It’s Tuesday, which must mean that it’s Idol time. And yes, this is coming to you a bit late. Easy explanation though – my wife and I got engaged two years ago on the 23rd, so we celebrated by having a nice dinner at Il Postino in Unionville. As a result, I’m watching this on tape, and you’re reading this late on Wednesday – and you’ve probably read Murtz’ LIVE recap already.
Still kinda surprised that Josh is gone. Obviously, I didn’t think he was going to win, but he was one of the better performers last week. Makes you wonder how much the backtalk hurt him? Meanwhile, Casey is still there, trying to prove that there’s someone more robotic than Julie Chen. As Matt Gould would say, “What is going on here?” With Suzi and Rex in last week’s bottom three, will we see their fans vote more to keep them out this week?
The theme today is “The Guess Who”. So I suppose they’re continuing their theme of artists/music that the contestants wouldn’t know much about. Which kind of puzzles me, since the winner is going to be singing pop music, and this is something that The Guess Who aren’t exactly known for.
Anyways, being the theme for Canadian Idol is definitely good for The Guess Who, since they’ll be reaching a different audience than they normally would. The singers? Josh isn’t around anymore, so the chances of an obscure song being chosen are remote. Still, I can’t imagine these songs being familiar to Melissa, Casey and Aaron, so they’re at a bit of a disadvantage here.
Overall, I’m going into this week with no expectations, and hopefully this will be like Standards Week where everyone does pretty well.
“Last week on Canadian Idol” and credits
Ben Mulroney, the worst pun-man this side of Ron Maclean is out and he calls this a “whole new phase of the competition”. Because… they’ll be acting out songs in the form of a Greek tragedy? Oh, he means because there are five of them left. He mentions that the viewers need to make sure their favourites don’t suffer the same fate as Josh Palmer, which makes it seem like he was beheaded or something.
And here are the judges!!
Jake Gold notes that the Guess Who are great and hopes that the contestants will learn fromm simply listening to the music.
Farley Flex thinks that the public needs to recognize that they need to vote for their favourites and that noone is safe.
Sass Jordan is asked to give the contestants a pep talk, and she tells them to go out and sing.
Zack Werner plays the American Woman guitar riff in honour of fellow Winnipeggers The Guess Who.
Here’s the (in)Famous Five!! Rex jumps on stage in what I can only assume is a tribute to Josh Palmer. They plug their CD (in stores now, ‘natch), and Mel and Casey are way too happy. Now here’s more of a hard sell, with Orin Isaacs (he produced the album) and the Idols.
Maestro (the Canadian rapper, not the WCW wrestler) is shown, and in more filler/CTV cross-promotion, Tommy Lee comes in during dress rehearsal, gets his CD plugs and gives some quick advice. And now, as usual, we get Ben giving us an introduction to the week’s theme – the fathers of Hoser Rock, The Guess Who, which again is important because 90% of the studio audience has no idea that these guys were thin at one point, and that Burton Cummings has had that moustache forever.
Well, I guess we can now extrapolate that this “new phase” involves plenty of blatant filler and product plugs. Less work for me, I guess.
Ad Break
We’re back and we see Rex Harrington (no, I have no idea) in the audience. Ben’s in the audience as he introduces Rex Goudie, singing “No Sugar Tonight”. At this point I’ll note that Orin Isaacs and the band never bothered moving their stuff off of the stage as they’re still there this week. The song suits Rex well, as he probably has the least range of the remaining singers, but the song has a lot of energy. Even better, he’s gotten away from the shouting that seems to have characterized him.
Jake – The energy was there, but I felt that on the choruses you could’ve been more melodic.
Farley – You’re animated, but there’s some stiffness about you. Just try to loosen up a bit.
Sass – Gosh darn brother, that was amazingly good. I had no idea you were that good looking.
Zack – You sing just good enough and the fact that you have so much charisma goin’ on means that it don’t matter anyways.
Ben – This is the first time in history that the singer has more words to remember than the host. Right, like we’re supposed to believe that you don’t have a teleprompter right there, Ben.
Ad Break
We’re back, and it’s time for Casey SavolLeblanc, singing “Timeless Love”, which from what I gather in Ben’s intro, is actually a Burton Cummings song, not a Guess Who song, so for the second week in a row, Casey’s cheated again. But I can see why Casey chose the song – the tone and tempo is right in her comfort zone. Which means that she’s singing the exact same way she’s sung for 6 previous weeks. There’s nothing else for me to say here.
Farley – At this point all you can do is please the people that have been voting for you and I think you’ve ramped it up a bit.
Sass – It’s really nice to see you so relaxed, and you picked a song that suits you perfectly.
Zack – It was solid. I think it was like watching paint dry but that’s neither here nor there.
Jake – Rips on Zack’s guitar playing, and agrees with Farley and Sass. He thinks she’s finally coming into her own.
Ben – no words of encouragement, just plugging for votes.
Ad Break
We’re back, and it’s the Jon Dore segment, as he does a game show-type segment. No, it’s not that funny.
And now, singing “American Woman”, it’s “Little” Suzi Rawn. Well, either she or Aaron had to sing it, so I guess Aaron’s singing “These Eyes”. Anyways, she’s singing more Lenny Kravitz than Guess Who, which is a bit of a cheat similar to her rendition of “Higher Ground” back in week two. And like Casey, Suzi basically does the same thing she’s been doing for 6 weeks. The only thing being is that Suzi looks, you know, energetic.
Sass – I love a little muscle in the music and you can pull it off. You kicked some butt.
Zack – It’s a whole lot of nuthin’. I really don’t feel like you’re willing to take a risk to light something up.
Jake – Whatever. You’ve got really good instincts when picking songs. You’re smart, you know what you’re doing, and you pull it off.
Farley – I don’t think this song allowed you to do what you’re capable of.
Ben – Asks Suzi who would win in a fight, her or an American woman. Suzi, at about 4’11”, of course says her. Uh-huh.
Ad Break
We see Marsha the vocal coach in the audience, and it’s time for the next performer, and it’s Melissa O’Neil, singing “My Own Way To Rock”, which is another cheat, coming from a Burton Cummings solo album. You know, by this criteria, someone could’ve sang “Takin’ Care of Business” by BTO. Or maybe “She’s So High”, since Randy Bachman’s son sang it. Was it that hard to find Guess Who songs?
Oh right, the performance. Melissa again gives us a solid performance, but it’s not a great song, and I don’t think the judges are feeling it.
Zack – I would watch you do anything, but between the outfit and the horrible song choice you’d be lucky to survive tomorrow night.
Jake – I can’t disagree that much, but I feel like it was like the lounge at the Holiday Inn.
Farley – Agrees with Zack.
Sass – You’re an absolute natural. I don’t like that song either but you did a really terrific job with it.
Ben – appeals to the crowd, and throws it to a L’Oreal plug.
Ad Break
It’s time for our final performer, Aaron Walpole, and as I guessed earlier, he’s singing “These Eyes”. And it’s easily his best performance, and the performance of the night. He tones down the theatrics, and in doing so I think he connects with the audience more. Great job.
Jake – You nailed it. You couldn’t have done it any better.
Farley – Makes note that his man Maestro sampled “These Eyes” and he hopes that Aaron will someday record it.
Sass – I appreciated the control you had in the higher register. Excellent job.
Zack – Standing O.
Ben – Reiterates what the judges say.
Here’s the recap, and we’re outta here.
