Didn’t come here to hurt you now I can’t stop
Ok so this is a little bit overdue. I had every intention of writing (and therefore) posting on the night of the concert but it seems that I was exhausted from being too old to stay up so late doing my crash course in LotS (more on that in a minute) to attend to a review.
Just before we get to the concert itself I would like to take a moment to climb right on up onto my soapbox. It may be abundantly clear by now that I have an issue with the alleged inherent value of things and therefore that I have a thought or two about people feeling that artists spawned from reality tv shows not being proper artists and not deserving their success but I am not going to go off on a tear about this because I think my Girls Aloud love probably defines my position on the issue. I do, however, want to point out that in the case of Kelly Clarkson (and any and all of the American Idol contestants) what we should be focusing on is the fact that they have not been forever traumatised by having to deal with fucking Ryan Seacrest. Just so you know Mr Seacrest you are not funny, you are soooooo not quick witted and at present you make me want to put thumbtacks through the roof of my mouth on a weekly basis. I do not know what pact you made with the devil to be as prevalent and highly paid as you are but I can only hope that it is time limited.
Enough of thinking about that egomaniac and on to the
With the exception of Rob Thomas, Kelly had way less production than any other concert I have been to in recent times. There were no video screens, no costume changes, no backup dances and no backdrops made up of lights (oh when I come to think about it Rob Thomas had one of those so I guess that realy does make Kelly a true minimalist). There was some cool lighting and it was definitely something that my mother would call a ‘rock concert’ but it really was just Kelly and her amazing, amazing voice. She didn’t split her lip this tour (maybe you only get to see a singer do that once in your life) but she still had so much commitment and energy.
I am going to go off on a tangent and say that I sooooooo wish that I had also been at the Newcastle concert cause she solved a few things that I would have otherwise complained about - namely she sang Cry (cause I have got to tell you that I can angst my heart out to that song - “is it over now, can I open my eyes, is this as hard as it gets, is this what it feels like to really cry”) and she replaced Ready with Don’t Let Me Stop You (she mentioned that Ready was one of her favourite songs from the album but I am all about Don’t Let Me Stop You - “this is gonna sound kinda silly, but the last time you kissed me, I couldn’t help but notice, you kept both eyes open, baby can tell me what does that mean?”). I would have loved to have had the Newcastle Low/Addicted/Gone medley but if I have to make a choice I am willing to keep Sober which we had and they didn’t - cause I love, love, love that song and we went off to it in a big way. If she had have given me both Sober and Maybe I probably wouldn’t have cared about any else she sang - oh how I love Maybe - “yeah I’m hard, and life with me is never easy, to figure out, to love, I’m jaded but oh so lovely”.
So the actual setlist -
All I Ever Wanted - Strangely enough this was one of the moments that I thought was little flat. There were lots of flashing lights and she sang her guts out but somehow it lacked the power it should have had.
Miss Independent - The only song that we got from Thankful. Last time she toured she has changed it up but it was back to the original version for this tour.
I Do Not Hook Up - And right about here the power really kicked in. Ah “I don’t cook, no but I can clean, up the mess she left” (I don’t often do either of those things but when I sing that line I believe that I could)
Impossible - I had found it strange that this was on all of the setlists but it seems that it’s a song that she really believes in. It also seems that it’s defiant nature is a little too subtle for me and that I like my ‘screw you’ songs to be much more overt (and a whole lot angrier) - there’s probably years worth of therapy I should have on take observation alone.
That I Would Be Good /Use Somebody - I don’t know this Alanis Morissette song (I think I am really only familiar with the Jaded Little Pill album) but I liked the words and it worked well with the Kings of Leon cover
Breakaway - Her voice sounded really great on this.
If I Can't Have You - Having the little bits Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head was a really cool idea and I totally would have loved it if it didn’t give me flash backs to the Skins season four finale.
Never Again - I know that this was considered a terrible song and has even been labeled ‘the song that nearly ruined Kelly Clarkson’s career’ but I have never understood that. I like the song a whole lot. I am not at all above wishing that someone’s finger turns green and how can you not love the “a trophy wife oh how cute” line????? It had a different, sorta funkier, backing that really worked with the song.
Lies - I don’t know the Black Keys but I do know that Kelly can sing the hell out of songs with a gospel flavour.
Tonight I Wanna Cry - I think I only know one Keith Urban song and this isn’t it. I quite liked it so maybe I need to get over my preconceptions about Keith and listen to some of his music.
Behind These Hazel Eyes - She did an acoustic version of this that was really beautiful. She also threw it to the audience to sing the chorus - not the easiest song in the world to get us to sing Kelly. Particularly if you’re not going to have the band blaring to drown us out.
I Want You - This what FFM referred to as the 12 inch remix and it had lots of great audience participation. I love the bouncy somewhat retro nature of this song.
Ready - This was not on the set lists for the European or African leg of the tour so I didn’t listen to it preconcert. I can say that it didn’t stand out back when I was listening to the All You Ever Wanted CD but given she has mentioned that it is one of her favourite songs on the album I may have to listen to it a little more.
