Knockouts Week One!

“It ain't her fault for being ruthless”

--The White Stripes

It was Harry Potter versus Voldemort. It was Robin Hood versus the Sheriff of Nottingham. Captain Kirk versus the Klingons. Frodo versus Sauron. Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader. Light versus dark, summer versus winter, Caitlin Caporale versus Hannah Kirby.

For Deb it was a battle of good and evil. She literally leans away from the television when Hannah is on. When Higher Love was revealed as Hannah's song, she shivered. I have to be honest, I couldn't stop laughing. Now, as I admitted before I'm a bit of a sucker for her and really enjoy watching her perform, though to be fair it isn't so much her voice as it is the trance that comes over her when she gets on stage so I do feel a little bad that I'm laughing at the weird girl. Meanwhile, Caitlin seems determined and has a great voice of her own and sort of reminds me of a daughter of one of Deb's cousins so she's easy to root for. Luckily for all of us, NBC remains determined to suck every last possibility of suspense out of their own show by letting us know well in advance that both were going through so at least she didn't have to worry about Hannah actually knocking Caitlin out. But she still exhaled loudly in relief at the verdict.

Originally I was going to keep a running commentary in my notes about Nate Reuss, but to be honest I had no further feelings about him the entire show than I did going in other than the fact he looked a little hobbity. I don't know what to make of him. Here is the first song I ever heard from Nate Reuss, it is with the band he had before starting fun., called The Format. It encapsulates everything I like and don't like about him:

https://youtu.be/MGHevQoWsGA

He's just a little too much if that makes sense. But honestly, I like that song better than anything on the fun. album.

Three things I do not understand:

1. Seriously, what is up with NBC and the spoilers?
2. Why do I end up sort of liking people I really can't stand at the audition? Looking at you Sonic just in case you didn't hear me.
3. Why do people like Ashley Morgan pick songs that require attitude when stage presence is your weakest point? I'm not partial about Benatar though, there was about a two year period where a girlfriend had her poster in the bedroom and god I hated that thing.

Two Xtina moments – “You have an amazing spirit that lives in your vocal cords.” The other moment was when Clinton Washington (who turned out not to be the bargain pick I had thought) had lost his battle to Nathan Hermida. I didn't have much of an opinion on the battle itself but how much shade did Xtina throw when, after NOT stealing Clinton back, basically said “OH WAIT! I must have spaced out and forgot to steal!” Yeah, surrrrrrrrrre. I bet that helped ease the sting.

And speaking of stings (yeah, I'm all over the place today), there were some of those as well. There was the sting of Walla Walla Whoopemup getting whooped down to just one remaining singer with the surprise departure of one Cody Wickline (though the conditioner on the ends of the hair trick is a good one!), the sting of the first round pick Anthony Riley's sudden departure for Sizzle & Fizzle (Gina M.'s unfortunately appropriate team name); the sting of Blake matching up Sarah Potenza (who I love) and Brian Johnson in the Battle Of The Not So Attractive and, to my dismay, Sting himself, or at least a Sting song. Some of you are aware of the duality of my love for The Police balanced by the fact that I hate Sting like Deb hates Hannah Kirby though I'll admit that If You Love Somebody... is one of his better efforts. I also have a weird appreciation for Fields of Gold though that usually leads to a bout of self-loathing.

Which brings me to a confession. I've done lots of drafts, because I am a geek that way. I like to think I do all right at it. But I panicked in the first round of the TSAVFL 3^rd season draft. I felt confident that with the fifth pick one of Sawyer Fredericks, Cody Wickline, Jeremy Gaynor or India Carney would be around......and then they weren't and I was looking at my draft list and I saw that I had Travis Ewing's name up there high but I DIDN'T EVEN QUITE REMEMBER WHO HE WAS but time was ticking and I didn't see Josh Davis' name or I'd probably have gone that way and and and.......I screwed up my pick. You may feel free to remind me of this the next time I make fun of one of your picks.

Boy, desperation just radiates off Megan Linsey. She makes me uncomfortable and I don't know how well she will do once it gets down to voting. Hummingbird Lightfoot is stacked though with three already through with two more left to sing. Debbie Eaglesong is soaring with three through to the live rounds and Barry and the Ladies have two in and three left to go. It is still early and DON'T FORGET AFTER THE KNOCKOUTS TO GET ME YOUR THREE FINALIST PICKS so there are a lot of points to go, but at this stage it sure looks like a three way battle between those teams.

How bad must it suck to be the one person losing a three way battle? But when they showed Mia Z, Sawyer Frederick and Paul Pfau, it seemed pretty clear that there was only one spot for a long haired hat wearer and they are not kicking Sawyer out. I think Paul knew it from the start too. It reminded me of a show at the Moore Theater that Deb and I went to a few years back. The headliner was Gomez, with two opening acts, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Matt Pond PA (when they had their song). You never expect a ton from a first opener of three but Oh My God Rodrigo y Gabriela came out and just KILLED it. It was the best opener I've ever seen. They got a standing ovation AND AN ENCORE from the first act! So then after this barnburner of an opening Matt Pond PA takes the stage and they are absolutely demoralized. It was awful and you felt bad for them but it just happens – the audience wanted either more of Rodrigo y Gabriela or Gomez. It was an impossible situation.

And......that looks like most of my notes. Looking forward to next week where we will finish up the Knockout Rounds and barring any last minute fuckery by NBC there will be some bonus points to dish out to the lucky teams who have folks moving on. Remember:

YOU CAN CLICK HERE FOR THE STANDINGS!!