Bogus Gold

Adam Lambert lead us off tonight. I don't think Adam ever faced a leadoff spot in the past, but with only four left it's not quite the handicap it might have been earlier. He's singing... wait, wait. A little error here. I was about to mention a Led Zeppelin song, but this is American Idol. Whitney Houston... Celine Dion... and Led Zeppelin. I guess it wasn't an error. Adam actually performed "Whole Lotta Love," from Led Zep II if I'm not mistaken. He was total Glambert with peaked blue hair, his vocals shooting into the impossible heights of his upper register in a display at once showy and seemingly effortless. A complaint I had here wasn't with Adam, but the mix was wrong, with the band actually sounding too subdued. This isn't a vocal for a diva - the guitar and drum riffs should have come in close to the same volume of the vocal. Trust me... you would have still heard Adam loud and clear. Anyway it was another Glambert extravaganza, enthusiastically received by the audience and the judges alike (though the judges were just a wee bit overstated when they called him a "rock god"). Simon Cowell proved prophetic when he quipped that the main problem with this performance was that no one would be capable of following it.

Allison Iraheta chose the Janis Joplin song, "Crybaby," for her rocker. Allison certainly can handle Joplin's power and grittiness. But it's not the kind of song I would have chosen for her. Mentor Slash thought she needed to get over her shyness in selling the song. That's usually not an Allison problem once she hits the stage no matter how shy and awkward she seems when she's off it. Anyway, maybe the advice had an effect because she game out brimming with confidence and stage presense. She quickly hit the chorus and hammered the vocals with every ounce of her freakishly strong voice. It wasn't (to counter some later judgey commenting) a straight copy of Janis' style. It was very Allison. The problem was the song gets a bit repetitive, and Allison only really interpreted the song through about that first chorus. After that it felt kinda "second verse... same as the first." Still this was a real rock vocal, and if you've liked Allison to this point she didn't bomb or anything.

And now we come to the first duet in Idol history (at least on a performance night). It's Kris Allen and Danny Gokey singing "Renegade" by Styx. I love the song choice. But for some reason both Kris and Danny have trouble with some badly off pitch notes when they begin. The harmony parts are pretty good though. Definitely the highlight of the song. The rest is a little strange. I mean... Kris and Danny have two wildly different interpretations of this song it seems. Kris has an intriguingly Tommy-Shaw-like vocal sound, but he's trying to take the song into more of an introspective, interpretive direction really focusing on the meaning in the lyrics. Danny is blowing through the notes, seizing every opportunity to make it loud and showy and passionate without much care to Kris's interpretive direction. Truth be told neither vision succeeds all that well, but the jarring disconnect between them makes it sound worse than it was. On playing it back I think either one could work, but definitely not at the same time. Good thing for those harmonies.

Kris Allen was going to sing Revolution by the Beatles. Then he changed his mind and went with "Come Together," also by the Beatles. Do you get the feeling Kris wasn't really loving his possible choices this week? He got to play Slash's guitar and jam with him, so he'll always have that. But the performance? This was about as "meh" as Kris has sounded since... forever ago. He made couple of obvious blunders, one in trying to put in an ill-placed R&B vocal riff, and another when he almost dropped the mic when he tried to "strike a rock pose." But really... where was the originality and personality we've come to expect from Kris? This was just like a half-hearted cover of the original. Double the number of contestants left and this still might be a trouble-some performance for keeping him safe from elimination. It's definitely not the kind of performance you need on top four week. Especially when the show opens AND closes with Adam Lambert (more about that in a moment).

