American Idol – Gone

If there’s one thing the ‘ole American Idol machine does, and does well, it chugs along relentlessly. Nothing is going to get in its way. Good performances, bad performances … it just keeps a-comin’ at you, rolling on down the tracks.

And that’s exactly what it did on this “Now And Then” edition where the Idols performed two songs, one from the last few years, one from “back in the day” host Ryan Seacrest reminded us.

Overall? Not a bad show. A bit screechy and screamy throughout at times, but everyone did well enough.

Well … that is except for Jacob Lusk.

Jacob’s first tune — Chris Brown and Jordin Sparks’ hit “No Air” — got him a date with the fog machine. And the enveloping fog apparently caused him to get all animated and swishy and virtual crotch-grabby. Indeed, Jacob brought out his inner diva with this tune and, between the quirky moves and his pointing at me during the song, all I could do was guffaw at my television screen. The poor guy got swallowed up, then lost in comical over-performance.

But, wait! There’s more! His second tune, Nazareth’s “Love Hurts” was infinitely better. Okay … maybe not infinitely better, but there was a point in the song toward the end — for about 3.3 seconds — where it was good. You have to admit, though: 3.3 seconds of good performance was an improvement compared to his first outing. (Both rather painful videos, the worst of the night, are showcased below for your ogling pleasure.)

As mentioned, the rest of the Idols did rather well for the most part. There were the requisite tears from James Durbin, the smokey chords from Haley Reinhart busting out an unreleased Lady Gaga track (done rather well, I might add) and we even saw Lauren Alaina bust out of her shell with Carrie Underwood’s “Flat On The Floor,” a welcome and exuberant performance from her.

But it was Scott McCreery and his “Gone” that brought the house down. Scotty worked the song into a frenzy (video below) and the crowd followed suit. Randy Jackson boasted Haley’s “House Of The Rising Sun” (her final performance) the best of the night, but I beg to differ: Scotty walked away with that honor, hands down.

Who hits the road? That’s easy.

“… tell me how you gonna be without me …” Jacob shouted at me during his first tune. My answer? Pretty damned easily, once he’s gone.

Clacked by Michael Noble
on May 05, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT