May 13, 2009

Screams I missed.

I couldn't watch "American Idol" last night, so I'm reading recaps and checking YouTube for video. Here's an excerpt from Throwing Things:
Kris -- "Heartless"

Finally! Solo acoustic Kris Allen! FINALLY!! Loved it, especially after relistening to the original. A ballsy choice. But for the weird Hickesque fan support for Gokey, I'd say that Kris is a lock. But of course Gokey is Gokey, so who knows. -- Kim

My wife disagrees, but I thought it was brilliant. If the goal is the find The Next Pop Superstar, that's a Next Pop Superstar. Sincere, well-sold, ballsy and completely unexpected from the Bible Belt. Not a "singer's song," but a great performance -- it takes real musical smarts and confidence to take a autotuned rap song and make that out of it. Put him in the finals. -- Adam
You can watch that, badly recorded, here. [ADDED: I've removed that link. Go here — to the official site — to watch that performance. You can find the other performances from last night at that link.]
The Lambert -- "Cryin'"

"Dear Danny, Get out your notepad. This is how you fucking sing Aerosmith. Love, Adam." Seriously, to take an artist that your principal competition botched, and do it yourself the next week? We've never seen anyone do something so in-your-face before on the show, and needless to say it kicked ass. Text VOTE to 5703, people. Over and over again. -- Adam

Seriously. THAT'S how you scream your ass off on the Idol stage... Have we ever heard Simon say "don't fuck this voting thing up, people" so clearly before? And once again, Adam is nothing but gracious on stage, this time praising Kris and Danny. Sure, he can afford to be gracious, but he never fails to thank someone. Adam Lambert is a class act. Stop reading and start voting. -- Kim
Watch that here.

What about Danny Gokey? Here he is doing "You Are So Beautiful." I hope Kris makes it to the finale, along with my favorite, Adam, but Danny's from Wisconsin, so it's all good.

And all bad, of course.

14 comments:

A.W. said...

for the record, Taylor Hicks did something about as ballsy. He decided to sing the exact same song mcfee sang and kicked her behind all over the place on it. Love him or hate him, but he beat her solid.

And actually, I didn't think Adam was trying to diss Gokey by picking aerosmith. And for that matter, "Crying" is not half as good a song as "Dream on."

I think now we have a real chance of a Gokey-Chris face off next week. but we will find out tonight.

A.W. said...

btw, this site attempts to predict who is going to be off by measuring busy signals. right now, it says Adam, Chris, Gokey, in that order, but it also says too close to call.

http://www.dialidol.com/asp/predictions/predictions.asp

cut and paste if necessary.

Unknown said...

Well.......

I can't look at the toffee-faced bloke any more. I barely watch the show and every time I see him he looks like he's been sculpted out of butterscotch.

And he looks like Captain Scarlet.

Jennifer said...

I haven't seen the second half of Kris' last song or Adam's last song yet...looking forward to Aerosmith done well.

BUT, I disagree with the Gokey as Hicks thing. Gokey has some sexy in him and Taylor Hicks was just annoying.

I really didn't like Paula's pick for Gokey and can't remember Kris' judges' choice. Bad sign given that I just watched it this morning, getting ready for work.

al said...

I only saw the the songs they picked themselves. Kris was my personal fav. I've never heard the original but his cover was excellent. Adam, I agree he can sing, but ruins every song for me with his "screaming". As for Gokey - I miss Allison. She should have been there instead.

I'm hoping for Adam vs Kris in the final.

robinintn said...

That first comment in the post claims to be surprised that "ballsy" singing could originate in the Bible belt. Gospel? Blues? Some pretty ballsy influences on rock came from the Bible belt. Would that some of that influence could mitigate the drone of the current crop of pasty aesthetes emanating from up east and the pacific northwest.

MadisonMan said...

I thought the faces they made right at the beginning were interesting. Danny had a cheesy grin that morphed into a grimace, Kris looked serious, and Adam looked sneery.

I'm hoping Adam/Kris.

MadisonMan said...

And if I can be catty again: I think Adam is coping with the stress of being on American Idol by eating.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

I actually liked Kris and Danny better than Adam last night. First of all, I think he butchered "One". I didn't like the arrangement. Then he went back into shriek mode for the Aerosmith song. I know Adam can hit notes that the others can't but I'm not sure I want to hear those notes anyway.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

They must be shooting for a Kris/Adam final. Putting Gokey in the leadoff spot and having Paula pick your song is probably the kiss of death.

SteveR said...

MM-sure looks like some weight gain going on.

Joe said...

I thought the whole night sucked. The singing was insufferable. Adam just screamed (out of key, I might add--whoever thinks the guy has great pitch has no ear for music.) It was nauseating.

Diamondhead said...

I thought it was going to be Roy Orbison's Cryin'. That might have been something. Or maybe not. Who knows.

MadisonMan said...

I read on-line somewhere yesterday a review of Adam by Opera Critics -- I think it was a San Diego paper -- and one of them said that Adam has to watch the weight or he'll turn into a Fat Elvis (didn't put it quite like that). But I could totally see Adam as Fat Elvis.

What was up with Adam's back-up singer on Cryin'? That was really really jarring.

Kris had by far the best overall performances last night. But it was a boring show without Allison.