This is what rock 'n' roll is supposed to be -- ragged, raw, rough and full of zest.
It was "American Idol" rock night, with an added element: Part of the set had almost crashed down before the show; as a result, no one had a run-through performance. You kind of expected it all to end with the phantom swinging down on a chandelier.
Hey, rock isn't about run-throughs. It's supposed to be fun and flawed. Here are a few of my comments, please add yours:
1) Allison Iraheta and Danny Gokey both chose shout songs. Those are ones that involve shouting the same phrase over and over. These are good songs, but they don't necessarily show off the singers.
2) Kris chose "Come Together" -- a great song for Beatles, but not one with a lot of vocal flourish.
3) Adam chose perfectly, as usual. He turned "Whole Lotta Love" into a powerhouse experience.
4) Maybe that was the world's most vibrant promo. In July, Fox has a reality show ("More to Love") that could use the song "Whole Lotta Love" as its theme. The show has a very heavy guy dating lots of heavy women. It might be the tacky side of TV reality; "Idol" is the good side.
5) Someone get me Adam's hair stylist. Adam has had a great (and different) look every week. This time, Allison borrowed that stylist and looked wonderful. Now it's my turn.
6) Oh, wait. I just looked in the mirror; I think it helps to be Allison-cute.
7) On this great-hair night, Kara DioGuardi chose to have stark, pulled-back hair. It was the wrong night to be Skeletor.
8) Still, I'll give her this: Kara actually disagreed with Randy on something. It's about time.
9) Kara also had the best observation. Kris and Danny singing "Renegade"? Actually, she said, "you're the guys who help little ladies across the street." Here were two guys who are church worship leaders, singing about renegades. It reminded me of the church picnic , a couple years ago, in which a neatly dressed, middle-aged gentleman sang "Born to Be Wild." It wasn't convincing.
10) And that brought the difference. The Kris-Danny duet was OK; the Adam-Allison one was powerhouse perfect.
11) For once, I agreed with Simon Cowell entirely: Adam lifted Allison to the safety zone.
12) I went into the night expecting that Kris and Allison would be in the bottom two, with Allison going home. Now I'm switching that: Danny will be in the bottom (for the first time) with Kris. Kris will go.
13) It will be a big night Wednesday, complete with Daughtry and No Doubt. It will be live and -- if we're lucky -- ragged. Rock 'n' roll should be.
I wonder how the pairs were chosen for the duets. I'm assuming they did something upstanding like a hat draw, but you have to look at how that shook out and think, "Some producer was VERY happy to see Adam and Allison paired up." It basically showed viewers what the final show could be like.
I honestly think Danny could be the one going home tonight. The Aerosmith song was out of tune from start to finish (and, please, the scream at the end was such a desperate "see? I can be just as cool as Adam!" move).