That girl can sing!
There’s really not much to hate about Kelly Clarkson. She can bust out rock, blues, even slow ballads. She’s a star without being a diva. She’s quirky and real and I think most people like her because she’s got the “I could hang out with her” vibe.
I really have nothing negative to say about Ms. Clarkson- other than the fact that she should NOT have preformed at Universal Orlando.
She is too big for the venue- and she seemed surprised by that!
The stage is a bandshell of sorts. One either side, a monitor up high. In front of the stage, a small grassy area- and on either side of that- large soundstages that house Twister on one side and Jimmy Neutron on the other.
There’s not a lot of room- but thankfully the park put up some extra monitors around the area so people outside the small courtyard could see.
If those weren’t up, I’m convinced there would have been riots.
Kelly hit the stage right on time- 9:15pm. She had a 5-piece band and some back-up singers, and starting rocking with “Walk Away” then “Behind These Hazel Eyes.”
She kept mentioning this was the loudest crowd she’s played to on this tour. And at one point said she had been told crowd estimates were 40-to-60-thousand people. I completely would buy that.
To say it was a nuthouse would be an understatement. There were times that I worried about safety, especially seeing some small children in the mob.
There was no crowd control- no fences, ropes, security. It was just not safe.
Mix that with a bunch of people who were tired from being in the parks all day, and the others who just came to drink at Mardi Gras, it really was a disaster in-the-making.
Thankfully, we decided to get out of the mob and enjoy the show at one of the big monitors they set up.
I couldn’t help but think why is she only doing these small seat-less venues. She could have easily packed the UCF Arena or TD Waterhouse.
But- it was nice to see a show outside in Orlando.
Kelly sang a great mix of old, new and in-between.
In all- it was about an hour of non-stop Kelly. She sang everything the crowd wanted and more. Closing out the show, “Since U Been Gone” and the encore “My Life Would Suck Without You.”
And then, madness. It wasn’t so bad getting out of the park. It was RIDICULOUS getting out of the parking garage. Kelly sang about 65 minutes. I sat in my car about 55 minutes. And about 30 of those minutes were NOT moving at all!!
Perhaps it has to do with job cuts and economic cutbacks- whatever the reason, Universal needs to get its act together if they are going to be bringing in big names.
There was a huge safety-issue in-the-making in that garage- and not one single employee around to try to keep the peace or provide traffic control.
I’ve never been happier to see I-4.
Videos from the show can be seen over at facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=78557452533#/video/?id=730932533
