steve crisp's blog

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Fantasia -  Summertime, Taylor Hicks - Takin' it to the Streets. Kathrine McPhee - Over the Rainbow. Bo Bice - In a Dream.

Those are the earth shattering, memorable performances which I expect to hear at this stage of the competition.  Haven't heard a one yet this year to compare and tonight was no different.

So let's run em' down...

David Cook: Hungry Like a Wolf just didn't cut it. Boring arrangement and growling vocals not at all suited to the melody. With that song, there is also a strong expectation of the background vocals complementing the lead and they just weren't there. Then he tackled The Who. Great vocal this time, but a nasty arrangement that is leaving Pete Townshend sobbing somewhere. Very bizarre and abrupt ending that almost felt like he wasn't done yet, but just decided to give up.

Syesha: Proud Mary was flat, boring, and blah. She failed completely to hit the counterpoint and totally forgot about the high register. Further, she can keep tempo well, but really can't dance, at least not in terms of an effective stage presence. Change is Gonna Come was performed exceptionally well with couple of minor screech owl effects on the high notes. Her problem was that she made the song too personal. I think a lot of folks are just flat out tired of politics at this point and that may have been a huge mistake.

Jason: Oh boy. I Shot the Sheriff. At least he was true to the original and not Clapton's abortion of one of Marley's major works. Beyond that, it was flat, though I have to still give him credit for having impeccable vocal timing. Now, to Mr. Tamborine Man. How do you forget the words to one of the most widely known songs in the history of music? And it is unfortunate since beyond that the performance was fantastic. Folk Jason, folk. This is your element and you blew it. And though I know he comes off as a total dork, but he really is a fine musician and singer. Just not tonight when it counted big time.

Little David: And the suckfest continues. OK, I just do not like his voice. I've said it before and I'll say it again. He is a mouth breathing, lip licker who just irritates me. Having said that, he was pretty good tonight given his typical performance. Stand By Me was a tad pitchy and flat at times, and I don't think he really had a grasp on the meaning of the song, but technically it was mostly good. But on to Elvis. In singing Love Me Tender, he chose what is arguably the most well known ballad of all time sung by the most well known singer of all time and he almost pulled it off. Vocals were fair, but the arrangement was really lacking. It's a simple song meant to be sung straight and into the eyes of one person. Elvis pulled it off no matter how large the audience. Little David did not.

So here's where I think they stack up going into tomorrow night.

David Cook and Little David would be safe if they came out and butchered the National Anthem. They simply have too much of a fan base to toss them off regardless of what they do. Anyway, they weren't all that bad, just not memorable tonight.

So it's down to Syesha or Jason. Even with the disaster of forgetting the words, I'm gonna toss Syesha this week for two reasons.

1. Jason I think still has the fan base to overcome his flubs and let him hang for at least one more week.

2. Syesha, as noted before, injected the politics of race into her selections. And though she sang it from the heart, I just think it may have turned off enough people to say bye-bye to her.