Open Arms: 30 Cities, 30 Special Memories

It’s a given that Clay and Kelly sound superb together on their duet of Open Arms, I mean, they’re both fantastic singers. But what did they wear, how did they react, what makes each performance unique and special . . . in short, what do I notice when I watch each performance… (note: I’m not going to notice everything and if I leave something out you think is important, I’m sorry!)

Charlotte, N.C. – (2/24/04) Clay starts song. Clay wears a blue shirt/blue tie/grey pants outfit, while Kels sports an emerald green dress. After Clay sings his first lines and Kelly comes out singing, Clay has a small smile and does a tiny head tilt to the audience, who is screaming for Kelly. I guess sort of like a “yeah, cheer for her!” kind of nod. Thing. Maybe. (Who knows, really) Clay takes a glance at Kelly as he walks away after the first chorus (to get to his spot on stage). For a duet, they sure stand far apart from each other (heh). Seem to sing the song more to the audience than to each other. A very quick two armed hug to end the show and they are off!

Duluth, Ga. – (2/25/04) Kelly starts song. Kelly wears a black t-shirt with some writing on it and a pair of torn jeans; Clay wears his blue shirt/tie/grey pants ensemble. On the video I have, the sound goes in and out, so sound quality is on the poorer side. Again, seem to sing more to the audience than to each other. And, still stand far apart from each other. But, although they stand far a part, they come together at the end for a nice side hug, as Kelly sort of bounces/hops over to Clay for the embrace.

Tampa, Fla. – (2/27/04) Clay starts song. Clay wore his green shirt, unique blue jacket and blue pants, while Kelly sported a spaghetti strapped black dress that hit above the knee. Apparently no hug at the end of the show (Whatsupwitdat?) No video available of this performance and no other details that I know.

Miami, Fla. – (2/28/04) Kelly starts song. Miami gets the pleasure of seeing an outfit Clay only wears once on tour. A green shirt, with a bright blue shirt over it, and topped off with a grey jacket and jeans. Kelly wears a pair of ripped jeans and a white and maroonish/brownish colored t-shirt with writing on it. Video starts off with Kelly singing, then skips to them both singing during the first chorus. When Clay sings his verse after the first chorus, he seems more “into” the performance, a bit more emotional than the previous performances. They meet in the middle and sing (VERY CLOSELY) to each other. This is the first time they have sung this close. They stay very close to each other for the rest of the performance. At times, Kelly is singing out to the audience, but you will notice that Clay looks at her a lot, even when she isn’t looking at him. Just kind of staring at her. The performance ends with a tight side hug between the two, with Kelly saying something like, “He touched me!” as they hug.

Raleigh, N.C. – (3/1/04) Clay starts song. Clay wears the odd blue jacket, green shirt and blue pants, while Kelly wears a strapless black dress and a black bob wig that she bought while in town. Word is Clay cracks up when he sees Kelly in her wig, but you can’t tell it on the video I have. They again come together closely toward the middle/end of the song and the show wraps up with a quick side hug and Kelly “giving it up for Clay Aiken” in his hometown of Raleigh.

Philadelphia, Pa. – (3/2/04) Kelly starts song. Clay in the blue shirt/tie/grey pants and Kelly in the ripped jeans and white/brownish-maroonish t-shirt with writing. The video is only a 2 ½ min. version, taken from one of the big screens. Stand fairly close together as they sing, nice smiles between them both. A nice one armed side hug to end the performance, with Clay sort of resting his cheek on her head. They stayed with their arms around each other for quite a bit at the end, because Clay was pointing out a Scrabble poster to Kelly in the crowd.

Long Island, NY – (3/4/04) Clay starts song. Clay wears that beetljuice frankenfugly blue jacket of his with the blue pants and the green shirt with safety pin accents. Kelly wears a fitted spaghetti strapped black dress, looking gorgeous as always. This is during a time when Clay was struggling vocally, dealing with a very sore throat. Clay is very fidgety when Kelly comes out to sing, playing with his coat jacket, wringing his hands together, etc. At the end of the first chorus, the camera is focused on Clay and he sort of smiles, gives a lip bite and almost looks like he has tears in his eyes. At this point I notice the sound is a little out of sync on my copy, which is sort of distracting. LOL. The infamous “I love you Clayton” or something to that effect is heard after the final “Open Arms” and then Clay gives a big smile as they come together for a nice side hug, where Clay puts his cheek up against the side of her head.

