Live: Kelly Clarkson And Matt Nathanson

As soon as I got the email alert that Kelly Clarkson was coming to Boston I knew I had to go. After a crush left me crushed circa 2007, Kelly's girl power songs became my anthems and I have always wanted to see her perform live.

One of my college friends has become my go-to concert buddy. We saw Taylor Swift and Rihanna together so she was my first call when I got the alert about the tickets.

Thursday night we met at the Park Street T stop and walked to Rock Bottom where we planned to have dinner. After the hostess informed us it would be a two hour wait, we turned on our heels, walked out and ducked into Montien.

After a great meal of Thai food we walked across the street to the Wang Center for the show.

Thanks to my ferocious online ticket purchasing skills, we had seats in the orchestra, 20 rows from the stage!

When we made it to our seats (we had to see six ushers who all kept saying, "Keep going! See the next usher.") Kelly's opening act, Matt Nathanson, was already on the stage.

When that song finished, Matt started talking to the crowd and we learned that he and his guitar player Aaron are both from Lexington, MA! Who knew?

Matt played a few songs, one called "Modern Love" that he wrote for a friend who had lost faith in finding a good man, one inspired by the Little Mermaid called "Bottom of the Sea", his duet with Sugarland called "Run" and the song he's best known for, "Come on Get Higher."

Matt talked and joked with the crowd into between every song. He was very personable and he definitely has a great voice. I'm not rushing to buy any of his music, but he was a nice warm up before Kelly.

There was about a half hour in between the two sets and then the lights went down and the entire Wang Center started screaming for Kelly. The screen on stage began to scroll through newspaper articles and in red phrases appeared that said things like, "Losing Sponsors", "Album Leaked" and "Fat." I knew after seeing this intro that her first song would be a girl power, F you type of song and sure enough, the screen lifted and out came Kelly belting "Since You've Been Gone."

After the first song Kelly walked to the edge of the stage to talk to the crowd. She said, "Did y'all like that? I hope so, because we have 25 songs on this set list!" She also pointed out her red, bedazzled mic and mic stand and said, "I feel like a mix of Steven Tyler and Gwen Stefani with this mic!"

Kelly was wearing a silver, sequin top, skin tight black pants and was rocking a sleek, super straight hair cut with blunt hangs that was perfect for her.

Kelly performed so many of my favorites! The list includes: "Walk Away", "My Life Would Suck Without You", "Breakaway", "Never Again", "Because of You", "The Trouble With Love Is" (the song from Love Actually) and her new single, which I love, "Stronger."

Now for the fun part, the videos!

Kicking it off with "Behind These Hazel Eyes":

Here is Kelly killing it with "Gone":

One of my all time favorites "Miss Independent":

During the show Kelly did a few covers including Florence + The Machine's "Heavy" and Heart's "What About Love." In fact, she said she asked fans for cover recommendations and "What About Love" was one of the fan suggestions! Here is the cover:

You can see from these videos how cool the set design and lighting was for this tour. Even though we were in a small theater, the set and lighting made it feel like we were rocking out in a stadium.

Throughout the show I was continually reminded how purely amazing Kelly's voice is. The girl can belt it! When she was talking to the audience she was rambling and was a bit of a ham, but it's clear she is very humble. During the three encore songs Kelly walked to the edge of the stage touching as many hands as she could and accepting gifts from fans. She even put on a hat that one of the fans handed to her and wore it for an entire song!

During one of her intros before a song, Kelly announced that she is singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. She said she is rooting for the Patriots because when she sang the national anthem at Fenway she realized how passionate Boston fans are and she wants to support that. Pretty cool.

She also mentioned she'd like to dance on stage with Madonna during her half time show performance. Ha!

The only down side to the experience (which had nothing to do with Kelly) was that we were seated right behind two women who could have been from those YouTube videos "The Real Housewives of Southie." They were screaming in their thick Boston accents all night long, spilling their drinks everywhere and stopping to take pictures every two seconds. No thank you.

If you get the chance to see Kelly Clarkson live I would highly recommend getting your hands on those tickets. I was singing and dancing along the entire night and I left feeling happy, energized and empowered.

Who is your favorite live performer?

 

Molly Galler

Welcome to Pop.Bop.Shop. My name is Molly. I’m a foodie, fashionista, pop culture addict and serious travel junkie. I’m a lifelong Bostonian obsessed with frozen confections, outdoor patios, Mindy Kaling, reality television, awards shows, tropical vacations, snail mail and my birthday.

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