Of all of the sonic garbage passing for American Idol winners and Top Ten Finalists in recent years, it’s nice to know the television franchise have discovered a few diamonds in the rough, notably Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson.
And while Underwood has forged ahead with a successful country career, Clarkson is branching out a bit from pop judging by a tight and at times very soulful 90-minute show Thursday evening at a sold-out Casino Rama.
Dubbed the All I Ever Wanted tour after this year’s album of the same name, Clarkson and her 11-piece support band were extremely polished and studio-smooth for much of the night beginning with the title track off the new record.
Clad in all black, the at-times chatty, warm and friendly Clarkson worked the stage throughout, glad-handing a tightly packed horde of fans standing at the front and even signing an autograph a one point.
Yet with all the radio-friendly pop singles she’s produced since winning the 2002 debut season of the talent competition, Clarkson’s soulful and at times bluesy range shone through, especially on a choice series of covers during the show.
Fusing Alanis Morissette’s That I Would Be Good with the bombastic Kings Of Leon’s Use Somebody, Clarkson belted out the latter with flare which resulted in a great response from the all-ages but primarily female audience.
Later, Clarkson – who routinely mentioned her favorite Canadian artists – was fantastic with a ballsy and bluesy Janis Joplin-like rendition of The Black Keys’ Lies, but even this seemed to pale compared to a sultry and smoky reworked version of Patsy Cline’s Walkin’ After Midnight complete with some horn accompaniment.
For the most part though, fans got what the paid for, and that being a string of pop-friendly numbers such as Miss Independent (featuring a snippet of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man) and the dance-flavoured, chipper I Do Not Hook Up that has Clarkson hopping on the spot.
“How you doing Canada?” Clarkson asked the enthusiastic followers. “It’s really pretty here but it’s fricking cold!”
“It’s cold but you’re hot!” a fan quickly replied.
Delving quite a bit into the new album by performing nine songs off it, Clarkson fared quite well on the perky, electro-tinged If I Can’t Have You and the moody Impossible. Meanwhile some of the ballad efforts including Cry showcased her powerful set of pipes.
Well paced and crafted in terms of the flow, Clarkson and company (including a lone Canadian guitarist from Moose Jaw) continued the show with the ‘60s girl group ditty I Want You, a short but sweet number Clarkson dubbed her “happy song.” This led nicely into the bouncy, ambling Ready.
The show’s main highlights though from the crowd response were obviously Clarkson’s hit singles, whether it was Breakaway, Walk Away, Never Again, Since U Been Gone and the finale My Life Would Suck Without You.
