I agree with this best of the night, but I think it will be Ashley and Didi going home.
She’ll be Rowsbower to me. A bit of a stretch, but any chance to use a MST3k reference. . .
Don’tcha think?
Who I think should go-- Ashley and Lacey. However, I don’t think they’ll go because they’re too cute. Who I think will go Paige-- because she’s not that attractive and-- I wanna say Haely (or however she spells it) but she may get votes for being so young and sweet. So maybe Paige and Lacey.
If there’s one thing on this earth I can’t abide the sight of, it’s a tattoo. But the drawing on Siobhan’s arm appears to be Edward Gorey’s cover art for The Gashlycrumb Tinies. I find that interesting.
I also liked her song choice and performance. Too bad she seems a little dumb (the “dark horse” thing, and not knowing enough to give Simon’s question a brief answer).
I don’t like Bowersox, but she’s apparently the girl to beat.
Siobhan seems almost like she has Asperger’s or something. She has an odd way of speaking and seems a bit socially awkward. I think she has the capacity to be an interesting vocalist, though–she seems to have the biggest range of any of the women. She just needs to work on being more likeable, and possibly dyeing her hair to match her dark eyebrows.
I take notes and keep score to play in the AI Pool:
I really liked Crystal, Lilly, and Katelyn.
Haeley and Lacey can go home right now. Ugh.
Paige Miles - *All Right Now * - Free - 7/10
Ashley Rodriguez - Happy - Leona Lewis - 5/10
Janelle Wheeler - *What About Love *- Heart - 6/10
Lilly Scott - *Fixing a Hole *- Beatles - 9/10
Katelyn Epperly - *Oh Darlin’ *- Beatles - 9/10
Haeley Vaughn - *I Wanna Hold Your Hand *- Beatles - 3/10
Lacey Brown - *Landslide *- Dixie Chicks/Stevie Nicks - 2/10
Michelle Delanor - *Fallin’ *- Alicia Keyes - 8/10
Didi Benami - *The Way I Am *- Ingrid Michaelson - 7/10
Siobhan Magnus - *Wicked Game *- Chris Isaak - 6/10
Crystal Bowersox - *Hand in my Pocket *- Alannis Morissette - 10/10
Katie Stevens - *Feeling Good *- Michael Buble - 8/10
Top to bottom:
Siobahn Magnus - Wicked Game
Lilly Scott - Fixing A Hole
Crystal Bowersox - Hand In My Pocket
Didi Benami - The Way I Am
Katie Stevens - Feeling Good
Katelyn Epperly - Oh Darlin’
Michelle Delamor - Fallin’
Haeley Vaughn - I Wanna Hold Hold Your Hand
Paige Miles - All Right Now
Ashley Rodreiguez - Happy
Janell Wheeler - What About Love
Lacey Brown - Landslide
Paige has zero shot of making it through to next week. Joining her will either be Lacey or Katie – probably Katie.
Dial Idol gives little clue on who is going home. It lists two performers with some percentage and the other 10 have no votes.
We were speculating that it was furnace fumes and accumulated pigment poisons. Either that, or a graduate of the Jason Castro Diction and Finishing Academy. Still, our little Hephaestus is the best of the night.
Also…loving the “Rowsdower” moniker for Dylan-chick.
It seems to me that there are two definite levels of talent that the women belong to.
The top group, in order of their performance quality last night, is:
**Katelyn Epperly - **Responsible for the best comment Randy’s made in about 2 years - great singing isn’t about doing all those jazz runs - it’s about being in control of your tone and knowing how to modulate it. I’d add that phrasing and timing are equally important. I’m giving Katelyn the nod because she showed very good control over those factors. At least on this song. I really liked it.
Crystal Bowersox - Yeah, the ‘too cool for school’ attitude is going to get very annoying, very fast. Unless she tones that down and becomes a little more likeable, it could be her downfall. That, and the sub-standard harmonica playing. She should give that a rest for a while. But everything else is top notch, and she’s probably the favorite at this point.
**Lilly Scott **- I really liked per performance. A unique take on a song I’ve never heard anyone else sing on AI.
Siobhan Magnus - The performance was only okay, but she gets extra points for difficulty. That’s a killer song to sing, and it’s one where there’s a very fine line between, “that was pretty good”, and “Oh my God, my ears are bleeding.” So it took some nerve to sing that song, and that suggests she’s pretty confident in her voice. I’ll bet she knocks one out of the park fairly soon.
Katie Stevens - big voice, doesn’t know how to control it as well as the others. But lots of natural talent.
Then there’s the bottom group:
Didi Benami - I can’t remember her performance. I’m pretty sure it was some kind of musical number. I do remember liking it, so she gets to be top dog in the mangy pack.
