photo by: JEFF SCHRIER/The Saginaw News
Kid Rock performs during his concert Tuesday night.
Posted by Sue White | The Saginaw News February 06, 2008
Categories: Entertainment, Top Stories, Tri-Cities
Previous stops in Saginaw found Kid Rock donning the pimp look with a floor-length fur coat, a bad-boy persona, pole dancers and pyrotechnics.
Tuesday, the rocking rapper left that all behind, trusting instead in what we've seen in him from the beginning -- a true passion for music of all styles -- as he made his way back to a sold-out crowd of 6,400 at TheDow Event Center in Saginaw.
Kid Rock also sold out shows here in 2002, 2004 and 2006.
He sang songs Tuesday with titles we can't print and then led in the reverent "Amen" and its call to "simplify, testify, identify, rectify." He asked the crowd how Saginaw felt about country music -- you know, Nashville -- and came back with a cowboy hat and "Cowboy."
Nothing was quite as it seemed from the moment the lights went down. Supporting acts Peter Wolf of J. Geils Band fame and Rev Run from Run DMC didn't merely open the show. The veteran rockers wove their signature works into Kid Rock's night-long mix. Kid Rock was dapper in his white suit as he musically preached the gospel of a "Rock N Roll Jesus" to a rapt crowd and equally swaggering in his stripped-down jeans and white T.
Any concern of alienating rowdier fans vanished as a sea of flicking flames spread across Wendler Arena to the warm sentiments of "Only God Knows Why." Kid Rock joined Wolf for "Centerfold," and after a brief intermission, ably traded raps from Run DMC's catalog with the Rev, including the Aerosmith collaboration, "Walk this Way."
The encore included Kid Rock, Wolf and Rev Run holding their index fingers high as they joined voices in the children's Sunday school staple, "This Little Light of Mine."
It was a true music revival, reminding us of what we loved in Kid Rock, despite the recent spate of sensational reports of drama queens and fist-happy former husbands. He touched on the tabloid tales, warning of what happens when you mess with a songwriter in "Half Your Age" and then answering questions with the spin of the night's turntables.
The soul-stirring inclusion of David McMurray's sax was a highlight. Who thought you could improve on "Picture," the Kid's duet with Sheryl Crow? You'd have to hear McMurray's intro to fully appreciate what he brings to the table.
Sometimes, it didn't even take a whole song; just a few bars from "Sweet Home Alabama" gave his own "All Summer Long" a distinctive depth. Fans danced to the hip-hop and swayed to the gospel.
We experienced Kid Rock in a new way, a three-hour sampler that stripped away the window-dressing and served up the real thing. The closing all-star cover of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" summed it up best -- There's something happening here, though of what, we're never exactly sure.
"Welcome 2 the Party," indeed.
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