Because of You - She mentioned in her spiel that a lot of people think this is about a boyfriend. I find that so bizarre. I never thought it was about anything other than a parent (I actually thought that was kind of obvious). People of the world what the hell boyfriends have you got that a teaching you to “never stray too far from the side walk”?
Walk Away - Nothing like getting to hear Kelly rock the “I know you know I know” line (especially after hearing someone else attempt it on Idol and realizing just what a voice Miss Clarkson has).
Since U Been Gone - Great way to end the set and yay for the fact that she still yells out “Jump!” to the audience at the start of each chorus.
Sober - As mentioned I love this song and you really should have been there to hear me belting it out and by ‘really should have been there’ I may mean ‘count yourself lucky you weren’t’.
Save You - Newcastle didn’t get this one and while it’s neither Maybe or Cry I am happy that we got it. I am not going to try and claim that it’s not an angstastic song but I will say that I’m totally taking the line “it’s gonna be alright” to mean that I can like positive things ;)
Already Gone - I for one never got (or get this confused) Halo. After all Halo is about sunshine, optimism and also angels whilst Already Gone makes me cry my eyes out. I actually get pain in my heart on the “it started with a perfect kiss then we could feel the poison set in, perfect couldn’t keep this love alive”. I adore this song but I don’t think its good for me. I am proud to say that I only cried a little bit during it at the concert.
My Life Would Suck Without You - Ah this song will now forever make me think of Glee and hence it was a v happy way to end a great night.
LTC managed to be his usual Kelly concert self despite being next to his girlfriend (who doesn’t even like Kelly) so Kelly is most definitely a powerful force. They were throwing out ‘Kelly Clarkson’ guitar pics into the audience and FFM has my undying love for catching one and giving it to me!!!!! Also, FFM’s wife is pregnant with twins and it was adorable to watch her jump up and down whilst holding on to her stomach in an effort to protect her little parasites. Oh and we wore our backwards Kelly T-shirts that we made for the previous concert (ironing those transfers on to our shirts and realising that we hadn’t inverted the images and so all of the writing was around the wrong way will always be one of the funniest moments of my life). I also feel that need to point out that I currently have no concert tickets attached to my fridge. It seems like forever since I didn’t have a pending concert and I have to say that on Wednesday morning it was a horrible realisation that I would have to actually think about what music I was going to listen to on my way to work. Some days it’s hard to be me.
Ok so onto the glory that is Legend of the Seeker. It may have meant that I am very tired this week but I love it so, so much. I can tell you right now that at some point there will be fic because I could not love Cara more and Kahlan and Cara are total love!!!!!!!!!!!!! For right know though lets just settle with a little picspam from the epicness that was Descrated……..
Have I mentioned that I love them?????
Just before we get to the concert itself I would like to take a moment to climb right on up onto my soapbox. It may be abundantly clear by now that I have an issue with the alleged inherent value of things and therefore that I have a thought or two about people feeling that artists spawned from reality tv shows not being proper artists and not deserving their success but I am not going to go off on a tear about this because I think my Girls Aloud love probably defines my position on the issue. I do, however, want to point out that in the case of Kelly Clarkson (and any and all of the American Idol contestants) what we should be focusing on is the fact that they have not been forever traumatised by having to deal with fucking Ryan Seacrest. Just so you know Mr Seacrest you are not funny, you are soooooo not quick witted and at present you make me want to put thumbtacks through the roof of my mouth on a weekly basis. I do not know what pact you made with the devil to be as prevalent and highly paid as you are but I can only hope that it is time limited.
Enough of thinking about that egomaniac and on to the
With the exception of Rob Thomas, Kelly had way less production than any other concert I have been to in recent times. There were no video screens, no costume changes, no backup dances and no backdrops made up of lights (oh when I come to think about it Rob Thomas had one of those so I guess that realy does make Kelly a true minimalist). There was some cool lighting and it was definitely something that my mother would call a ‘rock concert’ but it really was just Kelly and her amazing, amazing voice. She didn’t split her lip this tour (maybe you only get to see a singer do that once in your life) but she still had so much commitment and energy.
I am going to go off on a tangent and say that I sooooooo wish that I had also been at the Newcastle concert cause she solved a few things that I would have otherwise complained about - namely she sang Cry (cause I have got to tell you that I can angst my heart out to that song - “is it over now, can I open my eyes, is this as hard as it gets, is this what it feels like to really cry”) and she replaced Ready with Don’t Let Me Stop You (she mentioned that Ready was one of her favourite songs from the album but I am all about Don’t Let Me Stop You - “this is gonna sound kinda silly, but the last time you kissed me, I couldn’t help but notice, you kept both eyes open, baby can tell me what does that mean?”). I would have loved to have had the Newcastle Low/Addicted/Gone medley but if I have to make a choice I am willing to keep Sober which we had and they didn’t - cause I love, love, love that song and we went off to it in a big way. If she had have given me both Sober and Maybe I probably wouldn’t have cared about any else she sang - oh how I love Maybe - “yeah I’m hard, and life with me is never easy, to figure out, to love, I’m jaded but oh so lovely”.
