Kid Rock's Brand of Patriotism

Kid Rock started his show with a blaze of trailer park panache at Polaris Amphitheater Friday night. Fans first caught sight of his signature white Fedora as he was elevated to the top of a silver semi tanker modified with doors, windows and neon beer signs. He strutted around the roof beneath a giant, corny "Kid Rock" sign that might as well have said "applause," because the crowd bellowed, held up lighters and chanted his name whenever it lit up.

Just as the lyrics of his opening song, "Forever," from his latest record "Cocky" promised, Rock delivered a two-hour-plus set of his own punk/Southern rock/hip-hop/rap concoctions, punctuated by loud pyrotechnics. He also performed multiple, partial covers, including "Free Bird" (well before anyone had the chance to yell out the song title as a joke), the Dukes of Hazzard theme song "Good Ol' Boys," Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider" and, stunningly, Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News."

The stage show itself was a risque, potty-mouthed hybrid of Las Vegas-style bravado and Volunteer Jam-style jingoism. During ÔWelcome to the Party," four scantily, but patriotically clad strippers with little or no sense of rhythm gyrated in cages while red, white and blue confetti blasted into the audience.

Although he has moments of self-deprecating humor that make him seem more human than the average pop star, he is a master of celebrity gimmicks. He managed to elicit more gratuitous yelps and howls from the crowd by injecting the words "Columbus" or "Ohio" into his songs and stage banter approximately every 90 seconds. He also impressed the crowd by playing every instrument on the stage during "Three Sheets to the Wind (What's My Name)," including the turntable, which he manipulated with his elbow while making his signature, crude finger gesture.

In Rock's world, entitlement to an excess of beer, sex, guns and free speech are the best reasons to be a patriot. With a giant American flag unfurled behind him, he pondered the country's fate if he were elected president. His campaign promises included "giving the working man back his money," giving mothers an annual vacation, a live camera in the white house bedroom that he would share with future wife Pamela Anderson and, of course, free Kid Rock concerts "in Columbus, Ohio." This might not have been so surreal had it not been so closely followed by a performance of "America, the Beautiful." He also sang "You've Never Met a Motherf***er Quite Like Me" in front of a massive Confederate flag, which might explain the fact that he seems to appeal to the whitest audience in the history of rap.

The highlight of the show was, by far, the encore, during which he performed a medley of Detroit songs by Bob Seger, MC5, Grand Funk Railroad, Ted Nugent, The Supremes and Eminem, along with his hit "Bawitdaba," which sent the crowd into a hair-whipping frenzy.