By: David Schultz

With populist anthems of defiant individualism, witty and subtly grandiloquent lyrics and a fun-loving, boisterous, down-to-earth demeanor, Kid Rock has struck a chord with people that transcends age, race and class. The self proclaimed Native Son of Detroit has outlasted his harshest critics, survived an embarrassing association with Scott Stapp and surprisingly remained humble amidst the egotistic excesses of success. You couldn't name one other rock star of Kid Rock's magnitude that would likely hang out with you for a beer and a shot if he had the time. The same qualification goes for anyone who has ever had sex with Pamela Anderson, except for Scott Baio, he might not have anything better to do. But I digress. For all the braggadocio in his music, Kid Rock still exudes a sense of humility in all other facets of his public persona. He would give himself high marks for generosity and honesty but only give himself a 5 in the looks department. "Dude, I'm not stupid," Kid told Blender magazine. "I know I'm not getting girls off my looks. . . .When I'd sold 50,000 records I was fucking fat chicks in Virginia."

This past Friday, Kid Rock came to New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom in support of his latest live album, Live Trucker. An amalgam of different genres and classic arena rock theatrics, Kid Rock's show makes evident that Detroit's favorite son is a serious student of the music he professes to love. The show began old school style with DJ Mime introducing each member of the Twisted Brown Trucker Band to the opening strains of Kid Rock's breakthrough hit "Bawitaba." Once the TBT Band had the audience warmed up, Kid Rock, with "Liberace flair," emerged from underneath the stage clad in a garish red, white and blue boxing robe. Rock immersed himself in the adulation of the sold-out crowd before launching into "Devil Without A Cause."

Kid Rock wears his influences on his sleeve, brashly proclaiming his love of classic rock, southern rock, punk rock, rap and hip-hop. In fact, "American Badass" and "Forever" consist of little more than name checks of Kid Rock's favorite bands. In the lead to "Forever," Kid Rock accentuated his explanation of style from Cocky by interjecting riffs from The Ramones, Grand Master Flash & The Funky Five and a couple verses from "Sweet Home Alabama." Over the course of the evening, Rock would ease from one genre to the next, often within the context of the same song.

The concert consisted primarily of material from Devil Without A Cause, Cocky and his most recent studio effort Kid Rock. With multiple best-selling albums, Kid Rock has grown into the boastful bombast of Devil Without A Cause, an album written and released while he toiled in obscurity. His prediction on "Devil Without A Cause" that "I'm going platinum," his belief that "everybody knows my name, say it way out loud" from "Only God Knows Why" and his derision of his record company's belief that people "don't want to hear me cuss, don't want to hear me brag" from "I Got One For Ya" resound with the startling prescience of the success Rock foresaw.

Kid Rock has retained a lot of the stage tricks he's accumulated over the years. This night at the Hammerstein, as on most others, he broke into an impromptu "Free Bird" in the middle of "You Never Met A Motherfucker Quite Like Me," darkened the hall for his departed friend Joe C's voice-over during "Devil Without A Cause" and concluded the set with a jam that featured Rock taking solos on everyone's instruments, including the turntable. Oh, and to no one's surprise, he's kept the bikini-clad dancing girls, providing each a pole to assist them while they lazily dance and writhe. Not all of the gimmicks succeed. During a sedate cover of Dobie Gray's "Drift Away," Rock projected photos of departed rock stars like Janis Joplin, Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain and John Lennon to varying degrees of cheers for their memories. Rather than evoke the spirit of the late musicians, it came across like the Oscar montage where they show everyone who died and you try to figure out which deceased actor received the most cheers. (For those who will wonder, it was Lennon, duh!).

While Kid Rock remains a consummate performer, much credit goes to the Twisted Brown Trucker band, who bring Rock's music to a different level. The TBT Band features Jason Krause and Kenny Tudrick on guitars, Jimmy Bones on keyboards, Aaron Julison on bass and the inimitable Stefanie Eulinberg on drums. While Kid Rock has the vision to switch musical styles on a moment's notice, it's the TBT Band that actually shifts gear. On slower songs like "Picture" (with Eulinberg on vocals), "Only God Knows Why" and the Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See," the TBT Band show that they can do much more than play fast and loud.

Rock's set only lasted a scant seventy-five minutes, but his two encores featuring "Only God Knows Why," "Bawitaba," "Picture" and "Cowboy," arguably his greatest hits, brought the show in at exactly two hours and had everyone's adrenalin pumping by the end of the show. On stage, Kid Rock has never managed to capture the feel of the studio version of "Cowboy." While he gave an admirable night-closing rendition of the song this night, possibly one of his best, it still sounded a tad flat.

Kid Rock's populist appeal has become the elephant standing in the corner of rock and roll's rumpus room. No one seems to want to talk about how Kid Rock, through his own musical skills and respect for his musical elders, has slowly worked his way into the Bono-like stratosphere of rock and roll custodian and historian. His appearances with artists as varied as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Phish and Tim McGraw have ceased to become anomalies and he could now show up on stage with anyone and pop the crowd. Anyone perplexed by Kid Rock's astounding success could do well to learn from "Bawitaba's" wisdom. "You could look for answers, but that ain't fun, now get in the pit and try to love someone."

Labels: Kid Rock