Idol threat 3/6

Gotta tell ya,' buds, I am not looking forward to this. I mean, with the exception of, like, two guys, the dudes have not been very entertaining.

But, looking at the silver lining here, not having much attachment to any of them will make the final six that much more competitive to me in the long run.

Blake Lewis: I don't know the name of this song, but I know I've heard it -- it's one of those reggae-esque, almost hip-hop songs. And he's tearing it up. Very, very good. He just made it looks so easy.

Randy: That was hot -- didn't know the song, but I loved. Paula: Didn't know the song either, but I was interested. It was really cool. Good job. Simon: Didn't understand a word you sang, but I think Randy and Paula are right. You will 100% be here next week.

Good to go. (It was a song by the band 311).

Sanjaya Malakar: No, I'm not surprised that you can hula. He's singing a song I'm embarrassed that I don't know what it is without Googling (which I'm not going to do), and it was OK. He went pitchy at the end. But it just wasn't all that good overall.

Randy: To say that it was a bit better than last week is kind of funny. When we first saw him, there was something special, we haven't seen that since. Paula: I don't agree completely with Randy. Try and get out of your comfort zone, but keep trying. Simon: Look ... it wasn't as ghastly as last week ... at the end of the day -- you're obviously popular, that's why you're still here, but based on the fact that this is a singing competition, it wasn't a good vocal. Maybe it's your hair keeping you in? It's something.

Dead on, folks.

Sundance: He's doing Pearl Jam's Jeremy, and it's not good at all. I mean, I have heard cover bands in local bars do PJ songs a lot better than this. How long can this guy keep producing this vortex of suck (heh) and not get kicked off? As long as America is dumb, I guess. Which is a vortex of its own kind. I probably shouldn't say that, honestly. When you get right down to it, and really talk to people, few folks are really dumb. They don't lack intelligence. What people lack is self motivation. They lack the desire to learn. They lack the desire to stand out from the crowd. AND, in the case of Sundance effin' Head, they lack the desire to shut down Birmingham's freakin' phone lines.

Randy: What I liked, what I loved, you put your Southern rock thing on Pearl Jam. Paula: You really pulled it out. Simon: I actually didn't like it as much as last week. I think you lost your charm. I think you went to very generic bar song.

YES! Simon. Dead freakin' on.

Chris Richardson: Used to be fat. Well, I have no room to snark there, so I won't. I don't know this song, but the opening was pretty shabby. In fact, as it goes along, it's pretty pitchy throughout. He's putting too many of those damn self-indulgent vocal runs in the song and he's effin' them up.

Randy: Every week you put the boys on blast (according to Randy, this was a Keith Urban song). Randy loved it. Paula: Loved it. Simon: It was good, not jumping out of my chair. Thought your voice was nasally. Don't think we've heard what your voice it capable of.

I just didn't like it. Didn't think it was good. I think if the heard what we viewers at home heard, they'd think more like me.

Jared Cotter: It tackling Stevie. And, imagine this, played basketball. Man, why does this guy think he can sing Stevie? He sucks. God he sucks. My wife says he reminds her of a taller, skinnier Carlton. Tonight he's even wearing a Carlton sweater. Well, to be fair, the breakdown portion of the song was really well done, but every other part of it sucked.

Randy: You gave a solid performance. Paula: I think you need to work on coloring up the way you sing. Simon: I sort of know, amazingly, what Paula is saying. It wasn't very original. This performance gets lost in the mix. I'm slightly disappointed tonight, that was not the "wow" factor.

Brandon Rogers: Is a classical pianist. Nice, I am suitably impressed. He's singing "I Just Want to Celebrate" very well. I dig this guy's voice. I haven't yet been disappointed by him yet. Even last week's performance was good with me. This was great.

Randy: Love that song, and it was good for you. Solid performance. Paula: Thought it was pretty phenomenal. Simon: I don't think you've represented yourself well. I had high hopes for you and I don't think you've chosen good songs. Don't think you had enough of a melody, enough of a hook.

Hmm. Maybe. According to Dial Idol, he doesn't seem to be pulling the votes. So, even though this was a great performance (IMO), he's probably gone.

Phil Stacey: Jeebus, this is bad. I have no clue what song this is, but it was painful to start. He picks it up with the tempo, no ... wait ... he's gone and screwed it up again. Holy pogo-stick-jumping Jehovah that was painfully bad.

Randy: You can hit the high notes, but your low register was bad. Paula: Lower part of your register was bad. Don't feel this was your best performance. Simon: I didn't get it at all. The whole thing appeared very odd. This has been a disappointing week from the guys, bar one or two.

Chris Sligh: Another song I don't know. "We all wanna be loved" ? It's pretty good. The thing about Chris is that he's stuck well within his comfort zone and rocked it solidly within there. Great performance.

Randy: Not sure that was my favorite song choice for you -- I think you get the vocal prize for the night, thought. Paula: Not my favorite performance. Simon: Thought beginning was very good, thought you shouted in the middle. Not a great hooky song. Probably not one of your better songs, but you have potential. Not a great song choice.

Overall: Blake was great. Brandon was very good. Chris was good, but I do agree that it wasn't the best song choice. If the voting was based solely on performance, none of these guys would have anything to fear. But, I'm afraid that Brandon isn't popular enough to make the cut.

My predictions (based both on my take on the performances and on Dial Idol predictions and the past week's results): Jared and Brandon are going home.

UPDATE:

Sarahk posts some updates from last week and her usual in-depth review of the boy's performance.

Curly McDimple at American Midol doesn't appear to have liked anyone from last night.

Dial Idol prediction: DI has Phil Stacey and Sundance Head as the bottom two. Based on their performances, I would agree that they both earned those spots. I think I would rather see Jared go than Phil, but if DI is accurate this week, we'll be losing the dreaded Sundance. And I'm just fine with that.

Apparently I played it a bit too safe with my predictions. I figured Sundance was safe based on popularity -- he topped the DI prediction charts the past two weeks. Oh well, Jared and Brandon are the next two up, so, given the margin of error, the actual results could be those two. Actually, given the margin of error, it could be almost any of the guys. If you look at the result scores, all the guys scored very close to one another. It's a close horse race this week.