Ordinarily, this is supposed to be an exciting night in “Idol” land, but anticipation for this year’s first trip to the big stage was filled with more apprehension than exhilaration.

That’s because we’re saddled with one of our weakest “Idol” crops since Melinda Doolittle appeared to be the only one who could sing a few years back.  This season’s first top 12 show gives us a ragtag bunch without a real standout and some who wouldn’t have even cracked the top 24 during a few seasons.  Yes, this was a top 12 show that felt more liked force-of-habit viewing than it did the start of another big thing.

Strangely, something different happened when the actual show started.  Suddenly, some of the bad contestants didn’t seem so horrible, and the solid contestants looked as though they had a shot at being great.  Maybe it’s the big stage, but last night, “Idol” gave us something a little less than expected.

Check it all out below. . .

Random Thoughts Waiting for the Actual Show To Start:

There’s something a bit off about pop music denizen Ryan Seacrest doing the voiceover for the Rolling Stones clip.  It’s kind of like a political commentator doing football highlights.  Oh wait, you mean that’s actually happening?

Ordinarily, we get some judge comments at this point, but not tonight!  Seems the Stones clip and

And. . .On with the show!

 

Big Mike Sang “Miss You”

Randy Said: It reminded me how great of performer you’ve become. You slayed it.

Ellen Said: What’s not to love about that?

Kara Said: No clue what Kara said.  Something about The Rolling Stones.

Simon Said: I thought the performance at times was kind of corny.  Verging on a tiny bit desperate.

The Verdict:

Thank goodness he made this into a soul song, because I shuddered when Ryan said Big Mike was about to take trip down the Rolling Stones’ ill-fated disco detour.  But he does more than just put a soul spin on this song, he completely transforms it, into something like a Tower of Power pop tune – like the record Huey Lewis tried to make with “Fore!” A very cool rendition and some great vocals as well.

Grade: A-

Prediction: Very weird to say, but Big Mike could be in some trouble.  If there’s one person in this world that people in America listen to (other than Rush Limbaugh, apparently) it’s Simon Cowell, and his harsh words for the performance are really going to hurt Big Mike’s chance.  Even more – he went in the leadoff spot.  That’s a lot to overcome, but I think he can do it.

 

DiDi Benami Sang “Play With Fire”

Randy Said: DiDi, you on fire tonight.

Ellen Said: Ellen said something about DiDi making the word fire two syllables, like it wasn’t two syllables.  Um, Ellen, I don’t know what language you’re speaking, but fire is two syllables.

Kara Said: You’re moving in the right direction every week.

Simon Said: It was a solid, not brilliant, performance.

The Verdict:

This is a very good song choice for DiDi (and one I’m a bit embarrassed not to have included for anyone).  She goes Stevie Nicks on Mescaline with it – a bit mysterious and oddly angry.  Not sure that combination works.  She songs the well, but the arrangement is just kind of dull and the way she attempts to belt the notes on the end of the hook just sounds out of place.  I can’t fault her voice, but I can fault everything else about the performance – particularly the forced snarl as she sang.

Grade: C-

Prediction: You’d think DiDi would be totally safe after those raves, but this early in the show that performance just wasn’t memorable enough to lock her in.

 

Casey James Sang “It’s All Over Now”

Randy Said: I loved it.  You are back.

Ellen Said: For most women, their hearts are going to start racing the minute they look at you.  But for people like me, blondes, I thought it was fantastic.

Kara Said: Tonight you were a rock star.  Your best performance.

Simon Said: To me, that was like an audition performance.  You didn’t do something incredible, you’ve got to push yourself.

The Verdict:

Okay, I’m starting to come over to Simon’s side when he said that Casey is nothing more than a bar performer, because this was nothing more than a bar performance.  Casey shows no personality onstage here and scarcely connects to the song at all.  His guitar is great, but his voice is nothing beyond something you’d find at a karaoke night in a restaurant with a mechanical bull in the middle of the floor.  Just kind of ordinary.

Grade: C-

Prediction: People may remember Ellen’s joke more than Casey’s performance.  Luckily for Casey, that joke included a glowing compliment – so he should stick around quite easily.

 

Lacey Brown Sang “Ruby Tuesday”

Randy Said: I wasn’t jumping up and down, but I was actually pleasantly surprised.

Ellen Said: You stood when you have sat and sat when you should have standed – whatever that means.

Kara Said: There were some issues where you didn’t hit the notes right.  Kind of 50/50.

Simon Said: You perform like an actress.  You have to stop overthinking it, but nothing wrong with the vocal.

The Verdict:

I knew she was going to sing ‘Ruby Tuesday’.  It’s just so. . .her.

Okay, here’s the problem with the show this year.  There are people who don’t care at all about winning.  Don’t care at all about sticking around, and Lacey is clearly one of those people.  She comes out like she’s singing in a musical only being attended by her friends and family.  Like she has no designs on sticking around at all, she’s just so tickled to be singing at all.

