I’ll be the first to admit that I was a big Kid Rock fan in high school…but then again, I was also a big Nelly fan in high school. You could say that my musical tastes have….shifted a bit. I was looking forward to this show in almost a joking way. I mean, how can Bawitdaba not be fun live? I figured I’d drink some beers, sing American Badass at the top of my lungs, and it’d be a great way to cool down after an awesome and tiring weekend. I just never thought it would be a big deal. Interestingly enough, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way – on Saturday Night when M. Shadows asked who was excited to see Kid Rock, the question was met with an overwhelming “Meh” from the crowd. So that made me curious – would the show live up to the expectations that M. Shadows was trying to set? Or was the A7X front man simply doing his duty as a festival headliner by trying to artificially inflate.
Kid Rock answered that question in an epic 2+ hour event that absolutely blew my mind. It was so good, I felt that cramming it into the previous ROTR Day 3 blog wouldn’t do it justice. Listen, it doesn’t matter if you consider yourself a Kid Rock fan or not, this show was transcendent, and was worth every penny I spent on Rock on the Range, even just by itself. In writing about it, I only hope that I can do it justice, because if I come close to that, you’ll see why Kid Rock is an absolute must for every live music fan. So, read on, and then go buy a ticket, and see it for yourself. You can thank me later.
My previous ROTR post (available here) mentions that the second to last performer on Sunday night was Five Finger Death Punch, which we decided to climb all the way to the front for. By the time the white curtain came down for Kid Rock’s crew to build the set, we found ourselves four or five rows from the front of the stage dead center. I briefly considered heading to the back, but I let my expectations creep up, and decided to hang around the front and catch at least the beginning of the show. During the down time between sets, Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing started blaring over the loud speaker, which woke up the crowd a bit. However, I kept thinking that it was a weird filler song for a Kid Rock show.
Except Don’t Stop Believing was not a filler. The first verse hit – “….Born and raised in – South Detroit” – and then the song cut out and left an overwhelming silence…a silence that quickly turned to screams as thirty thousand realized simultaneously that it was go time for Detroit’s own “American Bad Ass.” Gone was the crowd from the night before that was “Meh” about Kid Rock, and instead, these fans were rabid with excitement. A spoken prayer began – it talked about how music was the thread that tied us all together. 
It asked God to give the band the strength it needed to uplift the human spirit and the power to break down walls during the upcoming show. It finished by saying “God, let us not forget that this is not just another concert in another town. This is …Columbus, Ohio.” More screams. Louder screams. The place pulsed with energy as a single back spot light came on, projecting Kid Rock’s silhouette on the curtain. An electric guitar solo kicked off the show by rolling us into the rap intro of Devil Without a Cause, where we watched Kid Rock’s shadow dance behind the curtain. The first verse built, the crowd got louder, and when the chorus hit, the curtain dropped and the place just went crazy. As he moved through the opening song, I was just really blown away. What happened to the crowd that didn’t care? Why were people this excited? Why was I this excited…I don’t even like this song, do I? How did he build the intensity of this show this high this early? I was really just floored.
When I came down from the adrenaline high that I was on during the intro, we were about three songs in, and I had several immediate impressions. First, Kid Rock IS a complete bad ass…at least in terms of performing. I mean this dude was born to be on stage. He danced up there like a fool, constantly moving and grooving. He flipped his hat, tossed he microphone while he spun, pelvic thrusted and jumped around in a way that made it feel so organic, like he was a PART of the music. He didn’t use distracting dance moves or muck it up in the interest of looking cool, he just looked like a genuine dude who put everything into his music, and who was having a kickass time sharing it with us. It was a bit mesmerizing, to be honest – As I write this, I can’t think of a single person I’ve ever seen live that had the level of comfort that he did on stage – a true puppet master to his audience. He loves performing, and it shows. And M. Shadows was right. He is GREAT at it. Not just good. GREAT.
Second impression – Kid Rock has quite the touring act. The band consists of three drummers (one on a kit and two stand up drummers), a saxophonist, three back up singers, three guitarists, and, of course, Paradime on the turntables (who apparently is big in the underground rap scene in Detroit). Every member of the so-called “Twisted Brown Trucker Band” had their place, and was a master of their craft. In over two hours of music, I couldn’t pick out a single negative thing to say about the band. Extremely well rehearsed and talented band. My two personal favorites, other than Kid Rock himself, were the saxophone player, who didn’t let the genre or his age (he had to be pushing 55) set him back whatsoever, and the primary drummer, who played the hell out of those drums all night, and had just as much personality as she did talent. The set design, which placed musicians in a half circle around Kid Rock in the front, was relatively simple compared to other headliners that weekend, but also very effective.
The third major thing I noticed took a bit longer to pick up on. Somewhere in the middle of Kid Rock singing about how you’ve never met a motherf***** quite like him, I realized that there was something slightly different about the live version of the songs. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but Kid Rock has found a way to add an underlying groove element to all of his songs that makes them slightly more upbeat and approachable on stage. This helped him weave the show together, it gave him a beat to dance to, it allowed for more full use of the instrumentalists on stage, and frankly, it made some of his songs a lot easier to listen to. This was a huge asset, as Kid Rock has songs that span the whole genre spectrum, so finding a way to make the show flow so well without losing the critical elements of each song is a difficult feat. He pulled it of perfectly. Kudos.
