Territorial Bloggings

Well, now. That was… something, now wasn’t it? And it wasn’t better than last week. It’s always a bit disheartening when people don’t learn from the misfortune of others. And the second group of semifinalists most certainly did not learn from the mistakes made by group #1. No, they seemed hell-bent on providing even more object lessons from which their compatriots in the 3rd seminfinal flight could learn. Horrific song choice? Check! Weak performance and/or stage fright? Check!

In the end, though, once again I wasn’t terribly surprised by who America put through. Allison & Adam deserved to go through because they were the best girl & guy of the evening, by a pretty clear margin. Kris, well, he was likable, didn’t stink, & didn’t choke — and that can go a long way at this stage.

Allison is going to be fun to watch. She is genuinely talented, and she’s a genuine, honest-to-goodness (it would seem) 16 y/o girl. There doesn’t seem to be much, if any, pretense to her, and that’s always a refreshing thing to find in a contestant. It makes it easy to root for her — she’s cute, she’s bubbly, she’s honest, she’s unique, and she can flat out sing.

Adam, on the other hand, is far more polarizing, even though the judges fell all over themselves loving him (and Paula was about ready to birth him his babies…). Perhaps it’s his musical theater background, or his horrific song choice (Satisfaction? Really? The Stones never really work on a show like Idol, for a solo artist, especially for someone trying to ACT like they have the nuts to pull it off…). Adam strikes me as the next generation Constantine — i.e., Poseur2.0 — IOW, he is trying to pull off convincing us that he’s got rock cred, rather than just letting it happen (it’s the difference between, say Daughtry/Bo & Constantine…). A huge number of folks are gonna like Adam & propel him along, and he does have a certain amount of talent. But there will also be a not insignificant number of folks (and I think I’ll be in this latter group) who just don’t like him because he just doesn’t ring true/genuine — there’s a bit too much smarmy, pretty-boy-and-he-knows-it to him for my taste.

Kris, well, he’s fodder for the Finals, and another body for the tour. Frankly, I would’ve preferred to see Nick/Normund, if only because he was entertaining and he openly acknowledged the joke, even as he could actually sing a little.

Next week, it’s on to the third & last semifinal, along with the totally judge driven wildcard show. It should be interesting to see how that all plays out.

-ghp