But, it was an acceptable theme: 60's. I love the music of the 60's, and it's not a stupid or limiting theme, like last year's Gwen Stefani fiasco.
The night started off with a respectable rendition of Wilson Pickett's In The Midnight Hour by David Hernandez, the first of three contestants this year named David, but also the least memorable. The vocals were good, but the performance was statuesque. There was no movement or excitement or... performance. Even Hernandez's facial features were locked through the whole song. This may have been nothing more than stage fright, since he was the first to take the stage this year, and that's a pretty daunting prospect.
The judges seemed to enjoy it, but they seemed a little glazed over. Paula was glazed as a donut, mumbling her usual incoherent praises. Paula's always glazed, though. I think she may have an IV drip of tequila hidden under the judges' desk.
The performance was safe: Good enough to keep him in the competition, but not good enough to win him any real fans yet.
Next up was Chikezie Eze, who walked out onto the stage wearing a hideous orange insult to the word suit and a smile as he belted out a very cheesy rendition of More Today Than Yesterday by The Spiral Starecase. The whole thing was all just very bizarre. It DID feel like it was right out of the sixties, between the bad suit and the corny performance, but that hurt more than helped. The vocals were amateurish, which was a surprise to me. I had expected much more of Chikezie from his auditions. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great, either.
There wasn't even any attempt at bringing the song into the year 2008. The judges noted this, and it was to be the template for one third of the contestants of the night.
The next to take the stage was rocker David Cook. As a rocker myself, I want to see representation this year, and Cook has talent, although I don't think he's winner material yet. I had pretty high expectations for him, and when he opened his mouth and out came the strains of the Turtles' 1967 hit Happy Together, I was worried for a moment. It was an odd choice, but after a verse, he'd convinced me. It was definitely an original take on the piece. He made the song his own, and he has a good voice.
After that, we got the first truly bad number of the night. Jason Yeager seemed bland from the beginning, and he came out and gave a flavorless performance of Mercer and Mancini's classic Moon River. This song was written for Audrey Hepburn's range, which is why it's strange that it was too low for a man. Yeager's voice became hard to understand on the low notes, and in the higher registers became thin and pitchy. It suffered from a lack of personality, and his vain attempts to inject drama didn't work. Simon described it as 'cruise-ship'. I agree; it wasn't even cabaret, it was talent-show. Yeager and his song were dry and aged.
He also beat the audience over the head with the idea of his son, because sentiment sells on Idol. He was probably hoping to win the votes of the weepy mom demographic, but he just came off sounding a bit artificial.
Former boy-bandit Robbie Carrico was up next. He sang a decent cover of Three Dog Night's 1969 classic One. He used the stage effectively, and performed well. I don't really care for his nasal voice very much, and I think he's honestly a bit of a poser. He wants so badly to be a rocker, but he just won't ever be rock and roll. Having toured with Britney Spears loses him points, and his seeming inability to shift gears from pop may disqualify him. He just doesn't have a rock voice. He doesn't have the edge that any good rocker needs.
Carrico was followed by 17-year-old David Archuleta, singing Shop Around, originally by Smokey Robinson during his time with The Miracles. David has an excellent singing voice, and he seems to be a natural performer. He was able to make the song feel modern, and though he stuttered ever so slightly on the run that ended the song, I think he shows great promise, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the top ten.
Next in line was the immediately annoying Danny Noriega, who sang Jailhouse Rock. He apparently got away with this on an Elvis technicality, since Jailhouse Rock is actually a 1957 song. He has a good voice, and moderate stage presence. He clearly annoyed Simon, which is why the misanthropes over at Vote For The Worst have adopted him as their official Worst. They're wrong; the real worst came next, but we'll get to that in a minute.
Here, we had more proof that Paula makes no sense. She kept talking about the color of Danny's performance. I wonder what color the sky is in Paulaworld.
Luke Menard is apparently a clone of Orlando Bloom. He was completely unintelligible. I don't know what song he was singing. I do know that whatever he was singing, he was singing not quite a half step above the band the whole time, he had a weak voice, a bad falsetto, and awful microphone technique, and the whole thing was old-fashioned and forgettable. It was bad, but not even bad enough to be remembered in a few days, and that's what will kill him.
Colton Berry's take on Suspicious Minds wasn't nearly as bad as whatever it was that Luke Menard slaughtered before him, but it was still pretty bad, and kind of weird. He has a good voice, but it belonged in a karaoke bar, and it was mildly embarrassing to watch the poor, very white child trying in vain to boogie while he sang. However, it had enough redeeming value that I want to see him try at least one more song before deciding whether he deserves to continue or not.
Garrett Haley seems like a pleasant kid, and he may have a good voice hiding under all the nerves and stage fright. As it was, his first performance was a bit small and nasal, and not very memorable. Before he performed, we saw a bit of wit and humor from him, but he buckled under the pressure of maybe 30,000,000 people watching him. I think we should keep him around another week to see what he can do once he warms up to that stage.
The next contestant was probably the most interesting of the night. Jason Castro was, if I remember correctly, almost entirely ignored during the televised audition rounds, which is a shame, because he was one of the strongest performers of the night. He's the first contestant to use an instrument in the competition rounds, and he used it well. He played The Lovin' Spoonful's Daydream, and played it well. He was very comfortable on stage and with his song, and between his ease and his excellent voice, he impressed the audience (no great feat, since the studio audience would probably cheer for particularly shiny objects) and the judges. His vocals got just a little bit shaky towards the end of the song, but he pulled it off. I definitely want to see him go far in this competition.
The final contestant, Michael Johns, was the one I expected most from, a talented rocker from Australia who bowled me over in the Hollywood rounds by not slaughtering Bohemian Rhapsody. He sang The Doors' classic Light My Fire. It was very good, and Johns' vocals were excellent. He slipped a bit, losing his control on one or two notes, and got a bit pitchy on his final note, but it was overall a very impressive performance.
Tomorrow night is the girls' first night, and it remains to be seen whether they will share the 60's theme or have a different challenge to face. I'll be here, giving you my point of view.
BEST OF THE NIGHT:
JASON CASTRO and DAVID ARCHULETA
WORST OF THE NIGHT:
LUKE MENARD and JASON YEAGER
JASON CASTRO and DAVID ARCHULETA
WORST OF THE NIGHT:
LUKE MENARD and JASON YEAGER
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