Kid Rock: Live in L.A.

I couldn’t have scripted it any better. After running the gauntlet of Harley-Davidson t-shirts and rebel flags amassed at the Gibson amphitheatre to my seat at the Kid Rock show, a row of ladies decamped next to me. It was like the women of SNL’s “Cougar Den” skit walked out of the TV and into the show. The one with the bleached-blonde hair and skin-tight American flag shirt eyed my suspiciously before hitting me with the line of the night: “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Yes, the American race/class war rages on, and the battle lines have been drawn in the crudest terms possible. Never mind that Kid Rock calls himself a combination of Aerosmith and Run DMC, or that his band features at least three black members. I’m tempted to tell my new concert friend about hanging out in Detroit back in the day, and the countless times Kid Rock himself handed me flyers to one of his shows. Or the night when out of nowhere he jumped on stage at a DJ I event I was putting on, pulled two records out of his bag and proceeded to rock the party with ease. I just smiled and introduced myself. She was perfectly lovely, and we chatted easily until the show started.

While it might not be the cool thing to admit, Kid Rock and the Twisted Brown Trucker band are one of the most potent live acts on the road today. Like some unholy combination of the J. Geils Band and Bob Seger’s legendary Silver Bullet Band, Rock’s outfit can play rock, country, hip-hop and honky-tonk with equal dexterity. Opening with the title track from his Rick Rubin-produced Rock N Roll Jesus album like a new-school Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, the Rock and his band kept the nearly 6000 party people up and on their feet for the entire show.

The show was paced almost perfectly. He took time to pay tribute to American soldiers with a stirring video montage during “Only God Knows Why.” For his ballad “Picture,” he brought out 12-year-old SoCal singer Sasha Edwards, who floored the place with her dynamic vocal range. When she’s a huge star, remember where you heard it first.

But the highlight was when Rev Run from the legendary Run DMC joined Kid Rock for a block of DMC classics. With the band percolating behind them, Rock and Rev Run smashed hits like “Tricky,” “It’s Like That” and of course “Walk This Way,” complete in black hats and gold rope chains. Rev Run might be all sweet and cuddly on his MTV reality show “Run’s House,” but in concert he’s hard as nails and can still spit with the best of them.

But the crescendo came when Rock rolled out his late ‘90s mook anthem “Bawitdaba.” Seeing that many people literally freak out to that song in 2008 is a memory I won’t soon forget. I wonder: Would “Nookie” still set it off like this today? I doubt it.

There’s a really cool part in every Kid Rock show where he addresses the audience about how you might be sitting next to someone you don’t have that much in common with, but that everyone is here for the same purpose: to party, listen to some good music and have fun. He then asks that everyone say hello to the people around them “so we can get this party started.”

While people where hi-fiving all over the arena, my inquisitive concert buddy and I just looked at each other and laughed. We’re way ahead of you, buddy.

—Scott T. Sterling