Washington, D.C. – (3/5/04) Kelly starts song. Kelly wears the white/brownish-maroonish t-shirt with the ripped jeans, while Clay wears that blue shirt/tie/grey slacks get up. After Kelly finishes her initial singing and Clay comes out to sing, Kelly gets a case of the fidgets, as she smiles broadly, runs her hand through her hair, pulls up her pants and then flips her hair with her hand. Clay kind of teases Kelly a bit as she’s doing her trills on “stay.” He sort of does hand movements to go along with the trills…if that makes sense. Very close singing face to face and as they turn away from each other when they start to sing “nothing to hide,” Clay looks as if he goes to put his arm around Kelly, but then thinks twice and pulls his arm away. And we finally get a GREAT two-armed embrace to end the show! Awwww.

Wilkes Barre, Pa. – (3/7/04) Clay starts song. Clay wears his green shirt/blue jacket, blue pants outfit, while Kelly wears a black halter top dress that is pretty low cut (rowr!. Lol) No video available of this performance.

Worcester, Ma. – (3/8/04) Kelly starts song. Kelly wears a black tank top and ripped jeans. Clay wears his blue shirt/tie/grey pants outfit and some of the wildest hair ever. Initial speculation is that he jazzed up his hair to get back at the wig in Raleigh, but Clay later says in an interview that his hair got messed up from lying in a massage chair backstage. (Although, I’m not quite sure you could get your hair to look like that by accident. It looked like skill was involved. Hee). This video is particular clear and gorgeously filmed. Great audio as well. Kelly signs autographs for the crowd while Clay comes out to sing his first verse. While singing, Clay is seen tapping his microphone (perhaps because the sound needs to be turned up or down?) This seems to be the first time Clay sings lower on the line “Wanting you near” instead of doing the higher version. This video is mostly directed right at Clay so we really only see his reactions. He has a big smile on his face as he and Kelly come closer as they sing. I think I hear another “I love you” from Kelly after the final “Open Arms” and Clay gives Kelly a nice two armed embrace to end the show.

Columbus, Oh. – (3/10/04) Clay starts song. Clay wears the frankenfugly blue jacket, with green shirt and blue pants. Kelly wears the low cut halter top black dress. It takes me to like the 2:45 mark in the video to find out what she’s wearing because the video up to that point is all Clay. Hee. Kelly might have done another “I love you” after the final “Open Arms.” I can’t really hear it, but it appears her mouth is saying something. Nice embrace at the end and apparently Clay gave Kelly a little kiss on the top of her head. AWWW.

Detroit, Mi. – (3/11/04) Kelly starts song. She wears a black tank top and ripped jeans. Clay wears the blue tie/shirt/grey pants ensemble. No video available of this performance. I think Kels was really sick this night…but, according to someone at the concert, even sick Kell said I love you Clay at the end!.

Winston-Salem, N.C. – (3/13/04) Clay starts song. Ah, the concert before the week long break. Clay wears the green shirt, blue pants and the blue jacket that was apparently custom made just for him (by a 6th grade home-economics class. BWAHAHAHA. Kidding, Kidding. I actually like the jacket but, come on people, it’s begging for ridicule.) Kelly wore a fitted black spaghetti strapped dress. Anyway, another FANTASTIC quality video. Very clear. In the beginning, after the first chorus, around the 1:20 mark, Clay looks… I don’t know if I would call it sad or introspective or what. And, he holds his microphone over his heart, before he turns to walk back down the walkway as Kels starts the second verse. While Kelly is singing that second verse, you can clearly see clay motioning with his hand to get Kelly to walk over closer to him. The hand movements worked because they end up singing pretty close to one another. It really looks like they are feeling the lyrics as they sing to each other. While singing Kelly repeats a line…”Believe what..Believe what I say.” I’m not sure if this is a mistake or if she just wanted to emphasize the line. Big smile on clay’s face as he comes toward Kelly at the end. I believe we have another “I love you” spoken by Kels and a huge two armed hug by them both to wrap up the show and take us on a week-long break from the concert circuit.

