Adam And Allison SHINE As 'American Idol' Goes Rock

NEW YORK — The "American Idol" finalists channeled their inner rock stars Tuesday. The result? Some shone. Some stumbled.

The remaining four singers performed duets along with their solos on the rock-themed show.

The pairing of Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta yielded glowing reviews by the judges' panel.

"In the battle of the duets, you win the show tonight," Simon Cowell declared after the duo's electric rendition of the Foghat classic "Slow Ride."

Cowell said Lambert might have given his 17-year-old duet partner a chance to stay in the competition. The 27-year-old theater actor hugged Iraheta, saying: "This is like my little sister, kinda."

Danny Gokey and Kris Allen performed "Renegade" by Styx. Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi enjoyed their harmonizing; Cowell, judging them individually, said Gokey bested Allen, who seemed overshadowed by the song.

Cowell saved harsher jabs for Allen's solo performance. The Arkansas heartthrob sang the Beatles' "Come Together," and Cowell compared his cover to "eating ice for lunch." Meaning, it leaves "you with nothing to remember afterward," he said.

Allen _ who's more Jason Mraz than Axl Rose _ appears much more at home playing acoustic guitar than he did jamming with guest mentor Slash at the Roxy in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Lambert one-upped his competitors yet again. DioGuardi crowned Lambert a "rock god" following his rousing rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" that showed off his signature banshee howl.

"The problem is, nobody can top that now," Cowell said.

The judges mostly agreed that Iraheta should have picked another song besides Janice Joplin's "Cry Baby." The singing prodigy explained that another Joplin classic, "Piece of My Heart," had been done before and she was really feeling "Cry Baby."

A goofy grin on her face, Iraheta playfully needled Cowell: "You're always saying I don't talk enough, so maybe I should just talk a lot!"

Gokey, 28, of Milwaukee, also defended his performance. He stepped out of his soft pop-soul comfort zone to perform "Dream On" by Aerosmith. While Jackson gave his rendition an "A-plus for valiant effort," Cowell said Gokey's final note "was like watching a horror movie."

"I don't think it was as bad as they said it was," Gokey said before halfheartedly conceding: "I'll try better next time."

Gokey and the rest of the finalist will discover their fate on Wednesday's results show, and the two-part finale is just two weeks away.

Comments

[Tagrid]

06:10 PM on 05/07/2009

How do you think you can teach your son ANYTHING when you don't even know the difference between "sense" and "cents!!!" LOL

[Tagrid]

06:35 PM on 05/07/2009

Wow! This message board is MESSED UP! My comment above was in response to WardCallin­gAllAngels and was posted in the "Adam and Allison SHINE" message board! I hope they fix this SOON!

[Rolfe Norman]

10:30 PM on 05/06/2009

Adam and Allison should have been in the final two together. Too bad she went home tonight. The producers are pushing Danny Gokey on us too much.

[NHBill]

09:00 PM on 05/06/2009

Danny was clearly the one who faltered. The good news is the final 4 all do well in their post Idol careers. This group will all be around for awhile!

[KayDGee]

07:46 PM on 05/06/2009

I felt kind of sorry for Danny and Kris. It was almost like they showed up for the wrong contest. I like Danny, but the last note in the Arrowsmith song was excrutiati­ng. Adam Lambert showed us a glimpse of upcoming superstard­om and how he can raise someone else's game,too - Allison. It's the A-A's on the last show.

[shela88]

04:48 PM on 05/06/2009

Adam, Allison and Kris are generous and supportive of each other..it is obvious that they have bonded and they deserve to be in the top three because they are the most talented.. Danny is a diva..self­-centered and so "the drunk cousin at the wedding"..­Taylor Hicks but even worse..And that final note sounded like two angry cats fighting..­It frightened a lot of children and pets and hopefully the voters will end our misery and spare us another week of his singing.

[joselopez]

07:07 PM on 05/06/2009

The Judges are way too easy on Dan Gokey. He sucked big time last night. And he has not been a standout all season. His voice is mediocre at best. He has sympathy vote due to personal story, but come on now, the guy is not that good a singer.

[Steamboater]

11:13 PM on 05/06/2009

The bible thumpers must have had phone banks calling in for Danny. He really sucked last night.

[jobiennj]

04:41 PM on 05/06/2009

An unfair night. Rock and Roll is not the genre for Kris or Danny. By this time in the competitio­n the contestant­s should be picking their own strengths and selling themselves­. We know who they are by this time (altho I am still not sure who Danny is) and to force a genre on someone so he must perform out of his comfort zone at this stage is dopey and well, really unfair.
Rock and Roll should have been when there were ten left and they were still experiment­ing with different styles. Last night was bullshit.

