Author: Andy Labis

By:

The Dude on the Right
We are finally down to the final 12, thank whatever God you pray to, because now
I can finally to actually try and get to know the "American Idol" contestants,
or at least identify them better, even if it isn’t really by their name. 
It also helps freeing up my Thursday night TV viewing, especially as "30 Rock"
and "My Name is Earl" returns pretty soon, because Idol is back to its
appropriate two nights a week.  Enough prologue, the theme of tonight is
the Lennon/McCartney songbook, so this night has the potential for some
train-wrecks.  Let’s get to the show…

Syesha Mercado
– Sings – Got to Get You Into My Life
– Better hair, nice look, bad earrings.
– Thought she started well, but then kind of messed up making it "her own"
during the chorus.  Even though, she has the looks, the voice, and has tons
of potential, she’s starting to be a performer.

Chikezie
– Sings – She’s a Woman
– He is really coming into his own and I think he did a great job.  He
works the stage, acts just a tad goofy for the song, and at first, when "Idol"
started, I didn’t like him, but slowly Chikezie is becoming one of my favorites. 
Somewhere the "confidence" drug hit this dude.

Ramiele Malubay
– Sings – In My Life
– First impression – wrong song.  Her voice is nice, but after following
Chikezie’s performance it’s almost like following Jerry Lee Lewis back in the
old days of rock & roll.  She looks good, sings okay, but the performance
was bland.  Paula thought she looked pretty.

Jason Castro
– Dude, you sound like a surfer, a stoner, like, well, you just want to
sing, and keep the karma.
– Sings – If I Fell
– He’s got the Jack Johnson vibe but with a reggae look instead.  He sings
well enough, I like that he’s also a musician and maybe sticking to the
surfer/reggae attitude will do him well.  I don’t think it will get him to
the finals, but Paula at least feels his heart.

Carly Smithson
– Sings – Come Together
– As much as I don’t like her being in the competition, but damn, I love that
accent.
– The voice is there, because it always is, and I do like the version she put
together, but even though she almost had a career before, there is something
about her look that bothers me.  I think it’s her hair.

David Cook
– Sings – Eleanor Rigby
– There’s just something about him that I don’t like.  I don’t know if it’s
his look, or maybe his attitude, or just seeming to be like Chris Daughtry. 
Paula thinks he’s a horse, but I just find him, umm, done before.  I don’t
see him winning but still getting radio play.  The only problem he has
right now is not seeming to have a previous band career like Daughtry did.

Brooke White
– Sings – Let it Be
– Good song after a long commercial break to let us forget performances. 
She sings pretty, plays pretty, and does that half "playing to the camera" but
still "I’m wrapped up in the song so leave me alone" performance well. 
Nice.  I like her.  She sings purty.

David Hernandez
– Sings – I Saw Her Standing There
– He seems to try too hard to be a performer, and his singing for this song
isn’t that great.  I think this was just a total wrong song choice for him
from the Beatles’ catalog he was given.  He better have a good fan base
otherwise he will be gone.

Amanda Overmyer
– Sings – You Can’t Do That
– It’s the first song that she heard this week.  Bad pants.  She stays
true to who she is, but I don’t see it getting her to the end of the competition
– just not "pop" enough for the show.  She does have the attitude, and the
voice, to hit her nitch, but I don’t think it will be with "American Idol." 
Good week for her, though.

Michael Johns
– Sings – Across the Universe
– It’s not a performer song, but let’s see what he does with it…  So far
it’s stale because he can’t separate himself from his microphone stand. 
Like everyone else, he sings nice enough, but it’s not a performance to
remember.

Kristy Lee Cook
–
Sings – Eight Days a Week
– She knows what to do with the songs, but it was a crappy arrangement. 
She’s a country singer, she knows it, and looks to follow in the footsteps of
Carrie Underwood, but this was not a song that could be turned into a country
song in a week.  The song sounded forced, she looks purty, sings purty, but
everything sounded wrong.  It was all over the place.

David Archuleta
– Sings – We Can Work It Out
– My advice for him, because he has so much potential, is don’t let the
"American Idol" folks fuck you up because they let you fuck it up this week. 
Forget the hair styling, forget the clothes, forget the pressure, and just, for
every week, let yourself have fun.  Sure, it’s easier said than done, but
that is your forte.  Bounce back to a few weeks ago when you just sang.

The pressure of competition has hit a couple of contestants, some of them picked
wrong songs, but the next couple of weeks will start to tell who gets the
popularity vote.  And next week come the Mentors.  God, for Howard
Stern fans we can only hope that one of them is Bruce, as in Bruce Springsteen. 
Artie Lange knows why.

That’s it for this one! 
I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!