And it’s too bad, because she actually has some real talent.  The tone in her voice is so uniquely appealing that you wish she knew how to use it better.  The arrangement of this song is so quirky, spare, and just cool that you wish she would have really dug in and gone full bore after this song.  This had all the elements of being great – beautiful girl with a great personality, a good voice with a unique tone, and one of the cooler arrangements of a song I’ve ever heard on this show.  But with Lacey’s sort of laissez faire attitude, it was just. . .nice.

Grade: C+

Prediction: She didn’t get as savaged by the judges as I would have expected, and that video is going to lock down some more votes from middle America.  Honestly, I think she’s safe!

 

Andrew Garcia Sang “Gimme Shelter”

Randy Said: It was just pitchy everywhere.

Ellen Said: I think that was your best performance yet.

Kara Said: Didn’t feel the connection to the song.

Simon Said: Something didn’t quite connect.

The Verdict:

So he comes out looking like the emcee at the open mic night at the Ha Ha Hole and sings over a backing track that sounds like it’s out of an Atari game.  This is not a good start.

And what’s worse?  It turns out Andrew can’t sing very well.  Without his guitar his voice is completely exposed and, as it turns out, is very flat.  He goes for some big notes, but doesn’t come close, and never really sounds like a singer.  This was a terrible miscalculation by Andrew, one that resulted in something of a trainwreck.

Grade: D

Prediction: If we’re to believe the pairings the last couple weeks, Andrew has been in the bottom four every time – so he doesn’t quite have the fan club we all thought.  After that performance, he’s in even more danger.

 

Katie Stevens Sang “Wild Horses”

Randy Said: I think you sang that really well.  A really strong performance.

Ellen Said: You sounded great.

Kara Said: It was better than last week.

Simon Said: This was the first time that you connected with the song. (Simon also scratched his eye with his middle finger – wonder how big that’s going to get blown out of proportion today.  It’s probably smart to note that in England sticking up the middle finger is not considered an affront – their version is the backwards peace sign, so not only was this innocent, even if Simon had wanted to give her the finger, he would have gone with the backwards peace sign, not a middle finger extension.  There, got out in front of that one.)

The Verdict:

And here she is, the girl who just beat out Lilly.  Let’s see if I can put that behind me.  Plus, she won the “Wild Horses” sweepstakes.  Everything’s coming up roses for this one.  Grr.

Okay, objectivity time!  Here’s the thing about Katie.  She has a really good voice.  Probably a great voice.  But she always looks so ridiculous onstage as she tries to handles these mature songs while looking like an American Girl doll.  Here she doesn’t bring anything new to the song, maybe a bit more of a country vibe than we’re used to, but she doesn’t take anything from it.  Just another solid vocal from Katie with nothing much else going on.

Grade: B-

Prediction: She clearly has something of a following, so I don’t see her going anywhere.

 

Tim Urban sang “Under My Thumb”

Randy Said: I didn’t get that dude.  I didn’t like it.

Ellen Said: I felt like I was at a resort and listen to somebody sing.

Kara Said: I’ve got to applaud you for doing something incredibly different.  You made it your own.

Simon Said: You tried to do something different but it didn’t work.

The Verdict:

Okay, so we’re doing a weird reggae arrangement of a Rolling Stones song, now.  Fair enough. 

As for Urban, he’s just lousy.  His only move is to look with the puppy dog eyes and sing with a very mediocre voice.  It’s really  no wonder he didn’t make the top 24.  And that a cappella run near the end? That was something of an affront to the ears of America, and showed what Urban would do if he picked a song that required him to sing more than three notes.

Grade: D+

Prediction: It’s the weird cult of Tim’s body versus those who’ve actually watched him sing.  Tough competition.  That strange indignant crying explanation isn’t going to help the former group’s cause.  He’s in real trouble.

 

Siobahn Magnus sang “Paint It Black”

Randy Said: That was hot!

Kara Said: You’re like Snooki’s poof (and she meant that as a compliment).

Ellen Said: The best interpretation tonight.

Simon Said: The standout performance of the night.

The Verdict:

All right, Siobahn.  Now that Lilly’s gone, you’ve joined Lacey as one of my two favorites.  Don’t let me down here.

Between the classical music beginning, the punk rock prom queen crossed with Marie Antoinette get-up and the frightening graphical background, I don’t know weather to think this was the biggest trainwreck I’ve ever seen or some sort of bizarrely brilliant piece of performance art.  I’ll say one thing – if she keeps hitting those crazy notes, I’ll continue to opt for the latter, especially since now I’m kind of sort of scared of her.

Grade: B+

Prediction: There’s no way anybody’s going to forget that.  She’s the safest of them all so far.

