X-Factor Final 10 Perform

Hello X-Factorists!  Another so-so night for the live shows.  Last night's "ROCK SHOW" brought some good performances, some awful performances and some "that dude has some mad skills!" performances.  No need in buttering everyone up. Let's just get to the quick thoughts and elimination pick, for which I'm 2 for 2 now! I don't see me doing it again, but we'll see.


The Great
"Great" might be a little misleading of a heading.  Let's just say they were better than the rest but all of their baggage they bring with them!

• Melanie Amaro - REM's "Everybody Hurts" - Love the song, love her singing the song.  Amazing voice.  No, it wasn't a ROCK song, but even rock stars have ballads so I didn't get the judges' arguments.  However, I did keep expecting her to pick it up at the end of the song with the whole "HOOOOOOOLD OOOOON" part.  This girl can "sang" though, so she's always going to be near the top of the list.  
• Josh Krajcik - Foo Fighters' "The Pretender" - The sound mix between the band and Josh's voice was pretty darn awful, but I could tell that Josh was really rocking this one out, and the audience seemed to thing so too.  Josh seems to be the only one that REALLY embraced "ROCK WEEK" and did a relatively modern song and showed that he had the goods for this genre.  Same as Melanie, he's pretty much good every week and one of the favorites.  I fast forwarded through the pre-performance clip but I'm guessing we found out that Josh didn't take much of Nicole's advice (based on Simon's comments).  It seemed to work out for him!
• Drew Ryniewicz - U2's "With or Without You" - As much as it pains me, I'm still with L.A. on this.  We need to see another side of Drew.  Drew had her answer to L.A. rehearsed that she's keeping with her "genre base" but that gets a little boring don't you think?  That all being said, she did one of my favorite songs and she sounded beautiful on it.  No complaints, but I agree with Paula too.  She has to take some chances, take advantage of that large fanbase! (All this agreeing with the judges probably diminishes my sidebar comment I'm going to make below!)
• Astro - Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" (w/ lyrics a la Astro) - I keep wondering each week if this is going to get old.  But, then I just watched the spectacle of Astro with all of his new mad lyrics to a familiar beat/tune and I just can't help but be amazed by him.   Yes, his whole schtick is a little ridiculous with the headphones and attitude, but this kid is a performer and MAD talented!  A lot of it was the production value that X-Factor brings to the stage (literally), but Astro knew how to work said stage and he won me over yet again. Can he beat out the singers?  I think there may be a strong shot that he can. 

The Decent

• Rachel Crow - Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - Not sure I was completely paying attention during this one, but I don't remember anything really standing out on it.  It was just cute little Rachel singing a song that she might not quite be able to relate to yet. (not to sound like Kara DiaGuardi or anything)  Great voice, lots of enthusiasm, not enough "rock grit"?   I dunno.
• Lakoda Rayne - Mash-up!  The Outfield's "Your Love"/Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" - Harmonies sounded great, dancers were distracting and laughable.  Major bonus points for singing the legendary Outfield tune.  But will it be enough to save them from certain elimination?  Others have sure gone out of their way to try and help them stick around.  We'll see I guess!
• Marcus Canty - Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart" - Marcus let his inner Rock Star come out for the day and he put on quite a show.  Simon may have overreacted a little bit too much to Marcus's "Mop the Floor" move under all of those ladies.  He's supposed to be a Rock Star!  Let him rock out and do silly things!  But when all is said and done, I can't hold him to the same standard as the 4 I mentioned in the "Great" section above.  He's a notch below them in my opinion.

The Forgettable

• LeRoy Bell - Bob Seger's "We've Got Tonight" - Love the tune and it always makes me think of The Wonder Years. LeRoy sang it meaningfully and great, but there just wasn't much to it.  It was slow, semi-boring and he went first.  All of these are signs of trouble for LeRoy.  And please, Nicole, we know he's 60!  We're over it, stop reminding us!
• Chris Rene - Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds/"No Woman No Cry" (let's be honest - It was the Fugees version of the latter) - I must have missed when Chris was singing "Three Little Birds" but I guess he mashed it up with No Woman No Cry using the similar lyric "Everything's Gonna Be alright".   Anyway, Chris had a tough job this week (as he does every week) in finding what works for him.  So, they took the Fugees rendition of a Reggae song and let Chris do his thing.  I'm not going to get into the whole "is it a rock song?" because this is how these shows work.  Contestants represent certain genres and they find ways to survive these rounds that don't suit them perfectly.  Thart all being said, I can't say Chris was great because he wasn't.  Far from it.  I think he'll get by on popularity alone.  But surely that's going to waver soon.  He's really not that great outside of his comfort zone.

The Flat Out Awful

• Stacy Francis - Meatloaf's (Or Celine's) "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" - Do people still think she is good?  How can anyone listen to that performance and still claim that she's good?  She never hit a single right note!  Thankfully, Paula brought up her being flat the entire song.  It's EVERY week!  My favorite part of the show was seeing her facial expressions in reaction to all of the judges.  Even when Nicole tried to give her positive feedback, she knew it was all for show.  She was devastated!  Well, she needed a wake-up call.  These judges/x-factor marketing have been praising her as the 2nd coming and she has NEVER been that good.  As long as she's on this show, I will not be sold on her talent.  She will stay in this category until elimination.   You would think last night would be enough to convince the world, but we'll see!

Sidebar

The judges are REALLY on my nerves.  This is the 2nd week in a row that I've pretty much had to disregard most of their commentary and fast forward to the performances.  If I heard Simon or L.A. complain about what constitutes a "Rock Song" one more time, I was going to delete the Season Pass from my DVR!

Elimination Pick
I have to make sure I don't let the pressure get to me here with this whole all-time perfect record of X-Factor elimination picks! (Hey, 2 weeks in may be the only time I can ever boast that "all-time" part!)  I think I have a good idea who is going home, but it's that bottom 2 that could be tricky.

Bottom 2: LeRoy Bell and Lakoda Rayne

Elimination pick: - LeRoy Bell - It seems like he's kinda just been hovering along since we got to the live shows.  I've said every week that he's not going to win.  I can see it coming down to him and Lakoda Rayne, and the judges will spare Paula from losing her entire group right off the bat.  They'll want to keep a group in the competition a little while longer. 

But don't fret Paula, I think Nicole's team is right behind you.  It was tough for me not to put Stacy in that bottom 2.  I think she could be there tonight.  If she's not there this week, then hopefully next!

That's all I have for now.  Remember, X-Factor is on Tuesday next week due to Thanksgiving.  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week!