Grand Prairie, Tex. – (3/19/04) Kelly starts song. Kelly wears a black tank top (with a glittery tie necklace), black pants and a glittery belt. Clay wears blue/blue/grey outfit. This video is very blurry so it’s basically just like watching two blurs on the screen, but the sound quality is wonderful. This marks the first concert since the week long break. Around the 2:20something mark, when they are both singing “So now I come to you,” Clay blur points at Kelly blur when he gets to the “you” part. Around the 2:47 mark, instead of singing “Hoping you see what your love means to me,” Kelly sings “Hoping you SAW.” At the end of the performance, Clay and Kelly embrace in a nice one-armed side hug, and clay playfully puts his hand on Kelly’s head. He then “gives it up for Kelly Clarkson” in her hometown and promptly falls on his butt as he walks backward. Hee. But, he’s quick to his feet with no injuries to report (except maybe to his pride. LOL jk) UPDATE: In an additional (non-blurry) video that surfaced for this performance, Kelly seems to do a lot of staring at Clay. As Kelly is out starting the song, after she sings “Softly you whisper” she whips her head around and stares off in the direction that Clay will be coming out of. (What was that about?) Also, as Clay comes out to sing, Kelly walks backward, staring at him the entire time. You can also hear Kelly tell Clay to “watch out!” at the end of the video, right before he falls.

St. Louis, Mo. – (3/21/04) Clay starts song. Clay sports the green shirt/blue jacket/blue pants ensemble. Kelly’s wearing a very nice white pants suit. Clay sings his first part of the song with his hand in his pocket. Oh…Niiiice. LOL. When Kelly starts to sing, Clay gets a big smile as he walks up the walkway, holding his microphone to his heart. As Clay walks to his position on stage he sort of looks out at the crowd and kind of raises his eyebrows a bit at them. (No idea why). Around the 1:50 mark, Kelly is singing (offscreen) and when she sings “how much I wanted you home” you see Clay mouth along to the words, just in that one line. Then around the 2 minute mark and beyond, they are both singing “I need you to stay” and Clay points at himself on the “I” part and points to Kelly on the “you” part. (AWWW). The performance ends with a nice side hug with Clay quickly resting his cheek on Kel’s head.

Chicago, Ill. – (3/22/04) Kelly starts song. Clay is looking rather dapper in his blue button up/blue tie and grey slacks. Clay is smiling a lot and he begins to “trill” along with Kelly on the “stay” line, doing body movements to go with the trill. The video I have is a little shaky in parts so some of it is hard to follow, but what is noticeable is, it sounds like Kelly once again gives a little “I love you” after the final “open arms.” They end the show with a nice side hug, with Clay resting his head against Kels’.

Omaha, Neb. – (3/24/04) Clay starts song. Clay wore his green shirt/blue jacket and pants outfit, while Kelly wore her strapless black dress. Word from someone there is that, upon seeing Kelly, Clay raised his eyebrows at the band and backup singers giving a “she looks hot” look and kind of licking his lips. No video available of this performance because all of the concert attendees sucked! Hee. I’m kidding, Kidding! Ouch, stop with the hitting!

Salt Lake City, Ut. – (3/26/04) Kelly starts song. Kelly wears the black tank with silver glittery tie and the black Capri pants with the silver glittery belt, while Clay pulls out old trusty (blue/blue/grey). Sadly, our video is only approx. 1 min. in length. In what we see, they sing fairly close to each other again and again, Clay does the trilling alongside Kelly on “stay”. This has apparently become a permanent fixture in the performance. The hug is not shown on this video and I can’t remember what type of hug it was… I’m sure it was way cute though.

Las Vegas, Nev. – (3/27/04) Clay starts song. Clay wears the green/blue/blue uniform. Kelly is in the white pants suit again. They seem to stand a bit farther apart in this video than the previous ones (or maybe it looks that way because the video is farther off and Kelly isn’t shown on screen until the very end. A nice side hug to end the show.