So, for the next 2 hours, Kid Rock took us on an incredible journey. He sang an awesome acoustic version of Wastin’ Time, which threw me back to bad decisions in high school. He played a green camouflaged grand piano while he sang Born Free, with a 40 foot American Flag hanging behind him, and then got up on top of the piano to dance. He sang Cocky, where he showed his chops at rapping. He did a really cool song where he mixed ZZ Top’s La Grange and Ted Nugent’s Cat Scratch Fever, telling us during it that he wanted us to experience Detroit Rock City. He also showed us emotion, when he slowed down the show and gave a really heartfelt rendition of Only God Knows Why where it looked like he was barely on top of his emotions. (Incredible acting job by him, I’m sure).
Most impressively, he did an instrumental solo for about 15 minutes, where the band just jammed, and he jumped in and out of instruments, playing nearly everything on stage. He even did an incredibly good scratch solo on turntables to the song “3 Sheets to the Wind” where Paradime said that he was the “Master Blaster and no one cuts faster”….and based on what I saw, I certainly wouldn’t question it. (Although I do question the use of the term “Master Blaster”…….) In fact, thinking back, at one point or another throughout the show, Kid Rock played the guitar, the drums, a keyboard, a grand piano, the turntables, and he sang his ass off. It was an extremely impressive performance, and I had no idea he was so talented and multi-faceted. What a night on stage for him – I can’t imagine how he musters up that much energy/emotion/excitement every single night.
And then, after all that, after he told us the story of growing up as Detroit’s Cowboy and a Devil Without a Cause, after winding us through a journey of blues, rock and roll, rap, pop, and every other genre you can think of, it was time to close it out. And close it out he did my friends. With a bang.
The Closer.
About 2 hours into the show, the energy was at an all time high coming out of the song Born Free. Kid Rock snagged a stool and an acoustic guitar and started slowly strumming the intro to Picture, which surprised me because it was so late in the show. I felt the energy sag a bit…and as I was literally in the process of making my first slightly negative mental note, once again the Kid proved that he was one step ahead of me. In the middle of the first time through the chorus of Picture…the audio stopped and static blared over the speakers. Kid Rock looked around frustrated, like something was wrong, when suddenly our attention was quickly diverted to the big screens by a familiar voice. Out of context, it took me a second to place the voice, but when I looked up, I saw our old cartoon friends from MTV…. and they were complaining about how Kid Rock sucks because he went soft…like the song Picture.
Butthead – “Uhh…Damnit, what is this? How come he’s not ROCKING?”
Beavis – “Yea! Really! It’s supposed to be Kid ROCK!”
Butthead – “Yeah, hes like Kid Soft Rock now.”
Beavis – “Yeah, come on. ROCK. Yeah. ROCK! Ba wit to ba wa dang ga dang biggie biggie.”
The crowd’s laughter quickly turned to screams as Kid Rock tossed his stool aside and the long intro to Bawidtaba began. People were really excited for this song. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as the intro grew louder and louder, and the energy of the crowd began to swell from an already incredibly high place. By the end of the intro, Kid Rock was pelvic thrusting to the crash symbols as the song inched closer to the climax…and right before the song resolved, he ripped it out from underneath us. The music went silent, and the lights, save for one spotlight on him, went dark. The crowd was intense – they wanted this song bad, and they sounded like their collective heads were going to explode. He played it perfectly: He stood there, with that single spotlight, and his patented Kid Rock shit-eating grin, milking it. People began chanting….. “What’s your name! What’s your name!” Finally, with a smile, he took a power stance, leaned back, and in one of my favorite concert memories of all time, he screamed “My name is Kiiiiiiiiid. Kid ROCK!” The place went absolutely ballistic. I’m telling you it was nuts. Fireworks went off. Flames shot off of the stage. The crowd was so loud, I had to cover my ears…and I was wearing ear plugs. It was absolute bedlam, and I loved it. I had 6 minutes of goosebumps, as he played one of my favorite songs from high school, and when it came to an end, I was emotionally exhausted.
At the end of the song, during the instrumental outro, he stood with his back turned to the crowd, and he “directed” the band, pointing to each band member as they played their respective mini-solo. Then, he nonchalantly thanked the crowd for a great show, and, literally AND figuratively, dropped the mic. No encore. No stringing it out. As quickly as it came, the show was over.
I’ve had over a month to process now, and I’m confident saying this is one of the best five shows I’ve ever seen in my life. That’s a pretty incredible statement coming from someone who doesn’t really consider himself a Kid Rock fan, still isn’t a big fan of the music (I’ve tried to listen to his albums since), and didn’t go in expecting anything. Thank you Kid Rock for absolutely blowing my mind and being a fantastic end to a great Rock on the Range 2014. Thank you for being a true talented musician in this world of saturated auto-tune garbage. Thank you for being so good, I convinced myself to try to hit the Louder than Life festival later this year.
But most of all, thank you for giving me a concert memory I will never forget, and being a brand new reason for me to love live music all over again. What an incredible show.
“Young, like a new moon rising. Fierce, through the rain and lightening, Wandering out into this great unknown. And I don’t want no one to cry, but tell ’em if I don’t survive….I was Born Free!!”