The Lowdown on Last Night's American Idol

American Idol is slowly coming to its peak, and with 3 weeks left it's anyone's game.

Let's get right to the show...

A bit of a stage malfunction set the whole production on its ear just before rehearsal, but no matter, the now seasoned Idol contestants performed their hearts out anyway.

Ok, Slash, meet the world of Idol, Idol meet Slash. I've never really heard him put two sentences together... probably because I've been too busy being mesmerized by his skills on the guitar. He seemed like a nice guy, and was by all accounts succinct and helpful for the contestants.

To the performances...

It came as no shock to hear that "Rock Week" was Adam's favorite, and it also came as no shock to hear him wail as well as Robert Plant himself did back in Led Zeppelin's heyday. Singing "A Whole Lot Of Love" is no easy task, and Adam made it look like a walk in the park. I continue to be amazed by how his voice has held up so flawlessly... through all the talking, singing, acting, and general lack of sleep.

The poor person to follow Adam's spectacular opening of the show was none other than the lovely Allison. Although it was unfortunate that she had to follow said Adam, she gave an admirable effort with Janice Joplin's "Cry Baby," and really did what she always does -- belt the hell out of a song and sound great. Her talk back to Simon was cute and one of the few times that such efforts actually made any contestant look good.

One duet later -- by the way, was it weird to see the judges judging a performance that wasn't going to be voted on? -- we were on our way back to the solo performances. Strange that Danny and Kris were made to sing a duet just before their solos, but somebody had to take the short end of the stick and it unfortunately ended up landing squarely in Kris Allen's hands.

After being told that he was the lesser to Danny's greater in the duet, Kris tried his hand at the Beatles classic "Come Together." The judges had a field day with the performance, which was a bit tame in my eyes, mostly due to the fact that it seemed to me like Kris was thinking way too much with the guitar in his hand. He was certainly putting some great comps together that were impressive. I can't fault him for being distracted by the guitar while performing... I've done the same exact thing (trying to remember chords, licks, looking at the fret board more than at the audience) and it's made my performance suffer as well. Regardless, it was a good performance, but will "good" be good enough?

Danny rounded out the show with another killer rock tune, "Dream On" by Aerosmith. I have to admit I was afraid of the screaming part at the end, but if anyone could belt it out it would be him. A side note though, he looked a bit tired to me during the whole show, not his usual peppy self. -- Do you agree? In the end the screaming bit worked for about 90% of the time, the last 10% of belting out was a bit screechy, and mind numbing for Simon. Randy hit it on the head when he said that Hard Rock just isn't Danny's thing. No matter, I think Danny's got at least one more week to prove that he belongs in the finals. I just looked at that last sentence and realized that he ONLY has one more week to prove himself. Things are going to be tight.

A much better duet between Adam and Allison followed... could we be seeing shades of the finale? Who knows? We'll find out what's in store for our Idol's tonight. No matter who goes, it's going to be dramatic.

Comments

[zulu1]

Danny is horrible.....I agree...he does seem smug and HE TALKS TOO MUCH! He needs to just go away. Adam is over-qualified for Idol.....but its great watching him perform. Alyson is very unique and probably has a long career ahead of her. Kris is well....cute and just ok....we might hear from him after the Idol tour is over. What do ya'll think?

[educatedfoolz]

Danny wasn't the bomb; he was a stinkbomb. He stunk. He shouldn't even have made it this far.
Loyal voters who are caught up in his backstory keep voting for him.
Alison is wonderful, and sang well last night. This girl IS the bomb. I think we'll hear lots more from her. Lots of talent, especially for being so young.
Kris is ok, better than Danny IMO. He has had some good weeks, and did OK with "Come Together".
Adam is the favorite and will be hard to beat. He definitely has a strong voice and is the biggest entertainer.

I wish they'd let the performers sing an entire song, and quit chopping them up. Singing parts of a song isn't the same as singing the whole thing. Cut the chatter and other filler they put in the show, and let the contestants sing!!

[franksters]

AGREE with all of your points. Danny has certain talents, just not the right songs for him. But I hate the way that they chop up the songs. No sooner does the person get into the song, when they're cut off.

[franksters]

Danny looked drained. I don't think that rock 'n roll is his thing or Kris'. Ok, we all know that Adam is going to win---that was pegged from the start and he's never wavered. But Simon didn't have to make that snide remark to Kris ("Danny was the better of the two."). Just not necessary at this point. Most people have decided who they're going to vote for. It will be interesting to see who is in the finals with Adam. BTW, I find him almost overqualified for American Idol.

[spinstahbabe]

Danny looked scared to death through the whole song, like he was dreading that final note and knew his chances of hitting it were not good. What was he thinking, tackling that song? He's not nearly as good as he thinks he is. I want to smack his smug face.

[namerankserialnumber]

Justin, dude, come on. Were you listening to Danny? He was horrible! I was laughing so hard I was literally crying. And I'm still randomly busting out in laughter today just at the memory. It was one of the worst performances on AI I've ever seen.

I know you're trying to be nice and all that, but come on!

[Dionita]

TKat I agree that Justin is waaaay too kind to Danny. I FF through much of Dream On and I LOVE that song. Kris is a very solid performer to me. I love his style which is very current and his take on Come together was very cool.

[TKat]

I think that you are being why too kind about Danny's performance. It was terrible from the start. He just doesn't have the vocal range, control or attitude to tackle any Steven Tyler song. What ever made him think he could hit the high note at the end? His poor song choice, weird outfit and total lack of self awareness IMO made this the worst performance of this -- and perhaps any -- AI season.