San Diego, Calif. – (3/30/04) Kelly starts song. I was at this show. SQEEEE. Ok, sorry. Clay wore his blue/blue/grey outfit but added on a FEDORA. GAH. Drool. Passes Out. He looked hot, yo. Kelly was beautiful as always, wearing a blank tank top and the silver glittery jewelry tie and black capris with the sparkly silver belt. Kel’s face when the screams erupt as Clay begins singing is great. She gets a HUGE grin on her face, like “wow!” and almost laughing. Before he begins the second first, Clay again puts the microphone over his heart. Clay again “trills” with Kelly on the “stay” line and moves his body up and down with the trills. You can really tell they are having fun with the duet, I think they are just more comfortable with the song and each other and it shows, especially compared to the first couple of videos. I believe Kelly sings “Hoping you SAW” instead of “Hoping You’ll See” again. Again Kelly sounds as if she says “I love you” to clay after the final “open Arms.” In hug news, Clay puts his fedora on kelly’s head and wraps her up in a two armed hug. Then, Kelly removes the hat off of her head and says “don’t you love his hat?” and then puts it back on Clay’s head. AWWWW.

Sacramento, Calif. – (3/31/04) Clay starts song. Clay wearing the blue pants, green shirt with safety pins and the blue “jacket.” Kelly is sporting the white pants suit. As clay finishes his verse and Kelly begins her opening on stage, Clay again moves the microphone to his heart. When they finish the chorus, he again puts the mic to his heart. A nice hug between them both (and a big smile on Kel’s face as she approaches him for the hug). Kelly kind of squeezes him a bit as she hugs him too.

Glendale, Ariz. – (4/2/04) Kelly starts song. Clay is sporting the blue shirt/tie/grey pants/fedora ensemble while Kelly is wearing a black tank top (with sparkly tie necklace) and black pants (with sparkly belt). This is like the best Open Arms ever. Seriously. I’m not sure WHY they were in such a good mood, but they were pretty darn HAPPY. The video cuts off the beginning of the song, so it begins as Clay is walking out singing “Now here you are by my side.” After singing this line, Kelly says “woo-hoo, sexy!” to Clay, who in turn, smiles, does a little bow and taps his Fedora. Uber cute! This is definitely FLIRTY! Clelly at its finest. Lots of smiles and inside jokes, with Kelly and Clay both holding their microphones at weird angles to make the other laugh. (Kelly laughs out loud at one point in the song). Clay also mimics Kelly’s “trills” on the word “stay.” A nice, tight side hug to end the performance, with wide smiles all around.

Anaheim, Calif. – (4/3/04) Clay starts song. Clay is wearing the blue pants, green shirt (with safety pins) and the weird blue jacket, while Kelly is looking gorgeous in a black halter top dress. The beginning part of the video is cut off, so it begins around the start of the first chorus. After the end of the first chorus, Clay sports a wide, bright smile while he clutches the microphone over his heart. (AWWW). As he turns to walk to his place on stage, he steals a look at Kelly. When Clay sings the line “I need you to stay” he does the “microphone flipped up in the air” move from the Glendale show and points at Kelly and himself on the “you to stay” part. He also mimics Kel’s “trills” on “stay.” Another great side hug to end the show!

Los Angeles, Calif. – (4/5/04) Kelly starts off the song. Kelly wears her black capris (with sparkly belt) and blank tank top (with sparkly tie). Her hair is also down and curly. Clay wears his hot fedora, blue shirt/tie/grey pants outfit. And, once again, the giddiness continues in Open Arms. Kelly starts out singing and while Clay walks out and sings his part of the first verse, Kelly again shouts out to Clay (I think she says “woo hoo sexy man!”) After that, poor Clay couldn’t wipe the grin off his face if he tried. I’m not sure it’s scientifically possible to smile bigger than he did in this performance. The smiling continues as Clay walks toward Kelly while singing the second verse. As he sings the line “How much I wanted you home,” He sort of leans forward at her…(you know, indicating that he wants HER home). Next, Clay decides he’ll just sing some words that he’s not scheduled to, lol, as he sings the first line of Kelly’s part along with her. “So now that you’ve come back.” The smiling continues (seriously, it’s like his face is stuck that way) and Clay does not sing the “stay” part along with Kelly like he has been doing. Instead, he smiles largely and kind of bends his head down, covering his face with his hat. Kelly repeats a line, like she did in the Winston-Salem video. She says “Believe what, Believe what I say..” As they say the last “Open Arms” Clay tips his fedora to Kelly (gah!) and Kelly walks over for the side embrace. As they hug, Clay puts his hat on Kelly’s head and then they walk off, with Kelly keeping the hat as she leaves..

