American Idol- Mags's Cousin and MamaSox Lead the Way

For the Simon-proclaimed year of the girls, not a single chick left me that excited after the first live show. There were definitely some that were good, but there were also some that were just okay and a couple that were flat out bad last night.

Let's start with what may be my weekly Kara rant. Both Pops and I realized last night that it isn't even the ridiculous things that she says night in and night out that annoy me anymore. In fact it doesn't matter what the words are that come out of her mouth, it's how she says them. No matter what she says, I want to slap her in the face as soon as she begins to speak.

Ellen, who I enjoyed during Hollywood week's edited segments, didn't fare as well in her inaugural live show. She seemed nervous with the first couple of contestants and didn't have many great comments throughout the entire show. Her highlight was explaining that Katelyn Epperly was "interesting to me. It made me wanna pay attention to you." That's the type of armchair judging I was expecting from her. She doesn't have a musical background but she still can have reasons for why someone did well or not. Ellen just didn't do enough of that last night, but I'm sure she'll get better (unlike Kara who has gotten worse and worse every week).

Now on to the contestants that failed to wow me last night.

Let's begin with the two that I think should be going home after last night's performances. Haeley Vaughn, or Lips, was absolutely the worst one of the night. She screeched through the entire minute and a half of I Wanna Hold Your Hand. I loved the risk of changing up a Beatles tune, but that risk did not pay off in this case. Lacey Brown's Landslide was not much better. As it started I got excited because it's such a great song, but then she started singing and it was all downhill from there. When Ryan asked her why she chose that song she explained that she liked it and then talked about what the song meant. Once again people, these are not good reasons for choosing a song to perform on Idol.

Then we get to the hodgepodge of middling contestants that did nothing to shine more than the rest, but when all is said and done should stick around for another week. On the lower end of that spectrum we had Paige Miles, Ashley Rodriguez, Janell Wheeler and Katelyn Epperly. Of the four, Epperly was the only one that showed potential for a decent run later on in the season. The other three all picked big songs and couldn't deliver a less than boring performance.

The three okay contestants that put forth quality performances were Michelle Delamor, Didi Benami and Katie Stevens. Delamor showed the ability to use both power and tenderness in her rendition of Fallin', while Didi's underwhelming performance still had the ability to leave me wanting more. KS of the CT pulled the risky move of taking on Feelin' Good less than a year since Adam Lambert killed it. Although her performance was just about half as good as Ms. Lambert's, half as good as him is still strides better than most of these jokers.

Not sure my feelings will probably flip after next week's performances, but these are my three front-runners after last night. Lilly Scott, Siobhan Magnus and Crystal Bowersox. Lilly had the advantage of going directly after three contestants that failed to step up to the plate. Even though I had never heard Fixing A Hole before, I could tell that her rendition had to be different than the way the Beatles did it. Either way...she had a very interesting sound, and just like JJ has an interesting look. This performance felt extremely comfortable and terribly current. Very good.

Maybe it's because I imagine Nicolas Cage calling me honnay whenever I hear this song, but I thought Mags's cousin's Wicked Game was fantastic. Her ability to change from her regular voice to falsetto was great. I do not know how El Pres does it, but the man at Barstool might have done it again, only this time he picked a winner out of nowhere.

And then we have the girl that Slezak and the rest of EW.com seem to be backing at these early stages. MamaSox's vocal performance wasn't anything to write home about last night, but she absolutely showed promise for the future. Add to the mix that she played both the guitar and the harmonica extremely well, and you get quite the performer. She controlled the whole performance and kept me interested and as a bonus it seems as though she used some white strips since Hollywood Week.

Who agrees/disagrees with the Kid?