Danny Gokey decided to openly interpret the "rock" theme, instead playing to safely to his Soul vibe by choosing... umm... "Dream On," by Aerosmith. Wait, what? That's right there was no "safe zone" choice by Danny this week. He decided to fully embrace the theme no matter how far outside his comfort zone that took him. And lordy did it ever do that. But... not at first. At first he was pulling a nice little blend of his powerful soulful voice and giving some new life to the low, chantlike opening. He lifted it nicely, if not perfectly, into the harder rocking middle, pulling out the old Danny-growl to make it sound grittier and maybe even a bit menacing. And then... flashback to Slash, speaking after mentoring Danny on the song .... Slash noted that he would either succeed or fail dramatically on the basis of that last note... flash forward again... Holy crap, he's actually going to attempt Steven Tyler's ultra-high falsetto climax! Danny Gokey! Here he goes... ooohh... he's.. not quite finding the notes maybe he can.. no.. no still not quite there. And then... Aaaaarrrrggghhh... the sound of half a dozen cats being slowly fed through a meat grinder emerges from Danny's throat at FULL volume... and he sustains it for several seconds that feel like a decade in musical purgatory. Wow. Steven Tyler was right. And that's not good news for Danny.

Closing the night with a duet are Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta doing Foghat's "Slow Ride." Wow... way to steal the pimp slot away from Danny Gokey. He must be getting under the producers' skin in some way, because despite being an early fan favorite I don't think he's ever gotten a pimp slot. Anyway, Allison hits the stage first, and she comes out with that same stage-energy she showed earlier and blows out some great vocals. Then Adam comes strolling up from the back of the stage next to join her. And everything I said about Kris and Danny's performance being disjointed - like they weren't on the same page? The opposite is true here. Adam and Allison trade riffs back and forth, seeming to play off one another while having a blast doing it. This isn't anything deep. It's just a fun, classic power rock anthem. Adam and Allison put all the fun into it that the audience is looking for, and - even though it may just be good stage acting - they actually seem to LIKE one another. Take a note, Kris and Danny. That's just a good idea when you're performing together. Anyway the crowd goes wild. The judges go back into superlatives. And the spotlight is one hundred and ten percent stolen from Danny and Kris. Simon Cowell, no fan of Allison's earlier performance, thinks Adam might have just saved Allison from elimination with this. If so, let's not minimize Allison's part in it too.

And now for the summary. This was a ridiculously fun night for Idol. Was it the best performed Idol ever? No way. But it was original, unpredictable, and the duets were a terrific new twist. Song selection was a bit wanting for the most part, but who knows how much of that was due to contestant choice versus song availability to them.

The concept of a "bottom three" is kind of moot at this stage. I suspect we're going to get an elimination where the "top three" get called one by one. And the final two remaining are by no means certain to be the bottom two vote getters.

So let's do this a bit differently. No calling "bottom three" or even "bottom two." Here's who will be in the finals...

Adam Lambert (it's a lock)
Allison Iraheta (she earned it with that final duet)
Danny Gokey (too popular for even that torturous last note to kill)

And that means.... Kris Allen will be going home, just short of the finals.

Of course... top four week is the traditional week for Idol's most shocking eliminations. Tamyra Gray... Latoya London... Chris Daughtry... If that pattern is repeated here, look for Danny Gokey's shocking elimination. I'm pretty skeptical it will happen, but frankly I'd prefer Kris Allen to Danny Gokey in the finals myself.

UPDATE: The Results

Sorry for the long delay in updating. I was so overwhelmed by the sense of injustice instilled by this week's elimination it left me lifeless and listless... a mere husk where once a living, breathing person existed. See what you can do to a person, America?! Vote responsibly, for gosh sake, and this shouldn't happen again.

Long story short, my girl Allison will not be in the final three. The Idol producers teased us till the very end, with the tantalizing notion that it might... might... be Danny Gokey leaving. That would have put my ideal top three into the finals. But alas... it was not to be.

So next week we have the Gokester, Kris "thank God for my adorable smile" Allen, and Adam "the eventual winner" Lambert. They're singing two songs apiece, because lord knows the judges would never shut up in time to squeeze in three. Hopefully that means the performance times will be longer than otherwise. One song is the usually awful "judges choice," and the other is whatever they feel like singing. Should be quite the study in contrasts. Also we have the big "going home" celebrations. See you then.