America’s first idol.

Kelly Clarkson, the first winner of American Idol, has truckloads of talent beneath an endearingly innocent Southern girl exterior, filled to the brim with that lovability factor.  Her mediocre beginnings are long behind her as she skyrocketed to superstardom with the breakthrough album Breakaway, emotion-stirring pop rock at its finest.  My December was her nosedive into pop’s darker elements, and a refreshing and invigorating battle against “the man” to do what she wanted.  Her most recent album, interestingly titled All I Ever Wanted, explores her rock influences more thoroughly, without sacrificing the catchy fun of it all.  She’s shown the breadth of her talent (forgetting “From Justin to Kelly”) and I’ve been a big fan along the way, so I decided to surprise my sig-o with concert tix.  Sadly, the concert ended up being more like all I never wanted.

            It was an outdoor venue on a rainy night.  Eh, okay.  We were in the middle of bumblefuck PA.  Gross.  But we were still uber-excited to see her – I mean, I was standing in the mud for her.  That’s dedication.  And yeah, there were some cute lighting effects and she had great energy with the crowd, but all-in-all I was incredibly disappointed.  And it was all in the vocals that I thought were practically flawless.

            Bring at the concert was akin to… excuse the blatantly sexual reference… blueballs.  I’m standing there, singing along with her, completely in the zone.  And here comes the climax – the beautiful part of the song where she bares it all and shows off her chops.  And right when you’re ready for elation, she cuts it short, and you’re left hanging in frustrated suspension.  It didn’t just happen once… it happened during EVERY song.  Maybe she had a sore throat, or was saving her voice or something.  But dammit, I was standing in the mud and deserved a full Kelly experience!  On top of that, she wasted her set on two covers which were good, but with four CDs of material and tons of hits, there’s no room for covers.

            So yeah, quite the sad experience.  Don’t get me wrong, I still love me some Kelly Clarkson.  But maybe I’ll think twice about seeing her live… outside… in the rain.  The opener that we caught, Eric Hutchinson, was pretty good though.  Some serious blue-eyed soul that the sig-o is now obsessed with.  Check him out – http://www.erichutchinson.com/.

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