Before tonight's credits, we actually get some new content, if you can believe that. After M.K.'s ouster, Harry reminded the other judges that they're looking for a superstar, and then went on to encourage her that this is just the beginning for her. Let's hope so, for her sake.
Ryan comes out onto a stage crammed with musical equipment, which is something to with tonight's theme, "I'm With The Band." By comparison to how the stage usually looks, the judges almost appear to be negotiating the center aisle of a hoarder house when they make their entrance. Ryan chats up Keith about how tonight the finalists will be sharing the stage, and asks Jennifer whether she has any regrets about M.K.'s departure last week, which of course she does. Ryan also asks Harry whether he's given any advance thought to using the save on anyone in particular, and he claims that he hasn't because it's a spontaneous thing. I wonder if that means he'll never want to use it ever.
Also in keeping with the theme, the show brought a couple of members of Fall Out Boy to come chat with a monolithic block of the finalists in an awkwardly-staged sit-down this week. Then they got to go out and watch the rehearsal of this week's group sing, which is the part of tonight's show. Alex, Sam and Majesty team up for a Coldplay tune and sing it as though there hasn't just been a very high-profile conscious uncoupling; Dexter, Jessica and C.J. do a song I can only hear as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," and then Caleb and Malaya and Jena do what I assume is a Fall Out Boy song because it's the only one I haven't heard. Which one doesn't belong? Then they all join in for the big pyrotechnical finish. Thanks for that reminder that Fall Out Boy still exists, American Idol.
The intro reels tonight are apparently about each finalist's humble beginnings, complete with at least one cheesy reenactment. Alex tells the story of how he used to write songs while working at a farm stand, and then dropped his notebook in a puddle. He was pretty broken up about it, but at least a notebook is cheaper to replace than an iPad. He's not used to sharing the stage with a band, but is looking forward to it. He's doing "Don't Speak" by No Doubt, though he's singing it as though it's more like a Jason Mraz song. Given the wide gulf between this song and Alex's usual style, there's a pretty delicate balance between making a song his own and totally ruining it. He starts it off just thumping his guitar as he sings, and then begins strumming during the first verse before the band kicks in for the chorus… though it doesn't "kick" so much as "nudge with its toe."
He finishes up with some jazzy little breaks and runs, and the show has begun. Keith starts off the comments by saying he likes how Alex has his thing, but he'd like to see a little more edge from him, at least vocally. Jennifer thought Alex's version sucked the energy out of the song, though she did like the very end. Harry says they could all relate to the story about losing his lyrics (which has also happened in our house, as a result of a crashed hard drive), and says that although he likes the way Alex has his feet firmly planted in the competition, he wishes they were less firmly planted on the same part of the stage all the time. I'm not sure what Alex is supposed to do about that, because his other choices are performing without his guitar and performing with a headset microphone, and both of those seem even less likely than Alex wearing his pants like a grown-ass man.
Speaking of which, Ryan comes out and teases Harry about wanting to get a better look at Alex's ankles, and when Harry asks to see Ryan's, then Ryan obligingly hikes up his suit pants ant takes off one shoe. Which Harry promptly runs up and steals. "I'm short without my shoes on," Ryan complains. Then he gets back to interviewing his contestant, until Harry returns empty-handed for even further disruption. We almost didn't learn about how Alex writes down lyrics of all his performance songs in a notebook. Maybe he should get one that attaches with a chain. After the ads, Alex talks backstage about putting his own spin on a song and hopes the judges respected his artistry even though they didn't really get it. Yikes. That'll go over well.
Ryan asks to borrow Jennifer's pedicurist (who is, of course, on-site) before introducing the clip of Majesty talking about working at her preschool in Goldsboro, North Carolina. She's doing "Shake it Out" by Florence + The Machine, and it's nice to hear someone actually sing that song on one of these shows rather than just hearing it used as the score for a triumphant moment. She's rocking the unconventional combo of white pinstriped romper, pocket square, and tambourine, and her voice is about 90% of where it needs to be. But she makes up for it by hitting a large majority of the notes. Jennifer loves the performance, even though she says it was all over the place vocally. Harry thinks back to her first day and how he's been waiting for her to connect ever since. He thinks she's close to breaking through, but maybe her musical diversity is holding her back. He also liked the performance and the arrangement. Keith approves of the song choice, showing off her range as it did, and tells her she has everything she needs but that the crowd and the adrenalin kind of make it so she needs to center herself more. She tells Ryan that it felt good to be out with the band. After the ads, she's still pretty giddy about how into it the crowd was, so she's pretty proud of herself. Maybe she shouldn't watch it back later then adjust enjoy this moment for what it is.