San Jose, Calif. – (4/6/04) Clay starts song. Clay wears his closing outfit (green shirt w/ safety pins, blue pants and the blue custom-made jacket). Kelly wears the beautiful black low cut halter top long dress. The camera is positioned on Clay as Kelly comes out to sing, and Clay gives some nice smiles and lip bites as the crowd gives her a big ovation. After they sing the chorus, Clay gives another smile, lipbite and sort of raises his eyebrows up at the crowd, before turning to walk to his place on stage. As he walks to his place, he takes a look at Kelly and then continues on. He shakes his head as if he’s saying “yes” to, I’m thinking the backup singers, and I believe he says something to them, but I have no clue what or what about. This performance is less GIDDY then other ones before it. They seem more serious, and really seem to be feeling the lyrics to the song. When they sing “So now I come to you” Clay points to Kelly on the “you” part. As they finish the last “Open Arms” Clay tilts his head to the side and gives a killer smile, before they come together for a one-armed side hug. Clay also kisses Kelly on the top of her head.

Seattle, Wash. – (4/8/04) Kelly starts song. Clay wears his blue shirt and tie, grey pants and the fedora. Kelly wears her black capris and tank top outfit. Clay comes out from the opposite side of the stage than normal when he starts his part of the first verse. As he sings it, he goes beside Angela and sort of puts his arm around her, before continuing on to his place on stage. More big smiles from Clay and when he sings “How much I wanted you home” he sort of extends his arm out in Kelly’s direction. Clay again mimics Kelly’s “trills” on the “stay” line of the song. The video cuts off before the end of the performance, so we don’t get to see the ending hug. UPDATE: A new video surfaces of the entire performance. In the new video, we hear that Kelly again repeats “Believe” on the “Believe what..Believe what I say” line. (Seems she is doing this more lately.. she must just be really getting into the music. I like the change to that line!) Very cute two armed hug to end the performance, with Kelly sort of resting her head on Clay’s chest. And, Kelly actually initiated the two-armer this time. Clay went with the one arm, but Kelly wrapped her second arm around him for the frontal embrace. (AWWW)

Spokane, Wash. – (4/9/04) Clay starts song. Clay wears his closing outfit (green shirt, blue jacket, blue pants) while Kelly wears her knee-length black spaghetti strapped dress. Not as many smiles from Clay in this performance. Clay apparently hurt his foot running into some equipment backstage after the Seattle show, so he was noticeably limping some in this video. Speculation is that is why he wasn’t as “giddy” and “smiley” as previous videos. After clay does the “stay” line with Kelly, he quickly looks out into the audience and gives a sly little grin. This video also cuts off before the end, so again, we are denied seeing the ending hug.

Denver, Colo. – (4/13/04) Kelly starts song. Kelly wears her black Capri pants and black tank top while Clay wears..GASP! A new shirt! Clay comes out wearing his grey fedora, his grey pants and a white and blue striped shirt (which seems to be the same shirt Clay wore on the Clelly’s appearance on the Today Show back in March). After Kelly starts the song and Clay comes in to join her, the crowd erupts in applause and Kelly gets a wide smile on her face. After they sing the first chorus together, someone in the audience gives Kelly a bouquet of flowers (Awww!). After Clay starts the second verse and sings “This empty house feels so cold” He sort of opens his mouth really wide, sort of like he’s mimicking a look of shock/big smile. (Perhaps Kelly made a reaction to him wearing a new shirt?) Clay’s really putting feeling into his singing part (arm movements, knee bends) and when he sings “How much I wanted you home” he does a sweeping arm movement toward Kelly when he gets to “you.” While Kelly sings the “I need you to stay” line, Clay doesn’t sing and instead…sort of does a little dance. (hee) Sortof swaying a bit and moving his microphone to the beat of the music. And he sort of continues with that into the chorus (he’s really moving his arm a lot. LOL Seems to be getting into the music). Kelly does the repeating of “believe” in the “Believe what..Believe what I say” line. Clay gets a nice sly grin on his face as they sing the last lines of the song (as they are walking toward each other). A nice side hug, with Clay resting his head on Kelly’s head and sort of leaning into her a bit, ends the show and they are off to Kansas City!

