Kid Rock steals the show — and admits it — at Puyallup

Concert Review |

Kid Rock's rap sheet should include grand theft. The guy steals from just about everybody to put together his loud and dirty, Motor City, cocky smashup of Southern rock and old-school hip-hop.

The Puyallup Fair was lucky enough to rope and tie the self-styled "Cowboy" while the Kid is riding high. He's been on the radio "All Summer Long" — it's the biggest single of the year — and his latest album, "Rock N Roll Jesus," was released almost a year ago and is still in the Top 10 in Billboard.

"Summer" is a good example of his thievery. He takes familiar riffs from Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" and adds new lyrics about, well, how much he loves songs like those in the summertime.

Kid Rock rules right now, so his usual raplike boasting was amped up to ridiculous levels at the Puyallup show Wednesday night. Love-me moments were built in, where he would just stand in the spotlight, glowing in his all-white outfit, while the big crowd roared.

The sold-out show set a new level of sleaze for the family-friendly fair, not only with the Kid's usual dirty words but also with graphically suggestive songs better suited to a nightclub. But, hey — he did religious and flag-waving songs, too, like "Amen" and "Only God Knows Why," so he's just a regular, upstanding, All-American guy, right? (Oh, wait, except for that Pamela Anderson thing.)

The Kid and his 10-piece Twisted Brown Trucker Band had their act down at the Puyallup, keeping the audience pumped with party anthems and long rap/rock workouts on tunes like "Cowboy," "Welcome 2 the Party," "Cocky," "You Never Met a [expletive] Quite Like Me," "So Hott" and "Bawitdaba."

He did his usual bit where he plays guitar, does a drum solo and shows off his turntablist skills, mixing beats and samples from rock, country, rap and hip-hop. One thing you have to give him — he comes clean, crediting all of his influences.

Rev Run of Run-DMC, one of the rappers he learned from, was a living example, showing up in the middle of the set to rock it with Rock and the band in old-school jams of Run-DMC classics like "It's Tricky," "You Be Illin' " and, of course, "Walk this Way."

That was kind of classy, in a down-and-dirty hip-hop way, of course.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com