Dexter talks about all the various activities he's into back in Fayette, from farming to lifeguarding to training dogs, and then he sings "Boondocks" by Little Big Town. He's still unassailably solid, which has never been his problem, but more than any other performer tonight he blends in with the band and the background. Despite Keith's singing along and chair-dancing, even. Harry starts out by relating to how much he always hated fixing the tractor like we saw Dexter doing in the intro reel, and then goes on to singing the same old song about how Dexter is failing to make these big arena anthems his own. Keith decides to try cheering Harry up by giving him a gummy bear the size of an entire box of gummy bears, which totally derails the proceedings for awhile as first Harry and then Jennifer each take a bite. Keith gets Harry's point, but says this would have been a hit if Dexter had sung it first instead of the band that did. And if pigs could fly, nobody would go outside. Jennifer gets how Dexter has his thing that everyone loves, but suggests he might want to try something different once in a while. Ryan asks if he plans to do that, and Dexter tells him he can. And then we spend even more time kidding around about the damn gummy bear.
Malaya is , and of course we get to see footage of her being a big goofball in high school, marching with her tuba and ripping her pants at a performance as Chaka Khan. Her band song is "The Long and Winding Road," which is probably my least favorite of the Beatles' forays into easy listening. So maybe my perception of the performance is colored a bit by that, but it seems like Malaya has taken the advice to dial it back so seriously that she's going to try putting us to sleep. It picks up at the end, though, as she shows off her pipes with some self-added high notes. Keith appreciated how she showed off her voice and goes on about how her vibrato showed us all her personality and her spirit. Is he just bullshitting when he says stuff like that? Jennifer compares this to her headbanging at the group sing earlier tonight, and says that her vocal tonight was almost like that of a young Michael Jackson. Harry struggles around a piece of gummy bear stuck in his teeth as he says that Malaya is the one who is most consistently improving. He tells her to forget about stardom and work on her craft, because if she does that the stardom will happen. She talks at length to Ryan about how she wasn't expecting to be working this hard for a few more years, and Ryan reminds her that if you find something you love it isn't work. Ryan Seacrest must love a lot of things.
Sam talks about how he was playing on a restaurant patio a year ago, so this is pretty much his first job ever. In other words, Sam has yet to have a real job. Not that I'm insinuating that these kids don't work their asses off, because they do, but something tells me that for Sam, being a pop star is going to be more like a temp gig. He's singing "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's, starting it off slow and then picking it up to slightly less slow, while surrounded by bare light bulbs strewn all over the stage, in case you thought he might walk around a bit. He's stuck behind the mic stand with his guitar, anyway. His voice sounds nice, though. One of these weeks he's going to have to do a Toad the Wet Sprocket song so we can hear how much his voice sounds like them, but first somebody will have to explain to him who Toad the Wet Sprocket was.
Jennifer says it was a great song for him, and pries into whether he was singing it about anyone in particular. Sam's not giving anything away, and he doesn't appear to understand the advice she follows up with about connecting with the lyrics, either. Harry wonders whose idea it was to do the stripped-down arrangement. Sam non-committally takes some credit for it, which opens up Harry to further make his point about Sam needing to be self-assertive. Harry also agrees with Jennifer that he needs to get more into the lyrics. Harry uses the resulting applause to define the word "smattering," and Keith says, "Now it sounds like your concert." Harry isn't bothered by that, asking everyone, "What's forty feet long and has eight teeth? The front row at one of Keith Urban's concerts." Ooh, insulting Keith's audience is rather less cool than insulting Keith there, chief. Keith advises Sam not to be so uptight with each individual note, "and as Jen said, sing 'em to somebody." Ryan repeats Jennifer's question about who his Delilah is, and he wisely answers that it's his grandma. Unless there really is a Delilah, who probably won't appreciate that. Sam tells us afterward that this was the most comfortable he's ever felt onstage, not that he looks even remotely comfortable in front of the interview camera right now.
