Kelly Clarkson August 19th at Staples Center Los Angeles
After several years without touring Kelly Clarkson didn’t disappoint at the Staples Center in Los Angeles last Wednesday. Openers Pentatonix got the crowd hyped with their electric covers and high energy vocals. But clearly it was Kelly’s stage.
When the lights came up and Kelly began with “Dance With Me”, from her latest album Piece by Piece, the energy of the audience spiked. She followed with dance hit “My Life Would Suck Without You” — an anthem for everyone who grew up with Kelly’s music. Then she slowed it down a bit with “Nostalgic”, “Mr. Know It All” and “Invincible”.
The real highlight of the night was Kelly’s piano versions of “Piece by Piece”, “Because of You” and “Breakaway” — basically emotionally wrecking the audience. Oh, and she announced she was pregnant during the stirring rendition of “Piece by Piece” so there’s that.
With a couple more tracks from the new album (“Tightrope” and “Take You High”), Kelly rocked “Behind These Hazel Eyes”, from her second album Breakaway. Every show Kelly brings up someone to sing in an Open Mic hoping it will help their career cause she’s awesome like that. Her cover of the night was Demi Lovato’s “Cool for the Summer” — a birthday present for Demi. She closed this portion of the night with a KC Classic song “Sober”, from her less-successful and more depressing My December album.
The rest of the night was a party as Kelly brought out anthems “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”, “Heartbeat Song” and a “Walk Away” / “Uptown Funk” mashup. The encore began with another banging cover of Jessie J, Arian Grande and Nicki Minaj’s “Bang Bang”. Ending with one of her first hits “Miss Independent” and rock song “Since U Been Gone.” Kelly proved her ability to belt hasn’t changed since she was crowned the first American Idol in 2002. She has staying power and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next!
Photo Credit: Weiss Eubanks