**Janelle Wheeler **- What about Love? What about putting a little life in your performance? You laid that song on the stage like a dead fish. It wasn’t a horrible performance, it was just… blah.
Michelle Delanor - A good, instantly forgettable performance. I liked her better when she showed up the first time as Syesha Mercado. There are a million singers out there just like her. Perhaps they’re some kind of robot army, attacking humanity with their evil powers of melisma.
Haeley Vaughn - The tone. It burns.
Ashley Rodriguiz - Happy? No.
Paige Miles - Perhaps the bad performances bring out the stupid in the judges. What did Simon say? That “All Right Now” was a wedding song or something? Whatever it was, it was idiotic. As for the song, it was just bad. Katelyn Epperly would have blown the roof off singing that. Paige Miles… didn’t.
Lacey Brown - Oh, Lacey. You managed to out-dull Stevie Nicks AND the Dixie Chicks. And not just the spacey-but-cute Stevie Nicks, but the bigger, coked-out, muumu-wearing Stevie Nicks 2.0. You couldn’t hold a note if your throat was lined with velcro.
Lacey turned in the only cringe-inducing honestly bad performance of the night. The rest of the bottom group were just dull and forgettable. I’ll predict Lacey and Paige goiing home.
Lilly’s performance was my favorite by far, though I agree with whomever said she doesn’t have a lot of star power. I also think Haely has tons of potential. I really had high hopes when she started her number last night but unfortunately the wheels fell off. Still, I could see where she wanted to go with it.
I have to echo **Cat Whisperer’s **doubts about Ellen’s usefulness as a judge, which is disappointing because I like Ellen and don’t like to see her looking out of her element. Speaking of looks, is anyone else reminded of Alice when they look at Ellen these days?
Lilly, Didi, and Crystal all nailed their songs last night, but their indie style is not going to take them very far on Idol. This is a shame because Didi has the most interesting voice.
Lacey and Ashley were boring, Janelle was bad, and Haeley’s screamy rendition of her song had me covering my ears.
Katelyn has star power. Katie is awkward on stage. Like Haeley, maybe she’s just a bit too young for this gig.
Count me in the minority on Siobhan. I thought her voice was all over the place, and the first verse in the super-low register was awful. She seems uncomfortable on stage.
I would eliminate Haeley and Janelle.
The problem for Ellen is that she doesn’t have any special expertise or knowledge of music. She’s on the show to be funny, not to critique technique or arrangements. The nature of the show hamers her ability to be funny, though. When critiquing performances, the only way to really be funny is to be snarky. It’s hard to praise people in a funny way without just being cornball, and it’s all but impossible to be funny (without being mean) about mediocre performances. Humor thrives on exaggeration and surprise. That offers little opportunity for one liners after a completely average, blah performance of a blah song, by a blah performer. As I said before, it’s possible to be funny by being snarky, but Ellen isn’t snarky and is never going to be mean, so that leaves her with little to do but be blandly positive, and hope for openings here and there which would allw her to be funny without being mean – at least without being mean to the contestants. My advice would be to find ways to make fun of the other judges. Simon could certainly stand to have some piss taken out of him. Kara and Randy offer plenty of material too. And then there’s always Seacrest.
What…no fat chicks ( or should I say gravitationally challenged young ladies ) this year???
Speaking of Ellen trying to be funny - wasn’t that opening scene about Simon having roaming hands just a tad stupid? I almost broke my rolling eyes…
Holy Cow, I did not get which song that was until he got to the chorus. BTW, Randy’s beard-thingy is way off center.
I don’t think it was awful at all but it wasn’t Since You’ve been gone. P.S., Todrick is a stupid name.
tap tap tap
Is this thing on?
The mixed messages on this show never fail to irk me. “Be original! Take risks! Oh, but don’t change the song!” Argh. I agree with Kara, at least he tried to offer something creative.
Me, I don’t know “Since You Been Gone” very well, and I enjoyed his performance. Vocally this guy was better than every single one of the women. (But then, that wouldn’t be difficult – I couldn’t believe the mediocrity in evidence last night.)
Is this a country song? I am not in love with Aaron. A bit to softy, nasaly and emo. And we know who Simon favors.
I cannot judge if this was good because I do not like country at all.
Why does Ellen look so skeletal? She looks different for some reason – almost sickly. Maybe it’s the super-bleached, super-short hair. Her eyes seem non-existent.
I like this kid’s voice (Aaron’s), and this was a good performance. Workmanlike. Nothing stellar but again, so far the first two guys have blown the entirity of the women out of the water.
(This is my first time watching AI this year, btw, so all these folks are new to me. I don’t know their personalities, their backstories, nothin’. So I’m coming to them tabula rasa.)