In fairness to Jason Castro, “Do do do do / do do do / do do do / do do do / do do” is an easier lyric to remember. / Frank Micelotta / FOX / Getty
My American Idol reviews are up at time.com. At first I was surprised that it David Cook didn’t have a better night on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, but in retrospect it makes perfect sense. Cook’s biggest success has been as a counterprogrammmer, taking non-rock songs and turning them into rock songs; he just can’t generate the same excitement turning doing rock songs as rock songs. (Though I thought he did a fairly effective job with Baba O’Reilly O’Riley.)
But who’s going home?
It’s a battle of the bases. It’s probably down to either Jason Castro or Syesha Mercado, both of whom must have some die-hards out there, since they’ve both survived weeks that they should rightly have gone home. Jason was considerably worse, but in the twisted logic of Idol vote-gaming, that could have been an advantage: there’s a history of bad performance nights rallying fans who realize their favorite is in trouble. Syesha, on the other hand, was good if unremarkable, but her weeping on stage probably rallied sympathies of her fans.
My guess is Jason, on the theory that his foul-up of Mr. Tambourine Man’s lyrics and his goofy I Shot the Sheriff gave voters permission to send him home and not feel bad about it. But I won’t be surprised either way. (Remember: you vote for people on Idol, not against, which means lousy performances are sometimes not as damaging as you’d think.)
Your call?