By all accounts, James Durbin is a fighter, and nowhere was that more obvious than in his performance last night on American Idol. It was, as we reported, Elton John night, and James was ready to rock. There would be none of that “Hakuna Matata” / “Sacrifice” / “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” whining. Leave that to the other contestants. This would be rock as it was meant to be performed, with an audience, live, raw, exciting, with prancing and pyrotechnics. If Jacob Lusk wants to caterwaul like a drag queen in a cat fight or if Casey Abrams wants to get in touch with his sensitive side, good for them. James Durbin was in it to win it. And he did it with style.
The style came from the stylists at Entertainment Weekly, who helped all the contestants preen themselves pretty. I can just imagine the conversation when they got to James:
“That fauxhawk is a nohawk.”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no …” James likely responded to the tune of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
“… And we amputate that ridiculous tail.”
“Let me go! Let me go! Bismillah, let me go!” he sang.
But cooler heads prevailed, and James’s signature style was gone … sort of. Of course, there was enough time to go back to his old clothes, but the hair stayed neatly coifed, sort of, thanks to a whole lot of hair spray (and Coca Cola, but more on that when we get to pyrotechnics).
To show his mettle, James decided to do “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” in a megaband, arena rock style. He started in the balcony, made his way down the stairs, and danced off the stage and into the audience. He climbed up on the piano and boom! It was blazing. He jumped off, presumably to avoid a repeat of the unfortunate Michael Jackson incident back in 1984. Hairspray and fire do not mix well.
He sang. He screamed. He got a little action in. J Lo head-bobbed along like a 15-year-old groupie. Then James screamed again as he dropped to his knees in front of the flaming piano.
The judges were certainly pleased, and Steve Tyler even had some sage advice for James: “You have a real rock voice. You go where no man can go. Just don’t wear out your welcome. Don’t be up there too long, or you’ll wind up like me.”
That didn’t worry James. He wants to be like Steve Tyler, who also has a penchant for fine silk scarves. J Lo came next: “Blah blah blah … full performance … blah blah blah … great artist … blah blah blah … great song … blah blah blah.”
Then came Randy Jackson, who is assuming the new role of Idol’s Elder Sage: “You really enjoy yourself!” It’s true. James seemed to enjoy performing even more than he enjoyed all the applause or the positive judges’ comments. “Dude, that was a great, great, great performance. Great!” That was four “greats” from Randy and not a single “dawg.”
Then disaster almost struck. Ryan Seacrest called him fearless, but asked what he was most nervous about. The oxymoronic nature of the question whizzed right past both him and James. If it was fearless, he was not nervous, and if he was nervous, the performance was not fearless. But apparently they had a few extra seconds to kill before the commercial, so they had to resort to idle chatter.
