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It sounded like a Kid Rock show. It looked like a Kid Rock show. When the obligatory pyrotechnics went off, it boomed like a Kid Rock show.
Yet something felt different this time, as the Michigan-bred star hit DTE Energy Music Theatre on Friday to launch a four-show stand. And it wasn’t just the old-school Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket he’s now donning as a hat to perform “Po-Dunk.”
For years, a Kid Rock show was a big-buzz draw for metro Detroiters across the board. It was an event widely viewed as a guaranteed good time with a celebratory hometown flavor.
But we find ourselves in the political pell-mell of 2019, and this homecoming DTE run presents a Kid Rock who’s operating in a new, fraught context: In a day of deepening cultural polarization, the 48-year-old musician has become a lightning rod.
These past few years, he’s gone unapologetically political — vigorously backing President Donald Trump and sometimes lacing his concerts with pointed social takes. He’s caught flak for a recent Twitter shot at Taylor Swift. His past use of the Confederate flag onstage, which he’s defended as a nod to Southern rock, was resurfaced for attack by activists.
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Throw all that into today’s charged climate, and you wind up with Kid Rock now playing mostly for the diehards. The story of Friday night was as much about the folks who weren’t there as the ones who were.
Those hard-core fans were certainly in full force, streaming into DTE in an array of Harley-Davidson gear, Johnny Cash shirts, Kid Rock merch and the occasional Trump MAGA hat. They’ve been the heart of the Kid Rock base for many years, and on Friday, after an evening of tailgating and a two-hour show, they got the hard-partying good time they came for.
Missing, though, were the white-collar weekend warriors, soccer moms and other casuals who made up a sizable chunk of crowds at previous hometown Kid Rock dates. They may not have been blasting Kid Rock albums at home, but they knew what his shows promised: high-energy entertainment with a raffish wink, a few hours of drinks and escape, all of it with a big, proud Detroit stamp.
If some of Kid Rock’s audience has peeled away, he certainly isn’t the first artist to have run off fans with his politics. The modern era’s most famous example comes from the other side of the spectrum, when the Dixie Chicks alienated much of their country music base in 2003 by attacking President George W. Bush.
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Sure, DTE was packed Friday, and by the time Rock wraps up his run next weekend, he’ll likely have drawn enough concertgoers to fill Comerica Park. His career isn’t withering anytime soon, certainly not in this neck of the woods.
But Friday’s show wasn’t a fast sellout the way previous Kid Rock dates here dependably had been. Up to showtime, deeply discounted tickets were available on the resale site StubHub, and plenty of seats remain available for the upcoming three DTE dates.
Some caveats do apply. Kid Rock’s prior two DTE visits — 10 sold-out shows in 2015, seven in 2013 — benefited from a much-touted $20 ticket campaign. (Prices for this week’s shows start at $84.) And a big festival appearance last week at Ohio’s Put-In-Bay, announced well before the DTE run, may have siphoned off some of the traveling U.S. fan base that otherwise would have devoted its airfare to see Kid Rock on his home turf.
Still, there’s no doubt something has changed, and you could sense the defiance lurking in Friday’s festivities: Kid Rock has made his stand, dammit, and you can love it or leave it. He was here to do his thing for the ones who get it.
The irony is that Friday night delivered a concert that might have been right up the alley of those disenchanted casual fans. There wasn’t a peep of political talk. It was stacked with hits. It was fun and loose, with feel-good moments like backup singer Herschel Boone’s rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.”
“Ain’t nothing but a party, y’all,” Rock said at one point.
The show also had moments that seemed strategically designed to play up inclusion — like the resurrection of an old Kid Rock cover staple, “Everyday People” by Sly & the Family Stone, and its “we got to live together” theme.
In some ways, Friday felt like an old-fashioned Kid Rock show, right down to the return of pole-dancing women flanking the stage. Kicking off with the Southern-rocking “Son of Detroit,” Rock kept things lively, soon prompting a roar with the big “MICHIGAN” banner that unfurled on “All Summer Long.”
“Born Free,” performed below a splay of red, white and blue lights, prompted “U-S-A” chants on the DTE lawn to end the regular set. Rock and his Twisted Brown Trucker band then revived 2015’s “First Kiss” to launch an encore that included the signature “Bawitdaba.”
There were new elements, including an opening video that portrayed a spacecraft hurtling to Earth — only to reveal Kid Rock inside with a NASA suit and Evel Knievel helmet. The landing capsule turned out to be an RV emblazoned with “United States of ‘Merica,” and the view panned out to display the state of Michigan … morphed into a giant middle finger.
It was quintessential Kid Rock: proudly patriotic, playfully lowbrow, aggressively local. Based on Friday’s cheering, laughing audience, it still resonates where it needs to.
These are weird, divided times we’re living in — and Kid Rock finds himself in a weirdly divisive career moment. Long ago, he built himself a bona fide Michigan tradition. It will be fascinating to see how it unfolds from here.
Kid Rock will be back at DTE on Saturday, then again next Friday (Sept. 13) and Saturday (Sept. 14).
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
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