Tonight is the night! We finally FINALLY get to hear all the guys in the top 12 sing.

There are a few we’ve never heard a note from, so it’s been quite hard to do any early forecasting. Hopefully after tonight’s show, I can make some preliminary choices.

This is the first opportunity we as an audience get to vote on the performances.

The girls will be performing tomorrow night.

Cue the montage of hugs and smiles and all those happy times when they were sent through to Hollywood and then on to the top 24.

Sad that for two of them, this week will crush their souls.

Tonight’s songs are all from the 60′s.

David Hernandez is up first. He’s 24 and from Glendale, AZ. Simon wasn’t a fan and did not vote to put him through to the Top 24. He’s singing “The Midnight Hour” by Wilson Pickett. There’s no question he’s got a good voice, and he’s clean cut, not quite cute. The over dramatic gospel intro was pretty cheesy. Overall it sounded like a cruise ship performance. Simon loved the beginning, and said he needs to loosen up a bit. It was better than he thought it was going to be.

Chikezie Eze is up next. He’s 22 and from California. He made it to Hollywood last year only to be sent home before the Top 24. He’s performing “I Love You More Today Than Yesterday” by Stevie Wonder. This song is starting off way too low for him and the pitch is sort of all over the place. Once the song gets into the chorus, where the song hits his middle and upper register he finally starts to nail the song. He’s got a great smooth voice, reminiscent of early Luther Vandross. Randy really liked him. Simon hated the whole performance. He thought it was really old fashioned. Chikezie is not going to score any points for talking back to Simon about his suit and song choice.

Colton Berry states that he looks like Ellen Degeneres from all angles. He follows that by announcing he has a theater background. Everyone knows that “theater background” is code for “flaming homo.” Good for him. Does that make 2 or 3 this season?

David Cook is next to sing. He’s 25 and from Blue Springs, MO, my old stomping grounds. He’s performing “Happy Together” by The Turtles. So far this is my favorite performance of the night. He really made some contemporary changes to the song that made it entertaining and rocking. All the judges were impressed; Simon said “You almost made that believable.”

Jason Yeager is 28 and from Grand Prairie, TX. He’s got a son who looks to be about 11 years old. What’s the story there? “Moon River” is his somewhat surprising choice. I absolutely love this song from the Breakfast at Tiffany’s soundtrack. It seems a bit odd to do a Henry Mancini song on American Idol. The vocals are pretty good, though there is a certain level of cheese associated with it. He may go through to the next round simply because he’s a nice looking guy who doesn’t totally suck. Simon called THIS one “cruise ship” worthy. I say song choice will kill him. The theme is 60′s music… he could have picked from The Beatles, Stones, or any of the awesome British Invasion bands and he chooses ANDY FUCKING WILLIAMS?

Robbie Carrico is 26 from Florida. He was apparently in a group that toured with Britney Spears in 2000. He’s already been pigeon holed as the “Rocker.” He’s performing “One” by Three Dog Night. He’s got to lose the fugly head band. Are you bald under there? What’s the story? Nothing really special about this number. The pitch was good, the vocals were pretty spot on. It was a solid performance, but nothing blows me away.

David Archuleta is on deck. He’s 17 and from Utah. Oh no he did NOT just belt out “What a Feeling” from Fame!? He’s singing “Shop Around” from Smokey Robinson. David is going to be this year’s phenomenon. He’s young, he’s cute and he’s got a fantastic voice. The song may be just a bit low at the beginning, but it picked up and he worked the stage. He’s definitely old for his age. Paula just called him an “old soul.” Simon says, “When you’ve got it, you’ve got it.” He then called it the performance of the night. He totally gets the “Aw Shucks” votes.

Danny Noriega performs next. He’s 18 and from California. He got cut on the first day at Hollywood last year. He promises to “bring it” tonight. He’s performing “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis. He looks really cute in his painted on black jeans, white shirt and black skinny tie. I can’t say the vocals were anything spectacular (cause really, how much melody is there to this song??). What he did manage to do was put on an entertaining performance. It was fun and watchable. Simon thought it verged on “grotesque.” This sparked much argument among the judges, and some Three Snaps in a Circle moves from Danny.

Luke Menard is another guy we’ve never seen before. He’s 29 from Indiana and married. He originally auditioned Season 6 and didn’t get through to Hollywood. He’s singing “Everybody’s Talkin’ by Ricky Nelson. Luke is pretty. He definitely looks like an American Idol. I’m afraid that his song choice is going to be his downfall. He wasn’t quite on the note for most of the song. Since we haven’t seen anything from him before, he really needed to come out and just completely knock a great song out of the park. He didn’t accomplish that.

Colton Berry is 18 and from Virginia. He’s singing “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis. He’s got a voice that is just made for the studio. He’s got no annoying vibrato, he is pitch perfect. The performance was a safe and solid one that will sail him through to the next round. Oddly enough, Simon doesn’t think he has any “relevance” as a recording artist. Meaning that he doesn’t sound current.

Garrett Haley has not had any camera time through the audition process. He’s 17 and from Ohio. He’s got a bizarre accent. He’s performing “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” by Neil Sedaka. The arrangement has been slowed down and jazzed up a bit. This performance reminds me a bit of footage of Shaun Cassidy or Donnie Osmond performing on a variety show. He’s got a very pleasant voice, but he really didn’t do anything special with the vocal. Randy called it “boring.” Simon told him he looked pale and like he needed some fresh air.

Jason Castro performs next. Who? We’ve never seen him before, either. I hope he’s better than the last guy. He’s 20 and from Texas. He is also a drummer. He has dreadlocks which makes my aunt gag. I think it’s funny. He’s performing “Daydream” by Lovin’ Spoonful. He would be SO cute with a hair cut. I love that he’s playing the guitar. I absolutely loved this performance. He made some great melodic changes and showed a lot of personality. Simon called this top 2 of the night. This performance is my pick for best of the night.

Michael Johns is the last guy to perform tonight. He’s 29 and from Australia originally. He’s performing “Light My Fire” by the Doors. So this guy is fucking sexy. There I said it. Hot Damn. It was a cool performance, he was really channelling a bit of Jim Morrison wrapped up in Michael Hutchence. Shit. Randy just called him Michael Hutchence. Simon called him the most consistent performer yet.

So there you have it. The boys are a talented group this year. Oddly enough, there really wasn’t a performance that made me question the judge’s sanity. Everyone that was here tonight actually could sing and there were no major murders of great pop songs. I would go so far to say that the two guys who go home tonight could go head to head with other season’s Top 10. They really were that good.

Here’s my breakdown:

Safe:
David Hernandez
David Cook
Robbie Carrico
David Archuleta
Colton Berry
Jason Castro
Michael Johns

Danger:
Chikezie
Garrett Haley
Danny Noriega

Bye Bye: (Both of these guys have good voices, it’s all about the song choice.)
Jason Yeager
Luke Menard

What do you all think? Have I missed the mark?