Kelly Clarkson delights Susquehanna Bank Center
There are only two current pop stars with voices powerful enough to keep up with the thunderously impressive Kelly Clarkson. Beyonce Knowles has already done her New Jersey show this summer, and Lady Gaga is currently lost in battle overseas. So if you're looking to get blown out of the building and over the hills and far away by a pop singer with pipes to rival those at St. Patrick's Cathedral, you don't really have an alternative. You've got to catch Clarkson when she comes to PNC Bank Arts Center on August 26.
Clarkson is, pointedly, touring with the Fray and Carolina Liar, a pair of pop-rock bands. She and her group out-rocked them both. At Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden on Thursday night, she took the stage with an eight piece band that included three guitar players. (Good ones, too; ones she allowed to cut loose with Southern-rock style harmony solos on "You Love Me.") An American Idol she was, but a rock star is what she aspires to be -- the Pink Floyd t-shirt she wore at the concert wasn't just there for show.
A good third of the hourlong concert was devoted to guitar-based country pop like "Don't You Want To Stay," her hit duet with Jason Aldean. She slowed down for a ballad or two, but made sure to belt them out like Linda Ronstadt after ten bowls of Cap'n Crunch. Besides that, the concert was upbeat and organic, largely stripped of the s! ynthetic trappings that occasionally lard her radio singles. Clarkson does not dance, but she does pogo, and she bounced her way through kicking versions of "Mr. Know it All," "Behing These Hazel Eyes," and a slamming "Since U Been Gone" that began with an overdriven bass solo. I've said it aloud before, so I may as well repeat it here: This is what modern rock radio would sound like if any of those no-talent jokers could sing.
I'm being hyperbolic. Sort of. The point is that Clarkson ought to be embraced and celebrated by the rock audience. Every other pop star either runs screaming from the rock or dresses it up for pure shtick value. Clarkson's terrific show didn't rock for cool points, or rock as part of a postmodern pastiche, or feint toward rock in an effort to apply some rebel spirit to music that's otherwise conventional. It just rocked. Except when it didn't. But even the teen-pop material like "My Life Would Suck Without You" was invested with more than a bit of basement-club energy. At Susquehanna Center, Clarkson behaved like a woman who'd gleefuly shed her glamour gown for something more comfortable. That extended to her choice of covers: fun.'s "We Are Young," which was presented as faithfully as it might have been by a fan on YouTube, Miranda Lambert's furious "Mama's Broken Heart," and Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance," a fan request.
Afterward, Clarkson confessed that she'd screwed up the Womack song. Nobody noticed. I think she was just being coy. Or maybe she wanted to further humanize herself, and remind her fans that she was just a woman doing a gig, one upset because her dog was sick, and looking to drown her sorrows in some pounding snare and power chords. I'm just surprised she resisted the temptation to strap on an electric guitar. Hey, there's always next time.
Here's the set list:
KELLY CLARKSON
My Life Would Suck Without You
Behind These Hazel Eyes
I Forgive You
Dark Side
You Love Me
We Are Young
Already Gone
Don't You ! Wanna St ay
Mama's Broken Heart
I Hope You Dance
Breakaway
Since U Been Gone
ENCORE
Because of You
Mr. Know it All
Miss Independent
Stronger