 

Lee Dewyze Sang “Beast of Burden”

Randy Said: I thought it was dope.

Ellen Said: I was expecting a tiny bit more from you, but there was nothing wrong with it.

Kara Said: Tremendous growth.

Simon Said: You don’t shine at the moment, but you have got an incredibly good voice.

The Verdict:

A terrible, terrible song choice.  Really awful – one of the worst, if not the worst, Rolling Stones songs.  But Lee does something nice with it.  It sounds a bit like a Counting Crows record – that sort of easy-going radio rock.  He loses his pitch and the words at moment and struggles at times with the rhythm, but for the most part his voice sounds great.  And it can’t be stated enough how much he improved an otherwise obnoxious song and actually made it something that wouldn’t cause you to hit the next radio preset.

Grade: B

Prediction: I think Lee’s starting to gather a nice little following.  The judges comments won’t help him much, but I think he helped himself enough that won’t matter.

 

Paige Miles Sang “Honky Tonk Women”

Randy Said: You did all right, you kind of pulled it out.

Ellen Said: You really sounded amazing.

Kara Said: The Paige we fell in love with was back.

Simon Said: You still haven’t quite connected, but you sounded great.

The Verdict:

Now I’m starting to see what Simon keeps going on about when he raves about Paige’s voice.  Yes bartender, I’ll take a country twang with a heavy dose of soul chaser as if it were being sung by Monica.  In fact, I’ll make it a double.

Aside from Paige’s dynamite vocal, she actually used the stage as well as anyone not named Siobahn, rocking out in the space and fully connecting to the song.  She didn’t do anything different with the song, but with that vocal, it didn’t really matter.

After that funeral dirge last week, I thought she was done.  Now I think she has a chance to win.

Grade: B+

Prediction: Laryngitis plus a killer performance?  Yeah, that should play pretty well amongst voters.

 

Aaron Kelly Sang “Angie”

Randy Said: I thought it was hot.

Ellen Said: Yours and Siobahn’s are the two performances that stand out tonight.

Kara Said: That was really powerful.

Simon Said: You chose 100% the right song.  You sang the song within the limits of your vocal.

The Verdict:

And Aaron wins the “Angie” sweepstakes, and turns it into something of a country boy band record as if it were being sung by somebody stuck inside a flat tire.  Seriously, it sounded like his voice was muffled during most of the verses.  It got better on the bigger notes, but with a song as heartfelt as this, it’s just strange to sing it was such a distance – such a manufactured sound.  This whole performance was just kind of weird.  It wasn’t bad, his vocal was solid when it didn’t sound like it was being sung through a pile of laundry, it just seemed all seemed a bit out-of-place.

Grade: C

Prediction: With those raves this late in the show, Aaron is quite safe.

 

Crystal Bowersox Sang “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”

Randy Said: It wasn’t my favorite performance, but it didn’t disappoint.

Ellen Said: It’s so effortless with you, and you added personality tonight.

Kara Said: Tonight you loosened up some more.  It’s just easy to watch.

Simon Said: You came out here tonight, the 100% favorite, but tonight you were beaten by somebody.

The Verdict:

And the producers want. . .Crystal to win!  Imagine that – Crystal gets the pimp spot.  I’d be surprised if she’s out of the last five performances until we get down to an hour-long show.  Yes, I’m a bit bitter that the poor girl’s Lilly got all the hype and we don’t get to watch Ms. Scott anymore.  But, no, I will be obective.

At first this seemed like Crystal as usual – a busker with confidence who sings much bigger than her talents allow.  That is, somebody playing the part of someone with talent, but doesn’t actually have that talent.  That’s until the middle where she breaks the song down, letting her hair down (if it can actually move) and flashing a wild vocal range that I didn’t know she had.  It’s in that moment that she went from somebody masquerading as a musical talent, to showing a great deal of musical talent.

Grade: B+

Prediction: There’s no way in the world that she’s going home.  Simple as that.

Final Thoughts:

Tonight was a mix of disappointing and quite satisfying.  Disappointing in that there were so many great singer’s songs from the Stones that went unchosen.  “Moonlight Mile” anyone?

It was satisfying in that this was not the trainwreck I was expecting.  When the show lost three of it’s top seven performers last week (including the best in Lilly, yes I’ll probably keep harping on that for the rest of the season) it seemed like the air had gone out of the show to some degree. But with tonight’s performances, we saw there is still enough talent left to prevent this season from being a complete waste. Just as long as America doesn’t go psycho and vote of Siobahn, or something like that.

Speaking of which, it’s prediction time:

Here’s how simply I chose this week’s castaway.  I was going down the possible candidates in my head and then Andrew Garcia showed up in the recap, and I’d completely forgotten he even performed. That is not a good sign.  Andrew’s gone this week, though Tim Urban wouldn’t surprise me either.