so. Very little attention has been drawn to the issue Large was seemingly advocating for. On Sunday night, a local DJ known as "World Famous Audio Hacker" was taken into custody by Portland police for copyright infringement after a 2-hour live performance downtown. The DJ is known for his unique playlists of music called "mash-ups".
A mash-up is, in most simple terms, a combination of two songs. Typically, a mash-up is derived from an acapella of one song played at the same time as the instrumental of another. The result is a "mash-up" of songs which sound similar to a remix or new version of the original songs.
World Famous was taken by police approximately 30 minutes after his performance at the local night club The Glitch Lounge. Protestors who are urging the release of the local DJ were sighted briefly downtown Tuesday outside the courthouse and, later, briefly disrupting traffic.
"We are still waiting for charges to be set against [him]," a supporter of World Famous stated during the protest in Portland. "He is currently being held, and his family and friends have been allowed no contact with him since they took him away. We want to know why he was arrested, and his family want to know that he is safe and okay."
Storm Large is currently in Los Angeles for the taping of the final weeks of Rock Star: Supernova and is one of five final contestants who may win the lead spot as lead singer to the band. She was first made aware of the DJ's situation by a shared friend living in the Portland area.
Large was not available for comment, but according to World Famous' MySpace site, he was planning to do a remix of a song by she and her band. Large is no stranger to the mash-up scene, however, as she reportedly was recently forced to remove her own recording of a live mash-up performance entitled "Abba-Gada-Davida." The song features Large's vocal performance of the Abba song "Take A Chance On Me" over the backing music of the psychedelic classic rock song "Inna-Gada-Davida" by Iron Butterly.
Will Storm Large bring new attention to the arrest of the local DJ? Despite the Rock Star: Supernova audience with millions of viewers, it is likely to be a gesture mostly overlooked by the general media. However, it is a nice display of solidarity between Portland musicians.
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