Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Semi-finals Night 2 - the guys

AI was on last night so I'm back with my thoughts. Hope you're enjoying them. So, last week we had 60s night, tonight we had 70s night and I found the guys underwhelming for the most part.

Michael Johns opening the show didn't help as it set the tone for a show full of vocals that were solid but nothing great (well almost).

I agreed with the judges on Jason Castro in that his vocal was a bit safe and that he needs to put the guitar down and show that he can command the stage as a solo singer as well. He reminded me last night of Teddy Geiger (with dreads!). When I mentioned this out loud to my family as we were watching my daughter made a funny name for him - Teddy Dready! LOL!

Luke Menard was much better than last week and I enjoyed his rendition of Queen's "Killer Queen". I didn't agree with Simon (shocker I know) in him telling Luke that he lacked charisma (everyone lacks charisma if you compare them to the great Freddie Mercury) yet found him too theatrical. And Freddie wasn't?

I totally agreed with the judges on their critique of wanna-be rocker Robbie Carrico. His vocals lacked intensity and edge and it just came across as him thinking he could get by on his looks and a safe vocal. Chances are he will be safe though.

Danny Noriega did really well. I like the kid and hope he does well. His vocal was very solid. I'm not sure how well he will do in the english market but if he can speak spanish and ever decided to go into the spanish market, I think he has a look that would do well in latin america. He reminds me of Ray Reyes of Menudo fame.

David Hernandez was very solid and good as usual. I really liked how he changed the song, it showed a lot of style and his vocals were very good.

Jason Yaeger sounded good to me but Simon doesn't seem to like him or get him. Considering this poor guy didn't get much, if any, publicity in the weeks leading up to the semi-finals, it almost looks like he's being singled out as a non-favorite by Simon to ensure he doesn't make it into the Top 12.

Chikezie did well. I liked learning the origin of his name. I'm glad that he said he liked his suit from last week. I get annoyed with artists that get embarrassed how they looked in the past, etc. His comebacks to Simon are hilarious.

I'm not a fan of David Cook but I found his performance good. Simon seem peeved that the contestants were being very vocal in defending themselves against his attacks but oh well! It seems he likes to give his "opinion" as he puts it but can't take it when an opinion is going back his way. He actually had the nerve to say that he offers his criticism constructively but a lot of his critique has little value to it. I defend him when it does but he hasn't shown much of that so far.

David Archuleta did a spine-tingling performance worthy of all the praise it received. I've seen some other reviews of AI on the net that said that David Archuleta's winning AI is inevitable and I've been saying that all along so far. This kid is amazing. His voice and the way he chooses to stylize a song is amazing for someone his age. Hell, its amazing for anyone of any age. This kid is simply amazing.

With only 1 great performance and 9 good, solid ones it makes tomorrow's elimination difficult to predict but I'll say that Jason Yaeger and David Hernandez go home although they don't deserve to. If it was up to me, Michael Johns and Robbie Carrico would be going home based on yesterday's performances.

Hopefully the girls can step it up tonight. I expect them to.

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