Top 36, Group 1: Recap

An odd group to kick things off, as there weren't a whole lot of truly awful performers (except poor Stevie), but also no one who really blew me away (except for Alexis). The silver lining was that Simon was totally on his game this week and not full of any bullshit. Unlike a certain other judge who I mostly liked except for her bullshittery with Tatiana and Danny. Anyway, onto the performances...

Jackie Tohn (+2, sang first)
"A Little Less Conversation" (+2, Elvis)
So apparently I'm like two degrees of separation from Jackie, which means I feel bad talking about how this girl just exhausts me. I do like that she calls Ryan Seacrest "dude," because you know that makes his brain start fritzing out. But I think the judges pretty much nailed her down: Good to see someone having fun up there, but the vocal was pretty negligible. She's not selling records with that act, but I'm sure she'll find some way to monetize her willingness to ass out like that.

Ricky Braddy
"A Song For You"
I don't think he made nearly enough of the impression he needed to make to overcome the fact that we've barely seen him on the show before (though he's already gotten more of a reaction from Idol watchers than I expected him to, so maybe I'm wrong). The vocal was awfully nice to listen to, though, and with that face he could sing to me every day if he wanted to. I do think, on the strength of the vocal, that he definitely put himself in good position to perform on the wild-card show, but I can't see him advancing tomorrow.

Alexis Grace
"Never Loved a Man" (+2, Aretha Franklin)
Easily my favorite vocal of the night, even though I worry about where this "dirty up your image" thing ultimately ends given the fright makeup and trashy dress she chose as tonight's costume. Lesson Number One in life is you don't let Paula Abdul dress you, and Alexis needs to remember that.

Brent Keith
"Hicktown"
I don't understand the country audience, and the Idol judges rarely do either (Simon's clairvoyance re: Carrie Underwood notwithstanding), but I can't imagine anyone being moved to vote after such a middle-of-the-road performance. I don't care how much you look like a model for jeans. Butch jeans, too, not those gay-ass Brody Jenner butt cleavage jeans.

Stevie Wright
"You Belong With Me" (+2, Taylor Swift)
Oh, this poor girl. I thought she was merely good-not-great in her audition, but I have to figure that more than 50% of this performance gets chalked up to nerves. She just sounded petrified. Kudos to Bunting for the clairvoyant Taylor Swift pick, though!

Anoop Desai
"Angel of Mine"
Monica! He sang a Monica song! That's hilarious. He didn't sound half-bad, either, and Paula made the no-brainer Brian McKnight comparison (hey, it worked for Archuleta). Simon nailed it when he called out Anoop's huge likeability factor, which will either get him through this week or, at worst, put him in contention for the wild card.

Casey Carlson
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (+2, The Police)
Totally forgettable in every way. And as far as how allfire gorgeous she is, Paula, she seems totally generic. Bagging on song choice is famously overdone and usually just a copout for Paula and Randy to avoid knocking the actual performance, but this I honestly think was just WAY too much song for too little a voice.

Michael Sarver
"I Don't Want To Be"
Ohhhh, this was disappointing. He's definitely sounded better than this in earlier rounds, so this could be nerves, but it could also be a Sundance Head-like inability to perform on the Idol stage. I wouldn't rule out him getting votes based on reputation, but it's by no means a sure thing.

Anne Marie Boskovich
"Natural Woman" (+2, Aretha Franklin)
So Kara wrote "Love Song"? That's what all the "awkward!" hoopla was about after Anne Marie dissed it, right? Or was it just the fact that Anne Marie dissed the suggestion? Sucks if it's the latter, because Kara's thin-skinnedness with the contestants is probably my least favorite quality of hers. Anyway, too big of a song to bite off if you're not going to nail it, and she didn't.

Stephen Fowler
"Rock With You" (+2, Michael Jackson)
Has anyone ever done well with this song? I feel like there's some kind of Guarini precedent here, but I couldn't swear to it. Anyway, any memory of him was immediately swallowed up by the two-headed beast that is Tatiana and Danny, so I don't give him much of a shot.

Tatiana Del Toro
"Saving All My Love For You" (+2, Whitney Houston)
God damn it, that was pretty good. I still have no idea how voters are gonna react to her -- if she ends up as the top female vote-getter, I would not be surprised. At the very least, she's a shoo-in for a wild card. I could have smacked the judges (particularly Kara, who you'd hope would know better but she's proved a few times now that she doesn't) for encouraging the re-emergence of Tatiana the Asshole, but that's kind of the theme of this season. Case in point...

Danny Gokey (+3, sang last)
"Hero"
He's got a great voice, I will reiterate that here. It's what makes him as barely tolerable to me as he is. But he can't ever keep that smarmy nature of his at bay for very long. And this show is going to encourage that at every turn, until Simon mentions it once at, like Top 9, but by then it'll be way too late to do anything about it. Anyway, if you have money to put on Danny as the top male vote-getter tomorrow, put it down.

If I'm making predictions for tomorrow, I'd guess that Danny, Alexis, and either Michael, Anoop, or Tatiana to advance, and Ricky to join the two who don't on the Wild Card show.

Point Roundup:
Jackie Tohn +2
Danny Gokey +3
Aretha Franklin +4
Elvis +2
Taylor Swift +2
The Police +2
Michael Jackson +2
Whitney Houston +2