So the actual setlist -
All I Ever Wanted - Strangely enough this was one of the moments that I thought was little flat. There were lots of flashing lights and she sang her guts out but somehow it lacked the power it should have had.
Miss Independent - The only song that we got from Thankful. Last time she toured she has changed it up but it was back to the original version for this tour.
I Do Not Hook Up - And right about here the power really kicked in. Ah “I don’t cook, no but I can clean, up the mess she left” (I don’t often do either of those things but when I sing that line I believe that I could)
Impossible - I had found it strange that this was on all of the setlists but it seems that it’s a song that she really believes in. It also seems that it’s defiant nature is a little too subtle for me and that I like my ‘screw you’ songs to be much more overt (and a whole lot angrier) - there’s probably years worth of therapy I should have on take observation alone.
That I Would Be Good /Use Somebody - I don’t know this Alanis Morissette song (I think I am really only familiar with the Jaded Little Pill album) but I liked the words and it worked well with the Kings of Leon cover
Breakaway - Her voice sounded really great on this.
If I Can't Have You - Having the little bits Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head was a really cool idea and I totally would have loved it if it didn’t give me flash backs to the Skins season four finale.
Never Again - I know that this was considered a terrible song and has even been labeled ‘the song that nearly ruined Kelly Clarkson’s career’ but I have never understood that. I like the song a whole lot. I am not at all above wishing that someone’s finger turns green and how can you not love the “a trophy wife oh how cute” line????? It had a different, sorta funkier, backing that really worked with the song.
Lies - I don’t know the Black Keys but I do know that Kelly can sing the hell out of songs with a gospel flavour.
Tonight I Wanna Cry - I think I only know one Keith Urban song and this isn’t it. I quite liked it so maybe I need to get over my preconceptions about Keith and listen to some of his music.
Behind These Hazel Eyes - She did an acoustic version of this that was really beautiful. She also threw it to the audience to sing the chorus - not the easiest song in the world to get us to sing Kelly. Particularly if you’re not going to have the band blaring to drown us out.
I Want You - This what FFM referred to as the 12 inch remix and it had lots of great audience participation. I love the bouncy somewhat retro nature of this song.
Ready - This was not on the set lists for the European or African leg of the tour so I didn’t listen to it preconcert. I can say that it didn’t stand out back when I was listening to the All You Ever Wanted CD but given she has mentioned that it is one of her favourite songs on the album I may have to listen to it a little more.
Because of You - She mentioned in her spiel that a lot of people think this is about a boyfriend. I find that so bizarre. I never thought it was about anything other than a parent (I actually thought that was kind of obvious). People of the world what the hell boyfriends have you got that a teaching you to “never stray too far from the side walk”?
Walk Away - Nothing like getting to hear Kelly rock the “I know you know I know” line (especially after hearing someone else attempt it on Idol and realizing just what a voice Miss Clarkson has).
Since U Been Gone - Great way to end the set and yay for the fact that she still yells out “Jump!” to the audience at the start of each chorus.
Sober - As mentioned I love this song and you really should have been there to hear me belting it out and by ‘really should have been there’ I may mean ‘count yourself lucky you weren’t’.
Save You - Newcastle didn’t get this one and while it’s neither Maybe or Cry I am happy that we got it. I am not going to try and claim that it’s not an angstastic song but I will say that I’m totally taking the line “it’s gonna be alright” to mean that I can like positive things ;)
Already Gone - I for one never got (or get this confused) Halo. After all Halo is about sunshine, optimism and also angels whilst Already Gone makes me cry my eyes out. I actually get pain in my heart on the “it started with a perfect kiss then we could feel the poison set in, perfect couldn’t keep this love alive”. I adore this song but I don’t think its good for me. I am proud to say that I only cried a little bit during it at the concert.
My Life Would Suck Without You - Ah this song will now forever make me think of Glee and hence it was a v happy way to end a great night.
LTC managed to be his usual Kelly concert self despite being next to his girlfriend (who doesn’t even like Kelly) so Kelly is most definitely a powerful force. They were throwing out ‘Kelly Clarkson’ guitar pics into the audience and FFM has my undying love for catching one and giving it to me!!!!! Also, FFM’s wife is pregnant with twins and it was adorable to watch her jump up and down whilst holding on to her stomach in an effort to protect her little parasites. Oh and we wore our backwards Kelly T-shirts that we made for the previous concert (ironing those transfers on to our shirts and realising that we hadn’t inverted the images and so all of the writing was around the wrong way will always be one of the funniest moments of my life). I also feel that need to point out that I currently have no concert tickets attached to my fridge. It seems like forever since I didn’t have a pending concert and I have to say that on Wednesday morning it was a horrible realisation that I would have to actually think about what music I was going to listen to on my way to work. Some days it’s hard to be me.
Ok so onto the glory that is Legend of the Seeker. It may have meant that I am very tired this week but I love it so, so much. I can tell you right now that at some point there will be fic because I could not love Cara more and Kahlan and Cara are total love!!!!!!!!!!!!! For right know though lets just settle with a little picspam from the epicness that was Descrated……..
Have I mentioned that I love them?????