Drinks Americas Holdings, Ltd. (DKAM)

[sneaky_peaky]

KID ROCKS COMERICA PARK
Rock on, Detroit!
BY BRIAN McCOLLUM • FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER • July 17, 2009

•••Print
•E-mail this article
•Letter to editor
•Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Del.icio.us
Newsvine
Reddit
Buzz up!
•
Take a much-loved local star, thousands of charged-up hometown fans, a region's hunger to let its hair down, and this is what you get: a blockbuster party with Kid Rock in Detroit.


Comerica Park was humming Friday as Rock rolled out his two-day rock 'n' roll festival, capped by an evening performance before 40,000-plus.


In front of the stadium, fans gathered for a rambunctious but good-spirited afternoon of beer, bands and motocross bikes, the lead-up to what had been deemed the concert event of the year.


With celebrities ranging from Bob Seger to Cuba Gooding Jr. among those due for the festivities, Friday had all the feel of a big-time event, the culmination of Kid Rock's two-decade hometown career.


It was a day of moments big and small. Here's a glimpse:




2:14 p.m.: Inside quiet Comerica Park, where stage and lights crews finished their major work Thursday night, it's the calm before the storm. But Detroit Tigers head groundskeeper Heather Nabozny is nervous -- and she's not even the one who will be playing for 40,000-plus people. This outfield turf is her baby, and right now it's covered by acres of plastic protector and tons of stage equipment.


"In a little while I'm going to see 10,000 people out here," she says, placing her hands over her face in exasperation.


Previous concerts such as the Rolling Stones left Tigers players griping about the field condition. But today's relatively cool temperature ought to help, and next week Nabozny's crew will dye and fertilize the grass to guide it back into shape.


"I just hope it's OK," she says.




2:46 p.m.: The street party is rolling in front of the stadium, where the drinks and high spirits are flowing for several hundred fans.


Among them is a very familiar-looking character: In his fedora and sunglasses, Kevin Smyth of Ontario is the spitting image of Kid Rock. A continuous stream of partyers comes his way for handshakes and photos. A group of stadium staffers nervously approaches. "It's an honor," says one.


Few stop to wonder why Rock would be hanging around near the portable toilets the day of his show. Smyth shrugs: "When it's somebody's dream, how do you tell them I'm not him?"




3:45 p.m.: The party takes flight for a cheering crowd as two motocross freestylers rev up their bikes and launch themselves up a ramp, spinning and flipping 30 feet over the parking lot.


With a DJ spinning classic rock tunes, hundreds pack into the party zone outside Cheli's Chili Bar. Five hours before Kid Rock takes the stage, you can already feel the momentum building.


"This was a great idea," says Terry Steele, 39, of Milford, scanning the noisy crowd around him. "Kid Rock should do this every year."


"It's almost like Vegas -- the music going over there, the dancing over here, so many different people," says Rick Tibeau, 53, of St. Clair. "It's just a ball."




4:26 p.m.: Mostly positive reviews are flowing in for Kid Rock's Bad Ass Beer, which is making its debut here this weekend. Inside Cheli's, bartenders say they're moving plenty of the American-style lager -- at $3.50 a cup -- to curious connoisseurs.


"It's a good sipping beer," says Derek Lecki, 21, of Davisburg,. He's on his fifth cup.

"It's got a lot of flavor, and we've already figured out if you put an orange in it, it's awesome."



5:45 p.m.: Here we go: With lines wrapped around the block and a palpable buzz in the air, the gates have opened. Fans with general admission tickets stream onto the Comerica Park field, jostling for prime spots by the outfield stage. Tens of thousands more will be occupying stadium seats.


Detroit and Wayne County police officials say there have been minimal crowd problems to this point, but the afternoon of drinking has led to a few staggering fans who are starting to catch officers' eyes.



6:31 p.m.: The stadium is far from full, but the assembled audience lets out a holler as opener Robert Randolph & the Family Band hits the stage, rolling into a set of gritty rural funk. The night's soundtrack has started.


Some fans have already donned the souvenir T-shirts they purchased today.

There's a little bit of everything here: jeans, short-shorts, hip-hop apparel, Stetsons, polo shirts and an array of Kid Rock tour shirts stretching back many years.




7:50 p.m.: In front of a fast-filling stadium -- and with gawkers enjoying a free concert through the fence on Montcalm Street -- Lynyrd Skynyrd kicks into "Saturday Night Special" and a set of vintage Southern rock.


