Rock and Roll Night was the perfect vehicle for Adam Lambert; he’s made for this genre. And could a more perfect song than Led Zepplin’s “Whole Lotta Love” be a showcase for him? Nope. I don’t think so. He was practically flawless. Even his screaming was needed and necessary. But, but, but … much as it was a staple of the original — it is Led Zepplin, after all — Adam’s upper register was a tad fright wig screechy. Worked for the song, though.
The big disappointment, and rather a surprise, was Danny Gokey’s solo. But then again not so much a disappointment once you realized he would be doing an iconic tune such as Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” His gravelly voice lent character to the performance but, come the payoff signature ending, he choked royally.
With duets in the mix, Kris and Danny’s “Renegade” beat out Adam and Allison’s “Slow Ride.” Yup, you heard right. The judge’s didn’t know what the hell they were talking about in stating the initial contestants were inferior to the latter two. The harmonies of “Renegade” were spiffy and complimentary, working in unison well; the those of “Slow Ride” sounded as if someone was trying to Bandaid ’em together. They just did not jive. And all the solos were craptastic (and not in a good way) … except Adam’s whose was, again, done with flourish and flair beating out the others by a lot more than a handful of painted nails.
Speaking of duets: I would rather have seen the contestants commit to a pair of songs each rather than do duets. In so doing, we would have been treated to more of our favorites with plenty of room for them to either shine brightly or go down in flames. The duet thing, while tasty, didn’t do anything for the contestants standings
What we really want to know is: Who’s going home come elimination? Anyone buy Adam, that’s who.
P.S.: I’m still trying to mentally shake off the image of the severely pulled back hair and freakish ears of Kara DioGuardi. I can’t quite seem to erase it out of my mind.
Clacked by Michael Noble 
on May 06, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
Kris and Danny’s duet SUCKED, but Adam and Allison song on stage at the same time, but not together. It felt weird.
In all duets were stupid.
I’s say Kris is going home, but I really REALLY hope it’s Danny.
I think the duets idea was referencing “So You Think You Can Dance,” where it’s the opposite, with most of the dancing done in duets and the solo being held to the end (other than the “save yourself” solo dances). Having said that, I liked the duets as a change of pace. I think they were trying to avoid having two performances by the individuals as long as possible to avoid another embarrassment like Paula’s critique of Jason Castro’s second song first last year (if you can parse that last part out!).
The first duet was better, if only because Styx used harmony vocals much more than people remember. Everyone remembers Dennis DeYoung, but they always forget that Styx was at best a journeyman band until Tommy Shaw came in with his guitar playing and very nice harmony vocals. That was when Styx became huge (and I grew up in the Midwest in that timeperiod, so I DO like Styx, at least up to when DeYoung’s pretensions totally took over — NO thank you Mr. Roboto).
Slow Ride had the benefit of being one of those songs that everyone sings along to when it comes on the radio, so it feels comfortable. Plus, it was an original Guitar Hero song, so all the kiddies know it backwards and forwards. The other poster had it right — Adam and Allison never harmonized, but then again, their song didn’t really allow for it either.
Well, I never heard both of those songs before. And after watching them, I kinda like Kris and Danny’s one more. I dunno, I guess that song is catchier, more harmony and sounds nicer. While I agree AA’s performance was more energetic, it also sort of felt…boring to me. Maybe it’s the repetitive one-line chorus, but I guess it’s just a very visual performance (plus the cute hug really helped too).
I really dig the opening a capella of KD’s duet, and have actually played it back on audio alone many times. Call me crazy, but again I can’t see all the gushing of AA’s duet being awesome, or the judges’ criticism that it was a bad performance.
I love harmonizing so the Danny/Kris duet was the winner for me. I wish a closeup of Slash was shown when Danny screamed at the end of his song, wondered if he thought it was awful. Yikes when Idol used it as Danny’s recap.