kelly clarkson

just finished posting photos from the kelly clarkson concert i attended back in may. 

i like kelly's latest album a lot, but i had no intention of seeing her live until joe bought me two tickets to her central park gig.  understandably, not being a fan of hers, joe didn't really want to go.  however, when the friend that i'd invited cancelled at the last minute, i threatened to drag joe along with me — there was no way i was going to face hundreds of screaming teen and pre-teen girls and their mothers in central park on a saturday all by my lonesome.

thankfully, our friend justin rescued both joe and me from this dilemma.  justin and i arranged to meet up an hour before the concert — so, of course, the line to get in was about half a mile long by the time we got there.  fortunately for us, we ended up next to courtney and aviva, who were also neither teen, pre-teen, nor mothers, and shared an interest in all the celebrity gossip of the day (britney, lindsay, whitney, mariah, tomkat et al).

the four of us sat together at the concert, waiting for about an hour before kelly came on.  to pass the time, we alternately left for snacks, bathroom breaks, gift bag runs, and massages — but, for me, the best part of the pre-show was standing around watching the crowd enjoy the music being piped over the speakers.  seriously, what could be more heart-warming than an all-ages crowd singing along to the uncensored version of gwen stefani's "holla back"?  (though i feel less scandalized now that i've learned that the black eyed peas are actually saying "don't phunk with my heart.")

finally, kelly arrived and performed a set of about eight songs, which (to me, at least) falls a bit on the short side.  then again, considering the event was pretty much one big advertisement for allure magazine and its sponsors (yet, they still charged admission), i guess i shouldn't be too surprised.  on the plus side, kelly sang some cool covers — b.b. king's "the thrill is gone" and the eurythmics' "sweet dreams."

thankfully, security was pretty lax and, though they made me dump my water bottle, they didn't check for or confiscate my nikon coolpix sq.  turns out lots of people brought cameras and were all taking pictures.  i promised courtney and aviva i would e-mail them as soon as i posted mine so, a little over three months later, here they are!

yeah, i suck.

Posted by jason at September 16, 2005 10:00 AM