Ten minutes earlier, Kid Rock protege Ty Stone took the stage alone to serve up an a capella rendition of the national anthem, punctuated with a roaring flyover by a military bomber.


In a handsome stadium lobby, Kid Rock friends and family members assemble en route to their VIP seating. "This is a huge weekend for us," his brother Billy Ritchie said earlier in the day. Kid Rock, viewing the evening as a professional milestone, has invited a diverse cast of characters from throughout his career, including people who lent a hand in the early days.


"It's still a lot of pressure," Rock said earlier in the week. "You can never really explain this to people, as much as I've tried to -- dealing with all your family and friends, trying to have them understand that this is still a job."

9:18 p.m.: Kid Rock is already officially late to the stage, but you won't hear complaints from a crowd that seems to be relishing the magnitude of this moment. The packed stadium audience hums with a steady energy as Motown tunes and Bob Seger tracks play over the PA. It feels like an old-school summer rock show.


Out on the concourse, Kim Bent of Grand Rapids catches a final cigarette before heading back in to rejoin her friends at her seat. She marvels at the hard-partying, friendly crowd.


"It's energetic and extremely chill at the same time," she says. "It just has the feel of a huge event."


Michigan needed this night, she says: "Kid Rock brings a positive energy to a very negative situation. This is the kind of night that makes you forget everything."




9:52 p.m.: A flash of lights. Towers of flame. A spray of fireworks. And Kid Rock, emerging from the shadows to a massive roar. Lasers dance across the baseball stadium as black-clad Rock and his band charge through "Rock n Roll Jesus."


The night will belong to history: From up in the press box, the floor of Comerica Park is a sprawl of little white lights -- thousands of cell phones being held aloft to chronicle the moment.


With Rock strutting and working the full breadth of the stage, the songs come rat-a-tat-tat: "Son of Detroit," the Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice," "American Bad Ass," "Lowlife (Living the High Life)." All is precisely synchronized, motifs from other tunes slipping in and out like a carefully arranged suite.


Even when he was playing small venues, Kid Rock was delivering a stadium-sized show. As he commands a sea of punching fists during "All Summer Long," it feels like he's finally where he was always supposed to be.




11:07 p.m.: Gifted vocalist Jessica Wagner trades vocals with Rock on a loose but upbeat rendition of the Jackson 5's "ABC," a tribute to the late Michael Jackson. It's one of several cover tunes Rock is sprinkling into his set, an array that sounds like a spin down the classic-rock dial: Sly & the Family Stone's "Everyday People," Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever," the Georgia Satellites' "Keep Your Hands to Yourself." Rock's own "Wasting Time" gets placed atop "Paradise City" by Guns N' Roses.


Having locked in with Rock from the get-go, the crowd remains fully engaged even as the band hits a mellow midshow stretch, swaying and singing along to tunes like "Drift Away," "Picture" and a reworked "Cowboy." Two big video screens bring the action to fans in the cheap seats, but these are fans who don't need many cues -- a hometown audience that's well acquainted with the rituals of Rock's live sets.


That's obvious when fans immediately latch onto the call-and-response portion of his traditional "3 Sheets to the Wind" schtick, and Comerica Park fills with 40,000 voices hollering "Ki-iid Rock-Rock" before Rock takes to the turntables for his showoff DJ routine.

11:33 p.m.: Searchlights and lasers sweep the park as the opening notes of "Bawitdaba" rumble to life. The supersized rock song has been Rock's signature live number for a decade, and he pulls out all the visual stops for a production bordering on epic. Another few rounds of pyro, strobes and booms, and Rock closes out his regular set with a hearty "God bless you and good night."

A mercifully brief break precedes the encore, where Rock debuts a poignantly targeted ballad, "Times Like These," a stay-strong ode to battered Detroit that includes the line, "I won't leave because this here's my hometown."

"Tough times make for tough people," Rock tells his 40,000 friends before closing it all out with a red-white-and-blue version of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." Night one is in the bag.

Just more than two hours after Kid Rock hit the stage, the stadium lights ease back on and fans chatter loudly as they stream out to the streets. Some will head to the after-party with DJ Paradime at Motor City Casino; some will be back here tomorrow. And somewhere backstage, you figure, Kid Rock is feeling pretty good right now about the spectacle he just waged for his hometown. After this taste of stadium grandiosity, you wonder if he'll ever be able to cram his show back into a local arena.

Detroit may have just landed a new tradition.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090717/ENT04/90717066/Rock-on--Detroit-