PITTSBURGH —There were politics and pole dancers, hip-hop and Southern rock, cowboy hats and a rhinestone-bedazzled track suit.
You get a little of everything with your Kid Rock concert ticket, most notably a seasoned, supremely confident artist awash in attitude and determined to deliver a good time.
A party-hearty PPG Paints Arena crowd of roughly 10,000 savored the sights and sounds of Kid Rock's Saturday performance, which started with the pyro-blasting spectacle of "Greatest Show on Earth."
No sooner did the audience catch its breath, an election podium emerged center stage, where Kid Rock gave a campaign speech to run for U.S. Senate representing his home state of Michigan. Is he serious? Who knows? Though flanked by his two sultry female dancers, his political pledges leaned a bit centrist, like him speaking out against welfare recipients who milk the system, but saying he'd support providing them education and improving their healthcare opportunities. There was no word on how he'd pay for that, but fans roared their approval. Also finding the time to bash football players who don't stand for the national anthem, the 47-year-old Detroiter finished his political posturing and returned to the music, with a couple of songs with titles unprintable here.
"Let's show 'em some of that Justin Bieber (stuff)," Kid Rock said, as he and his band broke into a quick precision dance move, simultaneously landing a half-quarter leap and turn.
Kid Rock's singing voice with its gritty rasp evoked a believable bittersweet nostalgia on his last Top-40 hit, 2008's "All Summer Long," as his band, including guitarist Marlon Young, conjured the Lynyrd Skynyrd-Warren Zevon sampled riffs.
Ditching his sparkling track suit for backwoods-meets-discount bin attire, Kid Rock next led the band through the country blues of "Po-Dunk" and the hick-hop of "Cowboy."
That was enough for DJ Freddy, in his Detroit Tigers ballcap, who called out the band's leader for turning too countrified at the expense of his urban rap roots. With video screens backing up his argument, Freddy ribbed Kid Rock for posing on a magazine cover seated on a bale of hay, and co-headlining a concert with country star Jason Aldean.
Challenge accepted, as Kid Rock stormed off stage, returning minutes later with a boombox wider than his shoulders and late-'80s rap threads as he spit the rhymes to "Welcome 2 The Party (Ode 2 The Old School)." Kid Rock dusted off his DJ Bobby Shazam persona to do some hip-hop record scratching. Moments later, he brandished a flying V guitar to fire off a few riffs from Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever," before scurrying behind the drum kit to pound away the finale of that brief ode to the Motor City Madman.
Kid Rock relished irreverence, including an archived black-and-white video of beloved Pittsburgh icon Fred Rogers inadvertently flipping the bird during a children's song. For "Rock N Roll Jesus," a big-screen photo showed Kid Rock in a heavenly white suit in front of three wooden crosses.
It's understood his humor is unfiltered, and he's not timid about poking fun at himself, as evidenced in Saturday's encore that began with "American Rock 'n Roll," a well-meaning song that nevertheless dragged on without the excitement benefiting the musical heroes like Tom Petty, Merle Haggard, the Eagles and Jimi Hendrix referenced via video screen. The prettier "Picture" followed, with Kid Rock sustaining a long, mighty vocal note, and a female backup singer effectively handling the Sheryl Crow part of the duet. But before the song reached a proper finish, MTV's "Beavis & Butthead" popped up on the video screen, getting in a dig about Kid Rock turning soft rock.
Challenge accepted again, as the concert headliner took a commanding stance, hopping a bit with anticipation as the familiar strains of "Bawitdaba, da bang, da dang diggy diggy" fired up the crowd. Everyone knew what was coming, as Kid Rock reached deep and let out a "My name is Kid ..... Rock!" as the rap-metal riffs of his breakthrough song came crashing down. Fireworks exploded, the scantily clad dancers swung around their poles, and somehow it all seemed right.
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