Kid Rock

The Brixton Academy was always a bit of a risk for a mediocre metal artist that has not been seen on these shores for some two years and has not had an immense amount of success here anyway. But even this doesn't explain why there are so few people in here tonight to see the return of Kid Rock, a performer you know you're going to get a big show out of even if the music isn't of the highest quality. Hell, he's even employed the services of the 'next big-things' Taproot to help him sell out the venue but even this hasn't been of any assistance.

Things just aren't going right for Taproot from the very opening strains of their set. Maybe it's the fact that there are as many people bothered about their as there are people who will vote Raving Looney come election day, but more likely is the evidence they are just a piss-poor live act. Their singer has as much charisma as Jeremy Beadle and a voice that's just as irritating and it's just latching on to a current trend and trying to fit in as much as they can. Watching the second hand on your watch tick by is more exciting than enduring Taproot's noise.

Kid Rock, by contrast, is the meaning of the word entertainment. From the moment the Twisted Trucker Band blast out the opening shots to 'American Bad Ass' (The irrepressible opening to Metallica's 'Sad but True) the stage is awash with first rate eye-candy. The enormous Kid Rock logo in lights, the cages complete with dancing girls, the way in which the Kid raises up from the back of the stage and stands on a twenty foot platform, it's just 100% dumb American rock. But god-damn it’s cool. The man known as Bob also has to be credited for knowing his weak points and exploiting them. A show filled with one and three quarter hours of pure Kid Rock material is no where even close to appealing, which is why we get a pub-rock selection of covers thrown in to keep the fun levels at an unmissable high. AC/DC, Lynard Skynard, The Stones, it’s all here and it’s performed at the highest of quality. Kind of puts his whole Nu-Metal Schtick into perspective, this guy has more in common with Brett Michaels than he does Jonathan Davies and it works at that’s a compliment to the guy not an insult. It’s not about music, because if it was Kid Rock would be fucked, it’s all about the spectacle and this is the best stage show going. A big, dumb and fun night out.