A rough opening that revealed no inspiring performances, the dozen male semi-finalists were mostly a bundle of nerves as "American Idol" made its move to the public voting rounds.
And a few of the performances that earned raves from the judges, especially Michael Johns' "Light My Fire," came across as tentative on television, making one wonder once again if what we hear over air is that dramatically different from what the studio hears.
But - snicker, snicker - Paula and Simon are back to their old selves.
The theme was "The '60s" and for the most part the singers took the Barry Manilow approach - pop tunes and ballads - rather than using songs that defined the adventurousness of the decade. Quietly, as in not mentioned by anyone, there was a tribute to the great Harry Nilsson on Tuesday with the performance of one of best-known compositions, "One," and one of his biggest singles, his version of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'." His genius is just not celebrated enough.
Danny Noriega figured "'60s" was just a euphemism for old music that his grandparents listen to and chose the Elvis Presley 1957 hit "Jailhouse Rock." It received derisive comments from the judges - "grotesques" said Simon, "didn't allow you to do you thing" said Randy, "it's a safer song," quipped Paula - but not one of them noted that it was from the WRONG decade.
Judges were right on one count - it was one of the evening's worst. But the three that were hailed as the best - David Archuleta's "Shop Around," Jason Castro's "Daydream" and Johns' Doors cover - all opened with a fearfulness in the performers' voices that required a bit of mending as the songs progressed. Castro, the only one to use an instrument - acoustic guitar -  recovered the  quickest and delivered an assured version of the Lovin Spoonful hit; Archuleta exposed a maturity in his voice yet little command of melody.  None of the three is in danger of departing.
Robbie Carrico, who I fear will be around for awhile, did a record-perfect reading of the Three Dog Night hit "One." It was brilliant karaoke. Nothing more.
Performers who altered arrangements had a mixed bag: David Hernandez got so-so results toying with the meter on  "In the Midnight Hour"; Chikeze mangled "More Today Than Yesterday";  David Cook earned props for rushing "Happy Together"; Jason Yeager and Luke Menard tried the crack the introspective shells of their songs - "Moon River" and "Everybody's Talkin'," respectively - and went into "cruise ship territory; and Garret Haley hit most of the notes on Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up is Hard to Do"  but failed to excite.
Arguing with the judges after an iffy performance is never a smart idea and Chikeze  threw gasoline on the fire after delivering the worst perf of the night. He's a goner. And he'll probably be standing there with another combative personality, Luke Menard, and a guy who just doesn't seem ready for the competition, David  Cook. Menard should go first.      
More importantly, it was pleasant to have Simon Cowell back to his old self, calling performances horrendous and having no relevance and calling out Paula Abdul when she makes incongruous, go-nowhere remarks. Abdul was tossing out non-sequitors and incomplete sentences like beads at Mardi Gras and no one was catching them - except Cowell. Yup, that's at least the reason we watch.