Post by Sugarmama on Mar 22, 2008 3:28:49 GMT -5
Concert review: Kid Rock
Rock makes noise, but praises go to Rev. Run
The evolution of Kid Rock
If you were looking for a nostalgia kick Tuesday night, then Kid Rock’s "Rock and Roll Revival" concert at Roanoke Civic Center was your ticket.
Sure, Rock brought a handful of original tunes from his new CD, "Rock And Roll Jesus," but none of those songs had the power or originality that brought the Detroit performer to the limelight eight years back.
While Rock showed he still has the performance chops to keep a crowd on its feet, he was upstaged by one of his special guests — hip-hop icon Joseph "Rev. Run" Simmons, of Run-DMC.
The two-hour show really started more than halfway through, when Rock, aka Robert Ritchie, brought on Run. The pair cut through about 15 minutes of Run-DMC smashes, including "King of Rock," "It’s Like That," "It’s Tricky," "You Be Illin’ " and the group’s biggest hit, "Walk This Way." On the latter, Rock ably took on Darryl "DMC" McDaniel’s rap and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler’s vocal.
Run, in his trademark wide-brimmed hat, black track suit and white tennis shoes — not Adidas, but his own Run Athletics brand — still had the staccato tongue as Rock’s band played the sparse beats spiced with hard-rock guitar riffs that put rap music into the white public’s imagination.
And the mostly white crowd responded throughout Run’s short set in a way that it hadn’t when Rock was fronting the stage on his own.
In the end, Run walked off yelling: "My town! My town!" And for a few minutes, with that big crowd waving its hands in the air like it just didn’t care, it was.
Attendance was 6,153 in the hall, which held 8,200.
And Rock gave them a show. The crowd responded to "Cowboy," "Welcome To The Party," "You Never Met A Mother------ Quite Like Me" and "Devil Without a Cause," among others.
But there was no monster hit from the new CD. If the new songs harked back to classic rock in the way his earlier hits were spawned from catalogs such as Run-DMC’s, there was little there that revealed a fresh take.
Former Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts and his son, guitarist Duane Betts, took the stage with Rock before intermission. The elder Betts sounded a little sloppy at times as he ran through ABB hits such as "Southbound" and "Ramblin’ Man."
Rock makes noise, but praises go to Rev. Run
The evolution of Kid Rock
If you were looking for a nostalgia kick Tuesday night, then Kid Rock’s "Rock and Roll Revival" concert at Roanoke Civic Center was your ticket.
Sure, Rock brought a handful of original tunes from his new CD, "Rock And Roll Jesus," but none of those songs had the power or originality that brought the Detroit performer to the limelight eight years back.
While Rock showed he still has the performance chops to keep a crowd on its feet, he was upstaged by one of his special guests — hip-hop icon Joseph "Rev. Run" Simmons, of Run-DMC.
The two-hour show really started more than halfway through, when Rock, aka Robert Ritchie, brought on Run. The pair cut through about 15 minutes of Run-DMC smashes, including "King of Rock," "It’s Like That," "It’s Tricky," "You Be Illin’ " and the group’s biggest hit, "Walk This Way." On the latter, Rock ably took on Darryl "DMC" McDaniel’s rap and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler’s vocal.
Run, in his trademark wide-brimmed hat, black track suit and white tennis shoes — not Adidas, but his own Run Athletics brand — still had the staccato tongue as Rock’s band played the sparse beats spiced with hard-rock guitar riffs that put rap music into the white public’s imagination.
And the mostly white crowd responded throughout Run’s short set in a way that it hadn’t when Rock was fronting the stage on his own.
In the end, Run walked off yelling: "My town! My town!" And for a few minutes, with that big crowd waving its hands in the air like it just didn’t care, it was.
Attendance was 6,153 in the hall, which held 8,200.
And Rock gave them a show. The crowd responded to "Cowboy," "Welcome To The Party," "You Never Met A Mother------ Quite Like Me" and "Devil Without a Cause," among others.
But there was no monster hit from the new CD. If the new songs harked back to classic rock in the way his earlier hits were spawned from catalogs such as Run-DMC’s, there was little there that revealed a fresh take.
Former Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts and his son, guitarist Duane Betts, took the stage with Rock before intermission. The elder Betts sounded a little sloppy at times as he ran through ABB hits such as "Southbound" and "Ramblin’ Man."
