My December Tour - The Show

The Show

As in the past, Clarkson's concerts held more in common with traditional rock concerts than with pop- or R&B-oriented "diva" productions. The show began with a stage tableau of the cover of the My December album, complete with staircase laced with gnarly tree branches and Clarkson sitting in the big red dress while the band was frozen like mannequins. Clarkson immediately shed the bulky red dress, however, and performed in an understated black pants and back top outfit. Halfway through the show the main curtain closed, and Clarkson and selected band members performed a quieter mini-set of “Because of You”, “Up to the Mountain”, and “Be Still” in front of the curtain. A mash-up of “Miss Independent” and Led Zeppelin's “Whole Lotta Love” AC/DC's "Back In Black" then played for a while over the sound system; when the curtain opened the set had been stripped to a techo-modern look, while Clarkson had undergone the minimal costume change of adding a black sleeveless vest. The single encores segment began with a respectfully delivered “Sober” followed by the informal “Chivas” and then her biggest hit, “Since U Been Gone”, the last of which typically featured sing-alongs or dancing fans pulled up on stage. In all she typically performed for 75 to 80 minutes.

The show's set list was dominated by My December and Breakaway material, with only “Miss Independent” and "Beautiful Disaster" appearing from her first album Thankful and the only indicator of her American Idol heritage her introduction to the Idol Gives Back showstopper “Up to the Mountain”. Clarkson's concert audience in the U.S. was sometimes composed of high school and younger college age people, predominantly female, and preteen girls accompanied by one or both parents, but also sometimes connected with her radio audience, which includes widespread play on adult contemporary stations. The music presented in the show was more conventionally rock-oriented than her concert audience profile might indicate. Clarkson's between-songs stage patter typically made only a few allusions to her career adventures with the My December album. At the start of the tour, she introduced My December material carefully. Near the close of shows, she thanked the audience for giving this chance to her to perform her songs, saying that all the other facets of the music industry paled in importance. She gave more extensive introductions for “Hole” and “Up to the Mountain”, which she said did not fit her normal sound.

Rock critic Greg Kot analyzed the show as portraying three possible career paths for Clarkson: Goth vixen, pop princess, and ballad singer. He suggested that the last of these was where her best chance at artistic growth lay, saying that her mid-concert quiet set had been "a revelation".