AI S4, Top10 Guys, 2/28/05 A very excellent evening featuring performances from a lot of excellent singers. It wasn't until tonight that I realized how solid this group really is - performances I felt were 'terrible' tonight would have easily been 'decent' in seasons past. Every one of these guys can sing, it's all about bringing a complete, original performance to the stage. Last season I was actually starting to get bored already at this point, right now I'm just getting excited for more of this one... Anyway, I'm going to order them on how I rank them overall, and list how they ranked on tonight's performance alone next to that. 1 (1). Nikko Smith: Last week Nikko came out with an awesome sound tempered by some pitchy points... this week he comes out with an awesome sound tempered by a few less pitchy points. He still gets a little loose with his notes at times, but he reigned it in enough this week that it didn't get in the way of what was a truly awesome vocal performance. Excellent voice singing an excellent song excellently. 2 (3). Anwar Robinson: Just like last week, Anwar starts off with a few weak spots (pitched a little low for him I think) before hitting a solid groove a little ways in. Didn't take too many chances in the song, but hit the notes he needed to and put in a solid showing. He bounces through runs effortlessly, amazing vocal control... guess that comes with being a music teacher. 3 (4). Mario Vasquez: A few problems when he dropped down under the backing track, but an acceptable performance overall. Nothing really exciting, nothing overly challenging, just a straight ahead, up-tempo, decent showing. He's solid. 4 (6). Scott Savol: This is a song that I'll forever connect to Vice City. What does that mean? Nothing. Anyway, it was alright. He didn't do it as well as Luther, and really didn't add any flourishes of his own to the song. He's capable of better, but this was still decent. Appreciate the effort on his appearance as well, though I'd avoid pink in the future. 5 (5). Travis Tucker: I _really_ loved the way Travis sounded last week, and I still like the sound of his voice. He's nowhere near the most talented vocalist in this competition (in fact, he might very well be the least), but there's just something in his voice I like. And the Usher bit onstage is definitely appreciated, he's certainly on his way to being a total performer. I'm torn, he's not nearly as talented as the rest, but I like him anyway... 6 (2). Bo Bice: The show ends on a very high note with a truly rocking rock performance from Bo. He's got the voice, look, and attitude of a true southern rocker, and he channeled all of it wonderfully in this performance. I'm not sure what this competition's going to do with Bo, since he clearly belongs fronting a group of good ol' sex, drugs, and R&R-ers and is in no way a solo pop vocallist... Anyway, for however long he's here I'll gladly enjoy his performances. 7 (7). Joseph Murena: Joe helped himself out by singing an excellent singer's song - it's just hard to really sound bad on this number. Unfortunately, he really didn't do all that much with it, just a pretty straight rendition with nothing overly standout. He certainly showed he could sing, but there wasn't really anything standout about it. He might have a bit too much Bryan Adams in him for this decade... That said, wtf? Portugeuse nightclub? 8 (8). Ant Fedorov: Yeah, I just don't like this guy. He started off all over the place, playing loose with pitch and rhythm. Then he got to the chorus and the performance locked in a bit... but he was still missing notes all over the place. He hit the one nice long high note, but other than that the whole performance was really blah. He really likes singing notes at the very top of his range (I guess it sounds impressive or something), and he can only really hit 1 out of 3 or so... He sounds like one of those terrible Christian Contemporary singers my dad loves to listen to. 9 (10). Constantine Maroulis: Blah, Constantine pulled out his best bar band voice to rip off this one. Worst of all were the rock 'shrieks' he felt the need to throw in - that's apparently an affection he's not capable of pulling off. This was pretty terrible, to be honest, nearly anyone with any singing voice whatsoever could've managed that performance. And I don't really care if he's having fun, if I'm not... 10 (9). David Brown: Boring. We got a strong dose of David's vibrato, some wierd facial expressions, a few high notes towards the end, and a fairly bland rendition of a fairly bland stevie song. Like all of them, he can sing, but blah...