Kansas City, Mo. – (4/15/04) Clay starts song. Clay wears his closing outfit (green shirt w/safety pins, blue pants and blue custom-made jacket). Kelly wears a black dress and a Tina Turner wig. Yes, I said a Tina Turner wig. Big ole Tina Turner wig. I only have an 11-second clip from this show (boo KC concert goers!) but from what we have heard from this performance, when Kelly came out to sing, the audience cracked up but Clay didn’t find out why until he turned around to walk away. He CRACKED UP, almost falling over he was laughing so hard. At some point (I believe the end of the performance) he took off the wig and put it on himself. Cute!

St. Paul, Minn. – (4/16/04) Kelly starts song. Did I say Glendale OA was the best ever? I lied, folks. This one is. Sniff. The last performance and folks, they DID NOT disappoint. Kelly wears her black tank top and black capris while Clay wears his opening outfit (blue shirt and tie, fedora and grey pants). There are several videos of this performance available so this summary will be a mixing together of them all. Kelly starts off the performance like she always does, singing with her back to the audience, before turning around and continuing to sing as she walks on the catwalk. Clay comes out to a huge reception and begins singing his part, as he stands next to the piano. While Clay is singing this part, Kelly, who usually has wide smiles at the cheering for Clay, instead seems subdued. She does give a quick smile to someone in the audience, but immediately goes back to her solemn expression. After they sing the first chorus together, Kelly is doing her “oohhhs” as she walks to her place on stage. While this goes on, Clay opens up the piano seat and he pulls out a bouquet of a dozen yellow long-stemmed roses. He closed the bench and sits the flowers on top of it before continuing to sing. (In one video, you can see Danny, the guitar player, immediately turn to look in Clay’s direction as he is taking the flowers out. I get the impression Danny knew Clay had this planned. Danny also displayed BIG smiles throughout the performance, when Kelly sees the flowers, when she gets the flowers from Clay, and when they hug) As Clay starts the second verse, “Living without you” Kelly immediately turns and looks in Clay’s direct the second he sings “Living.” When Clay gets to the line “Wanting to hold you,” He picks up the roses and begins to walk toward Kelly. At the same time, Kelly is facing Clay now, and puts the microphone up to her mouth, then puts it down with a confused look on her face. Almost like she’s thinking, “What has he got?” Then she realizes they are flowers. She does an audible “ohhhh/awwww” and spins around, putting her hand to her forehead like she just can’t believe it. Then she turns around and gives him the BIGGEST smile as he reaches the line “wanting you near.” She gives a look over to the band and then again puts her hand up to her forehead. While all that is going on, Clay is still singing. He puts emphasis on “near” in the “wanting you near” line (he leans forward and sort of does a knee-bend) and he also puts emphasis on “you” in the “how much I wanted you home” line (again with leaning forward and a knee-bend). As Kelly begins her part “So now that you’ve come back” Clay presents the flowers to her. She takes them and he gives her a little kiss on the cheek, as she continues to sing. Clay sings along with Kelly on the “I need you to stay” line, doing the “trills” on stay with her. In the chorus, Kelly switches the flowers a bit to where she is now cradling them in one of her arms. (She continues to hold them for the rest of the performance) Kelly again repeats “Believe” on the “Believe what, Believe what I say” line of the song. As they walk toward each other as they sing the remaining lines of the song, Clay has a sly/sweet grin on his face. It sounds as if Kelly might say another “I love you” before the final Open Arms. When the song ends, There clay stands, with “open arms” and Kelly walks over to him, saying “You are so sweet!” and they embrace in a beautiful full body hug. They sort of rock back and forth with each other, with Clay cradling her head in his hand. Kelly looks like she moves a tiny bit like the hug is going to end, but Clay draws her close again and, either kisses her on her cheek, or whispers something to her. They pull away from the hug (which lasted a good length!) and Kelly says something to Clay, but it is unknown what she says. Kelly then puts the microphone up to her mouth to say her “thank yous” but she then puts the mic down, glances at Clay and starts laughing. They finally say their good byes and, thus ends the BEST TOUR EVER. Sniff.