Strong Showing.

Scenes From Kelly Clarkson's Friday Night Show at Verizon Theatre.

In case you haven't been paying attention: Everything's been coming up Kelly Clarkson of late. She made headlines when she called Clive Davis out as a liar. She got engaged. And she may or may not have been drunk when she won her most recent Grammy. She's been on fire, basically.

So it was with a solid amount of intrigue that she showed up to the Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie on Friday night to perform a benefit show for Opportunity Education Foundation before a throng of her biggest hometown fans.

And, lacking much of a filter when it comes to her thoughts and opinions these days, Clarkson didn't disappoint. Throughout the night, she told her fans about her fiance (“a Burleson boy,” she boasted proudly), admitted that she mostly likes “depressing music,” called out her own incessant fandom for Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, acknowledged her appreciation for the country music world's acceptance of her and specifically called out the Pistol Annies as a favorite group of hers before acknowledging that she “seriously [wants] to be an Annie.”

Speaking of those Annies: They, perhaps, might be to blame for Clarkson sounding a little hoarse on this night (Clarkson even acknowledged as much from the stage), as, on Thursday night, Clarkson performed with that group as part of a label showcase in some other city. Still, Clarkson belted where she could, which is to say most everywhere throughout the set, and continued to endear herself to her crowd along the way. And she would even pay tribute to the Pistol Annies, too, performing a cover of “Hell on Heels. She also covered Fun.'s “We Are Young” earlier in her set, which mostly stuck to her radio singles and hits, of which there are aplenty.

Local opener Tim Halperin, without the cache of Clarkson's hit single back-catalog employed a similar strategy, performing a number of covers throughout his own pleasing, if at times bland, set. Halperin would also shout out local radio personality Kidd Kraddick for supporting his career, speaking with such reverence for Kraddick it practically sounded like he was praying.

Meanwhile, Kraddick, somewhat amusingly, didn't even mention Halperin during his brief onstage appearance to introduce Clarkson. But such are the fates of local openers on big bills like this one.

And, with some 5,000-plus in attendance to support Clarkson and Opportunity Education at this show, yes, this was indeed a big one.