American Idol 8.9 - The top 4 sing ROCK!!!

Tonight will be awesome for Allison and probably Adam. It might be a little harder sell for Danny and Kris. We'll see how it goes.

It will also be "trial by fire" since the idols had no run through on stage with the band due to an on-stage accident which left one of the AI signs at a precarious angle.

Slash - legendary guitarist from Guns n' Roses - is the guest mentor this evening. Cool beans.

Adam Lambert
Whole Lotta Love - Led Zepplin
This song is a no-brainer for Adam. He looks the part of the glam-rock dude. He sounds it even more. This is probably his genre when he cuts his first album, and this song may as well be on it. I'm not engaged with him much, but he sounds amazing. His pitch is amazing. His performance is ... amazing. If anything, the vocal is almost too clean. Seems to me there should have been some grind in it - dirty things up a bit. It's almost like ending the baseball game with no grass stains on the uniform - somehow I just wasn't convinced. He has a killer instrument, but I am buying his performances less and less. The more I think about it, the more everything he does seems rather like a put-on. So sue me.

Allison Iraheta
Cry Baby - Janis Joplin
It's not fair. Allison has that belter thing going. She has the sexy huskiness in her voice. But still, she has a strength an purity in her voice. I'm jealous. And she totally nailed the song. I liked it - forget what Randy had to say. I thought it was fantastic. My only criticism - her lipstick is too pink. It should have been a deeper shade of red. *shrug*

Kris and Danny
Renegade - Styx
I'm glad the duet pairings ended up with Danny & Kris together - I'm not sure either one of them would have compared favorably to either Allison or Adam. There were some really nice parts in both of their solos and the duetting sounded great. I would have liked stronger vocals from Kris overall, but I think Danny was great. Overall a very strong performance from both, though probably only an 8 out of 10.

* * * At the halfway point, I think Allison is the current frontrunner * * *

Kris Allen
Come Together - The Beatles
Um... no. I guess this is OK, but it's sounds like a cheap imitation. I'm not a fan of this performance at all. This is not what I wanted to hear from Kris. I appreciate the fact that he changed it up quite a bit from the original, but it's such a classic song that it sorta just feels ruined instead of fresh and interesting. Meh.

Danny Gokey
Dream On - Aerosmith
This is a great song. I'm a little worried for Danny. He sounded great in his rehearsal clip, but this is definitely a roll of the dice. He's perfect on the the beginning... but he went slightly sharp on the first held note. Sounds pretty good on the middle section, but again just a little bit pitchy. And as he went for it with the screaming at the end, his voice broke and he ended on a shriek that had no control at all. I still love Danny and the beginning was nice, but I'm guessing he'll be in the bottom two with Kris after that performance. I will say though - I have a huge amount of respect for Danny in general. He hasn't done anything all season that would negatively impact his position as a worship leader - all his songs have had a message consistent with his beliefs. And he also hasn't done anything to dishonor the memory of his wife.

Allison and Adam
Slowride - Foghat
here's the two real rockers together. And they actually sound very good together. Surprisingly, their skills are not just evenly matched - they are very, very similar. Their vocal timbre is so close it was at times tough to tell who was singing which part when they were duetting. I think they need to be a band together when they wrap up the idol obligations. Very cool stuff.

Wow. Tough night to judge. I am almost certain Kris will be going home with Danny standing next to him when he gets the news. However, a lot will depend on who benefits most from the departure of Matt last week. I don't see either Adam or Allison picking up a lot of votes from Matt's hand-me-downs. Kris and Danny have a better chance of snagging those with Danny likely taking the lion's share. So Danny, Allison and Adam will probably be the final 3 with it really being anybody's game at that point.

I am looking forward to whatever happens - this ahs been the strongest season of Idol to date with things getting better every week.