Jessica talks about how she does everything to do with her music shows back home in Slapout, and also about how she loves both animals and hunting, "Because when the end of the world comes, you're going to want the redneck on your team." Great, she's Daryl and Beth all in one. She's doing "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac, maybe because the judges told her she sounded like Stevie Nicks back at her first audition. She can certainly hit the high notes that Stevie can't any more, but she still needs to take that advice about backing off from the mic every once in a while because they get a little piercing. At least she's not going the obvious route of wearing a dress and a shawl, taking it in the other direction with a pants suit and a scarf. Harry thinks Jessica might get bored of being compared to Stevie Nicks, but he also thinks this might have been his favorite performance of hers yet. Keith loves her look, and he speculates, correctly, that she never performs without an instrument like she did tonight, and needs to either work on that or keep it in mind when choosing her songs. Jennifer, like Harry, sensed that she was more into it than she has been before, and says she needs to work on something to go with her voice. Ryan asks for her thoughts, and all she says is how happy she is to be here. She actually looks it, too, which is an improvement. In the post-ads interviews, she points out that she also remembered all the words. So there.
C.J. discusses his life in Jasper, when he prayed daily for something to happen with his music while playing bars and street corners in between giving guitar lessons. Tonight's he's doing "If It Hadn't Been for Love" by the SteelDrivers, and he's doing it as if he were still on the street corner, only with a few bluegrass musicians at his side. He's focusing on the soul and energy as usual, and has wisely chosen a song without any long notes that might showcase his habitual sharpness. Keith agrees with me that it was a clever choice, and warns C.J. not to confuse "the sound of expressing with the feeling of expressing." C.J., I think Keith might have just called you a poseur. Jennifer likes listening to his voice, though she says it got off a little in the middle. Harry talks about all the balls one has to keep in the air while performing, and says the best piece of advice he's heard is what Keith just sad, but again insists that C.J. needs to work on his pitch. C.J. talks after the ads about how he's going to take the advice of the judges every week. And yet he still keeps singing sharp.
Caleb talks about how this is an improvement over playing empty bars back home in Asheville and working as a cater waiter. Tonight he gets to sing "Dazed and Confused" by another one of his favorite bands, Led Zeppelin. This is a slow, heavy song, and the band is getting way into it. So is Caleb, though a little eye contact with the audience would be nice. Jennifer seems more into it than anyone, though, which is a little unexpected from the person who recorded "I Luh Ya Papi." In the end, the Zep goes down great like it always does on the rare occasions when we hear it on this show, earning a standing ovation from Keith and Jennifer. Not to mention the longest and loudest screams of the night from the audience. Jennifer says it was a sexy performance, which she hasn't seen from him before, and gives a shout out to the band. Harry also gushes over the band before talking about the song itself, making sure we all know it wasn't a Led Zeppelin original, and saying that Caleb couldn't have sung it any better. Though he did pick up on something that happened near the end that didn't quite work. Keith says Caleb turned the theme of the night upside down and compares the performance to an airbag in slow motion. He means both of these as compliments. Caleb is still pumped about it even after the ads, and being called "sexy" by Jennifer Lopez has him ready to buy her flowers.
The final performance of the night will be Jena, who talks about how different Hollywood is from her old daily routine as a high school student and part-time employee at a Greek restaurant. She's singing "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence, which is one of those songs that falls squarely in my guilty pleasure zone. It's also a great match for Jena's voice, which remains powerful and roof-blasting and more than meets the demands of the song. It's also nice to see someone actually interacting with the band onstage, too. One would have thought that it would have occurred to more contestants to do that. Caleb, at the very least. Harry tells her that he said Caleb would be tough to follow, but she just followed him. Harry liked everything about it and says it was really strong. Keith appreciates how she delivers every time and she's got her own thing that no one else does, which is true. Jennifer agrees that she sounds phenomenal, but would have liked to see her a little messier rather than fixing her hair during the performance. Keith and Harry start chanting for Jennifer to do another hair-flip until she says something that necessitates the guys in the booth hitting the mute button for a second. Ryan asks Jena if she was worried about following Caleb, and she freely admits, "I was crapping my pants," and allows that she would love to duet with him. The rest of the finalists are called onstage so Ryan can grub for some more votes on their behalf and replay the hilarious clip from earlier tonight of Harry stealing his shoe. Don't worry, he got it back a while ago. I apologize if you've been worried all this time.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis- based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.