On tour in support of his 11th studio effort “Sweet Southern Sugar” the self proclaimed “American Bad Ass” Kid Rock played before a near capacity crowd last Friday night at the Prudential Center. Opening up with the title track “Greatest Show on Earth,” it was an over the top show stopper that a show would usually end with. This included fire, confetti and explosions. Rock even said “Good Night” as the entire band left the stage. It was something I never seen before and it was nice twist to actually open a show with a tune that they could close the set with.
The show then followed with playful take on Rock running for senate. Rock isn’t officially running for office but the rumors were persistent and swirling right up until his album and current tour were announced. There was a podium and 2 lovely ladies holding up American flags on each side of Rock as he stood and freely gave his opinion on a variety of topics which included welfare and gun control. I’m not going to expand on his views here as you can look them on YouTube. After his speech was completed, he segued maybe into the most appropriate song that would describe Rock to most of his fans. That song would be “You Never met a Motherf*cker Quite Like Me.” The song which Rock jumped the most to, encompassed a lot of boom, pyro and flames to it.
As Rock donned an acoustic guitar, DJ Bobby Shazam started to rib on Rock about how he went from a punk ass kid smoking blunts to this hip hop flashy wanna be cowboy. As Rock got all flustered, he then proceeded to give Shazam the stage. Shazam then filled the crowd on what Rock’s roots truly were. “Welcome to the Party (Ode 2 the Old School)” kicked in as Rock returned to the stage and was able to showcase his variety of talents behind the turntables, drumkit and subsequently the guitar. Of course interjected into this stretch of Rock’s musical abilities was one of Detroit’s anthems in Ted Nugent’s “Catch Scratch Fever.” As the band played “Born Free” to end their set, the American flag dropped as Rock and his band went off stage to amidst of fireworks and pyro.
Rock attracts a certain type of audience that love to drink a few beers, hear his music and have a good time. Politics aside, he still puts on a quality show and to people like myself who care about being entertained, that’s all that matters!
Setlist:
Greatest Show on Earth
Senate Speech
You Never met a Motherfucker Quite Like Me
American Bad Ass
Slow my Roll
Wasting Time
Cocky
All Summer Long
Po-Dunk
Cowboy
Welcome to the Party (Ode 2 the Old School)
DJ Bobby Shazam: What’s my Name is – Kid Rock
Catch Scratch Fever (Ted Nugent cover)
Rock N Roll Jesus
Only God Knows Why
Born Free
Encore:
American Rock ‘n’ Roll
Picture
Bawitdaba
We would like to thank Jade Ludlow from Vector Management for the credentials to review the show.
