Kelly Clarkson at Universal

Kelly Clarkson once again made another Southern California concert appearance. And once again, Tim and I were there. This time the locale was the Gibson Amphitheatre located within Universal Studios Hollywood. And as always, Kelly delivered a great performance.


We enjoyed the Kelly Clarkson show at Universal's Gibson Amphitheatre. (11/18/2007)

This was Kelly's re-scheduled Southern California appearance. Initially she was supposed to appear at the 18,000-seat Honda Center back in July, when she attempted a nationwide arena tour. But as I wrote last June, that tour was abruptly canceled.

So Kelly, after five months and a new management team (led by the husband of Reba McEntire), is now back on tour. This time, however, she's playing smaller venues, like the 6,000-seat Gibson Amphitheatre, which until recently was more commonly known as the Universal Amphitheatre.


Kelly Clarkson during the acoustic set of her show. (11/18/2007)

Although not nearly as close to our house as Honda Center is, Gibson Amphitheatre is a great venue for concerts (I've seen such acts there as Indigo Girls, Donna Summer, Ana Gabriel, Shirley Bassey, Lyle Lovett, and last-year's So You Think You Can Dance tour). There really isn't a bad seat in the place, and the acoustics are great.

Kelly performed all her hits, as well as several songs from her newest album, My December. For that reason, I don't know that it was my favorite Kelly concert, since I'm not as familiar with the new album as the others, but it was still great. The only song we thought was a little half-assed was Miss Independent. Apart from that, however, she committed to her songs.

There have been Kelly concerts that I enjoyed more, like the 2005 show at Bren Events Center, or the show I saw during the 2006 Addicted tour. But really any show with Kelly Clarkson is well worth the price of admission.


Kelly's opening act was John McLaughlin. (11/18/2007)

Oh, I almost forgot. I gotta give a shout-out to John McLaughlin, the opening act whom we enjoyed very much. It's not too often you see a singer/songwriter at a keyboard. His music was awesome. Reminded me a little of Ben Folds. I hadn't heard of him before, but I'm probably going to check iTunes for some of his stuff.