It's one thing to know Kelly Clarkson generally performs without shoes. It's another thing to see the first American Idol winner walk out from behind a dramatically opening stage set, glamorously backlit, before a Verizon Arena crowd of 4,500 in a glittery dress and bare feet.
Maybe it's just because she's wobbly in heels, but those folksy feet are one reason the extremely personable Clarkson is a star. Her voice, of course, is another.
Clarkson and her seven-member backup band performed nonstop for more than 90 minutes Thursday night, working smoothly through a set of 19 songs, mostly her trademark anthems of empowerment, interspersed with a few covers. She got ahead of herself when she nearly skipped one song in the set list, but explained it by saying, "Pregnancy brain."
A highlight of the evening was a stretch of songs accompanied by only a piano, beginning with "Piece by Piece," an ode to her husband and also the name of this tour.
Clarkson's doing something new on this tour, giving an "open mic" spot to one local singer in each location. Thursday's lucky musician was Drew Erwin, 19, who belted out a slightly angsty love song with his guitar and some quiet background support from the band.
Judging by T-shirts and ball caps in the crowd, a lot of fans were there for Pentatonix, the five-member a cappella group who began singing together in high school and came to fame winning NBC's The Sing-Off in 2011. The Grammy-winning group moved smoothly through 9 songs in 40 minutes. A high point came when the crowd, divided into three groups, sang harmony on the title song from the group's latest CD, "On My Way Home."
Abi Ann, an 18-year-old from Midland, Texas, opened the show with a set of five songs, including "Future Ex-Boyfriend" and "Truck Candy" from her new EP. Singer-songwriter Eric Hutchinson of Maryland followed her and did a great job of warming the crowd with his bouncy songs and bouncy self, joking, and getting the audience to sing along with the melodic riffs that open his song "OK, It's All Right With Me."
The tour stops at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville Saturday, in case anyone's headed that way anyway.