[Steamboater]

11:15 PM on 05/06/2009

Life ain't fair and especially show business; they have to show they can sing anything.

[Biolante]

04:38 PM on 05/06/2009

Adam Lambert ~ amazing talent, over-the-t­op superstar and would do great in Vegas or spectacula­r venue like that

Danny ~ Get ready for the Christian Christmas album he'll make

Allison ~ Fantastic voice, but not dynamic enough of a personalit­y. Maybe a back-up singer or studio singer.

Kris ~ a decent guy, good voice, very cute and totally relevant to today's music. If life was fair he would win and make some really good records.

[HesDanTheMan]

05:57 PM on 05/06/2009

I have to disagree. First of all Kris doesn't hold a candle to "talent" enough to win this contest! He's good, he's cute and he's good in his type of music. But American Idol, all round talent! NO!

Allison first of all is ONLY 17! Give her a chance to develop a personalit­y. We've seen more personalit­y from her than we ever did from Jordan Sparks who was the same age, and she won the show!

I disagree with you.
I think Adam should win and Allison should be runner up!

[elatas]

06:40 PM on 05/06/2009

Ditto on everything­! And you did not comment on Danny... you're right! He's forgettabl­e.

[dye2000]

04:36 PM on 05/06/2009

My votes go to Adam and Chris.
Love the gal but just too young and not ready for the big time.
Danny is the boy next door who can sing well but is not a true musician.

[MissingAmerica]

04:33 PM on 05/06/2009

They will all have great careers, so I don't care who remains for the next couple of weeks. I am a Danny fan, but I believe the one who will and should win is Adam. He is amazing!

[mcbaby2]

04:31 PM on 05/06/2009

My only complaint except for Danny's duet and solo scream is that the show is too SHORT!!!

[1088]

04:31 PM on 05/06/2009

Adam is the BOMB!!

[educatedfoolz]

04:17 PM on 05/06/2009

Danny was a train wreck. He should have been gone long ago, but obviously has a loyal bunch of voters. Alexis, the girl they let go at the start, should be there instead of him.
Kris did ok last night with "Come Together". Not his best, but ok.
Alison did Janis well; she has a voice and lots of talent, especially for being so young. She should bhe in the final two.
Adam rocked it, as usual. He is the favorite to win, but anything can happen.

One big problem I have with Idol is that they never let the contestant­s sing an entire song. They chop it up, and often it destoys the flow and integrity of the song. Instead of all the chatter and other distractio­ns and gus, let them sing a whole song! Especially when there are only 4 contestant­s left. Let htem sing one, instead of two. It's hard to complain about song choice when they won't even let them sing a whole song.

[AmandaRuth]

04:10 PM on 05/06/2009

Adam and Allison for the finals. Lose the other two.

[HesDanTheMan]

05:58 PM on 05/06/2009

BINGO!

[Steve Sanders]

02:38 PM on 05/06/2009

It shld be between Adam and the girl

[Truye]

02:24 PM on 05/06/2009

Sheesh, so many haters... I don't actually watch idol, but I will catch some of Adam Lambert's performanc­es on the youtube because I am so interested in his song choices! How many times has Led Zeppelin been performed on Idol? I can't think of any (I could be wrong, again I usually don't watch Idol). And I know why, Led Zeppelin is almost impossible to sing well. Of course Lambert is not Plant, but then only Robert Plant is truly Robert Plant, but I thikn Lambert really nailed it.

Everyone who hates on his voice, would you have the courage to get up and sing in front of that many people? People in musical theatre are very agile vocally because not all musical theatre is Rodgers and Hammerstei­n, some of it is very rock n' roll (i.e. Tommy, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, even Jesus Christ Superstar.­..). Not all people like to same quality of vocals, so please keep that in mind before trying to bring down a very talented and brave young man.

[luvobama]

02:32 PM on 05/06/2009

No one has ever done Led Zeppelin on AI before.

[GiannaX]

02:42 PM on 05/06/2009

Lambert was SPECTACULA­R!

[NTL]

02:51 PM on 05/06/2009

Yeah no one has ever done Zeppelin on Idol before this.

Previously they have either refused to license the music or the costs were too high.

(not sure if that means that the costs were lowered or if they decided the costs were worth it this time.)