Having seen Kelly Clarkson absolutely rock out at the Hammersmith Apollo a few years ago with hundreds of fans, I was intrigued to see how she was going to pull off a gig at the cosy and small venue that is Borderline. Suffice to say, I was not disappointed.
Opening with 'Dark Side', from her new album Stronger, Kelly Clarkson went on to treat her fans to an excellent offering of her best songs. The fact that this gig was thrown together by Kelly and Sony at the last minute was clearly evident; however, this worked completely in favour for the fans as Kelly was happy to act as a human jukebox, hardly sticking to a set list of any kind, instead asking the crowd for requests and hanging her mic into the crowd when she needed help with the words.
Kelly was also quite happy to reveal her hand was bandaged from a mishap with some hot tea the day before. She had also tweeted that she had had another tattoo done that day, and although reluctant to bare skin, she did share that it was morse code for ‘what doesn’t kill you’ – as well as being the next track from her album, which led to a powerful performance.
A memorable moment of the night was when Kelly sang 'Sober'. Fans will know what a tear-wrenching, emotional song this can be, and although she poked fun at the song's title by swigging from her vodka, there were goosebumps all around as she belted out the emotive bridge.
As well as the new tracks, Kelly also played some covers including the White Stripes’ 'Seven Nation Army' which had the crowd jumping around as if they were at a music festival. The highlight for the evening easily had to be after this track, when Kelly singled me out for wolf-whistling. After calling me a ‘bragger’ and a failed attempt at teaching her to wolf-whistle, she went on to ask for a request; she’d barely finished talking before I shouted ‘Because Of You’ at her.
What ensued was a heart-wrenching rendition which had me clinging on to some poor girl stood next me (whom I thank for being there for me.)
Although Kelly was quick to keep reminding the crowd that her and her band had hardly played together, you would not have thought it as they all pulled out 'Union Jack Sunglasses', and closed the gig to a jumping 'My Life Would Suck Without You'.
I went expecting to see a standard playlist of Kelly’s new album, but what I was treated to was a varied rendition of songs, old and new, at such an intimate, genuine gig.
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