Last night the dudes took to the stage in “American Idol” and, quite like the ladies on Tuesday night, there were a lot of mediocre performances. When the competition gets down to the final rounds, a mediocre showing or poor song choice can mean a ticket home, and that could definitely be the case for a few of last night’s performers.
Here is my recap of the good, the band and the in-between:
THE GOOD
There was really only one performance last night worthy of guaranteed advancement to the next round, and that was everyone’s favorite gray-haired boy, Taylor Hicks. Taylor sang the Doobie Brothers’ “Takin’ It To the Streets” and it was the perfect song for him because he’s got that whole Michael McDonald/Joe Cocker thing going on anyway. Simon said Taylor stood out last night and he definitely did.
THE IN-BETWEEN
If I could give out B-pluses, that’s what I’d give both Gedeon and Chris. Gedeon sang “When a Man Loves a Woman” and did a nice job with it. Randy Jackson called Gedeon an “old soul” because he’s like a throwback to the early Motown era, and Simon declared him interesting enough of a performer to continue on.
Chris sang Seether’s “Broken” and while he obviously has the best voice among the guys, he just turned in an effort that was not up to the bar he set last week.
Will Makar sang a James Taylor song and, while he has a nice voice too, just turned in a performance that makes you start looking around the room and decide if it’s time to paint the walls. That, and he seems to be cut from that Clay Aiken mold….strong voice, not raspy, wussy style. Not that it’s a bad thing to shoot for, but it just seems a bit tired to me.
Elliott “Abe Lincoln” sang Bryan Adams’ “Heaven” and while Paula and Randy loved it, I agreed completely with Simon, who said it was a “cop-out.” It was just safe, uninteresting and well below Elliott’s capabilities.
THE BAD
This is going to be hard for me because I wanted there to be two clear-cut favorites for elimination, but alas, there are three that could go home.
Lispy Kevin made a comment in his video piece that he’s a fan of Kanye West, then cut to the live action…..and dude sang Don McLean’s “Vincent.” Folks, there isn’t a more limp-wristed song ever written. Kevin has a nice enough voice, but he’s just not top 12 material.
Bucky sang a country song and I’m going to admit to not knowing what it was….it’s a good genre for the blond hillbilly but compared to some of the in-betweens, it was a forgettable performance.
Then there is Ace, who sang Michael Jackson’s “Butterflies.” You know what, scratch what I said about “Vincent.” This is the most limp-wristed song ever. And is it just me, or did Randy and Paula check their ears at the door? They both loved this dude’s performance, which went back and forth between falsetto and full voice but not without being all over the place. Bottom line: Ace sucked last night….Simon said parts were not great, but here’s hoping America saw what I did, and that’s that the whole performance was just awful.
So there you have it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Bucky and Kevin will be going home, and that America will be stupid enough to agree with Randy and Paula about Ace. For the girls, look for Melissa McGhee to rejoin her friend Heather Cox at their, errr, day job at the Foxy Unicorn and for Kinnik Sky to also take a hike. It’s always fun to see how it shakes out….oh, and my man Bo Bice performs tonight and will show America that they made a mistake last season.
Vandalay, OUT.
