TV Column by Lisa de Moraes: Adam Lambert Shines on 'American Idol's' Rock Night

Adam Lambert opened Rocker Night on "American Idol" with Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." It was a steep downhill slide from there.

All the Idolettes dressed in heavy rocker gear to commemorate the night -- "rocker" is apparently the most heavily costumed music genre ever.

The mentor, Slash -- you know, Guns N' Roses lead-guitar legend? -- noted of Adam: "It comes to him so effortlessly." Slash, turns out, is the best "Idol" mentor ever, telling Adam, "Maybe just don't improvise so much in the high register." That's apparently rocker-speak for "less of the screaming, please." Miraculously, Adam did just that, pleasantly surprising millions of "Idol" fans. Just listened to the original on YouTube -- Lambert's version was better.

"Nobody gonna ever think about Broadway or any of that stuff -- you are a rock star waiting to happen!" gushed judge Randy Jackson. Judge Kara DioGuardi called him "a rock god" and judge Paula Abdul deemed him "a whole lotta perfect."

"The only problem is, nobody can top that now," judge Simon Cowell said.

Simon was right.

Allison Iraheta, performing "Cry Baby," was in way over her head going up against Janis Joplin -- she's short several tanker loads of whiskey and one tortured life. Randy, Kara and Paula didn't love it and Simon told her she should have gone with her other choice, "Somebody to Love."

Kris Allen went with the Beatles' "Come Together." Slash said that if Kris could manage to pick up the actual live performance part of his act, "that will help" -- but he said it without any real conviction. Simon said it was "rather like eating ice for lunch."

Danny Gokey picked "Dream On." Danny's "naturally gifted," Slash noted, but is not sure Gokey is up to the tough tune, particularly the big finish. Danny wore pinstriped pants, vest and a purple shirt -- he looked like something off "The Lawrence Welk Show." His performance was a mess; you could almost hear him saying to himself: "Scream coming up next, gotta get ready for the scream, gotta get into kneeling position for scream. Scream!"

Randy, Kara and Paula gave him an A-plus for effort but Simon said it was like watching a horror movie. Danny was once again dismissive of the judges, who were too kind, saying he'd have to go back and listen to it because "they could be right," but "I don't think it was as bad as they said it was."