Good week of auditions on AI and interesting casting of guest judges as well.
We started with seeing auditions from Los Angeles and day 1 was Avril Lavigne as guest judge. Avril did ok as judge. We didn't see her do much other than laugh at some of the auditions.
We got the circus going right away with super-sweaty contestant Neil Goldstein who seemed to sweat more and more right before our eyes! LOL! He also had this weird vibrato going on with his voice. Thankfully we won't be seeing him sweat in Hollywood.
Jim Ranger had a cool Kid Rock / southern rock vibe.
Next up we saw a video package on life-long martial artist (?!) Damien Lefavor who could neither sing or do martial arts. No wonder we saw Avril laughing so much!
We then saw rocker grrl Mary Powers who had a good voice and whose 8 year old daughter wanted to meet Simon. He was very cool to the little girl and made her day.
We got a video package of all the Adam Lambert inspired contestants. Then we got to meet AJ Mendoza who said he had sent a demo to Adam and that Adam only had good things to say about it. He then went and gave his best Adam Lambert impression. There's only one Adam and it would stay that way after that audition! LOL!
Day 2 was Katy Perry as guest judge. At first, she seemed like a good judge until they showed her bickering and being catty with Kara who is an actual judge on the show and has shown herself to be very knowledgable on what she's talking about.
Day 2 brought us some good contestants to watch and hear.
We got to see a video package on Andrew Garcia and then watched him sing. He had a very good voice, the best up to that point. He also sounded and reminded me visually of Danny Gokey. That's a good standard to be compared to!
Tasha Layton who is a minister by night had a good look and voice. Nice to see a lot of spiritual and genuine people trying out.
The show ended with foster child Chris Golightly who sang with great passion to his voice. I really connected with him and think he has a lot of potential. He reminded me of Justin Guarini in look and voice. Hopefully that's a good thing as I think Justin should've had a better career than he's had and better than a lot of the lucky ones that came after him with lesser talent that got farther in their careers because AI was a bigger show when they were on.
Night 2 of auditions brings us to Dallas and we got Neil Patrick Harris as a guest judge. Being a big "How I met your Mother" fan, it's cool to see Barney up there judging. Suit up!
Dallas brought a lot of good talent!
Lloyd Thomas had a nice voice and looks to be a great Dad. I can get behind that!
Kimberly Carver had a nice voice and I liked her bubbly personality.
Poor Dexter Ward was convinced he was the next American Idol but then tried to do a Shai song (which for those of you that don't know is one of the best accapella songs ever done IMO and considering it has amazing 4 part harmony, shouldn't be done by a solo singer), it just showed he was not close to being ready. Felt bad for him. He was devestated. :(
I know its the cool thing to sit and point at the singers who fail on this show but at the same time, these are kids/young adults who for the most part have a passion for singing and singing brings them joy. Its hard for me to see some of these singers go down in flames and to see their emotions well up as their dream is burst of not only making it to Hollywood but also a lot of times to even think that they can sing well. Its a cruel truth that sometimes needs to be said but sometimes a more tactful way should be used with some of the more passionate contestants that lack the talent to go further. But I know that won't make for good TV, now will it? :/
Up next, we got Erica Rhodes who we found it was on the kids show "Barney & Friends". As a Dad of 3 kids, I've seen my fair share of Barney and recall seeing her on the show and being on the show for a long while. Don't recall seeing Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato on Barney but I definitely remember seeing Erica. Anyhow, it was cool to see her still doing entertainment and singing. They had her sing the Barney "I love you" song and I thought she sang that better than the song she auditioned with. Again why do a song with 4 part harmony? In this case En Vogue's "Free your mind". I also didn't feel that she needed to wear the leather and whip getup to make an impression.
We got to see a video package on Dave Pittman and the challenges he faces with Tourrette's Syndrome. He had a great voice and Neil Patrick Harris broached the subject of him having Tourrette's syndrome to which Dave acknowledged it. Things like this are good to see because a lot of people think that Tourrette's is just random cursing, etc. and its good to show a more common face to the condition.
Onto Day 2 of the Dallas auditions and we get new guest judge Joe Jonas but unfortunately we got to see more of him in the video package of who he is and getting to the auditions. We barely saw him give input as well. He only got 20 minutes of TV time too. Weird.
Todrick Hall amused with a very funny original song that showed that he also had a real good voice to go along with his song-writing talent.
Maegan Wright had a real nice voice and tone.
Lastly, we got a video package on Christian Spear who had leukemia at age 4. Again, real nice to see a survivor's story and another story of inspiration. I know a lot of people just want to see the trainwrecks but in a time of recent news where we hear about wars, earthquake disasters and economy woes I would much rather hear stories of inspiration to get to know the singers that we might be listening to for the next few weeks/months than seeing some failed audition. Anyway, she had a nice voice. It's going to be hard to see a lot of these genuinely nice people not make it through Hollywood week.
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