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Letdown, part 1: Jason Brown of Highland Park, excited to skate for people he knows so well he recognized individual voices cheering him, fell on his triple axel opening jump of the Skate America short program.

Letdown, part 2: At the moment when a voice singing lyrics was heard for the first time in singles at a Grand Prix competition, the skater using Michael Buble’s “Cry Me A River,” Artur Gachinski of Russia, was picking himself off the ice after a fall.

Letdown, part 3: The first major figure skating competition in the Chicago area in 68 years drew what seemed barely 1,000 paying customers Friday to the Sears Centre.

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Yet the evening ended on an upbeat, as the final skater, Japan’s Tatsuki Machida, crushed the field with a brilliant performance to purely instrumental music — Nigel Hess’ fantasy for violin and orchestra — in this season when vocal lyrics are allowed in singles and pairs for the first time.

“For the composer, each note is a word, and I try to express that,” Machida said through an interpreter.

Machida, reigning world silver medalist, takes a nearly 12-point lead into Saturday’s free skate. He had 93.39 points to 81.82 for four-time U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott and 79.75 for Brown, in his first major skate before a home crowd.

“I wish I could have started better,” Brown said, “but I’m happy with the way I recovered.”