HOUSTON – Can I get a WHAT WHAT for this season's start to the Battle Rounds?! I mean. Talk about epic moments. I did want to clarify one thing: last week I had said that coaches could steal players from other teams by being the first to hit their buttons. As it turns out, this is not the case. If more than one coach wants to steal an artist, the decision is back in the hands of the artist, and he/she chooses which coach they want.
Now that that's cleared up, let's rock.
The first half of the episode was… ok. The first battle between Casey Muessigmann and Terry McDermott from Team Blake was just kind of meh. Terry is great and was set up to win. Which he did. Yawn.
Bryan Keith from Team Adam went up against Collin McLoughlin and sang "Santeria" by Sublime. This song was clearly chosen with Bryan in mind, but he didn't give the most stellar performance. I don't think Collin is anything special, but the coaches clearly disagree because after Adam cut him loose in favor of keeping Bryan, both Blake and Cee Lo went for the season's first steal. Collin ended up choosing Cee-Lo as his new coach, and Cee Lo now has one steal left to use.
Cee Lo pitted Diego Val against JR Aquino for a battle with what had to be the strangest song choice I have witnessed on this show: "Jesse's Girl" by Rick Springfield. Neither artist sounded good on this song, it made no sense with either of their styles, and the resulting performance was janktastic. Cee Lo ended up picking Diego Val as the winner out of sheer weirdness. Seriously.
And NOW we get to the good stuff.
Team Xtina showed UP Monday night when both Nelly's Echo and De'borah gave knockout performances of "Message in a Bottle" by the Police. Out of all the performances of the night, this is the one I would download. It was OUT of control, and I still cannot believe a coach didn't pick up Nelly's Echo, who ultimately lost the battle. I highly recommend watching this video (especially the harmonized riff at 0:21, because it's delicious).
Nelly's Echo vs. De'borah
2 Steel Girls and Gracia Harrison battled it out for a spot on Team Blake singing the Dixie Chicks' "Sin Wagon." Three country girls singing a Dixie Chicks song simply cannot go wrong. It was an entirely pleasant performance, and Blake made the right call by keeping Gracia and letting go of 2 Steel Girls.
But the moment people will be talking about for the rest of the season was the battle between Amanda Brown, a relative nobody in the Blinds, and Trevin Hunte, the vunderkind who sang "Listen" when they tore up Mariah Carey's "Vision of Love." The only word to describe this duet is "epic." Sure, Trevin was crazy sharp on a lot of those big notes, but it didn't matter because he's just so bananas. And sure, they were kind of scream-riffing in each other's faces for the majority of the performance, but honestly no one cares. With that kind of belting and riffing, things like pitch accuracy and dynamics kind of fall by the wayside. Not to mention they SLAUGHTERED that last note. Just. Just. Just. Watch it.
Amanda Brown vs. Trevin Hunte
More battles to come on Tuesday night, so check back in for the scoop!
Thanks for reading, and as always, thanks for watching KPRC Local 2!