On the Road Again
Live Reviews:

Kid Rock with Powerman 5000
October 25, 1999
The Warehouse, Toronto

I always knew that Kid Rock was pure white trash — and he's proud to admit it, too — but I never thought that he would successfully bring out some of Toronto's own worst trash. Now, I don't mean to be harsh, but all of the female groupies looming around the backstage area of the club looked so horrid and used — up that I was surprised I couldn't find their pimps anywhere by them. And if you really weren't certain as to whether or not there still were drunken middle — aged men sporting the fashionable Mullet — style haircut of the '80s, then you should have been at the Warehouse Monday night.

O.K., enough about the horrible visions. Let's talk about the show and if any of the sets were worthy of mention. The first band to open was Vancouver's own DDT who were basically playing off on their only hit to date, "Walkabout." There isn't much to say about their set, since they were so fucking loud that I couldn't hear a fucking word that the singer was saying! There was a whole lot of bouncing up and down and running around the stage, which the young kids in the audience gladly ate up (as noted by the moshing and bodysurfing — why do you kids out there still do that shit?). But this was one set that was easily forgotten. Bring on the Powerman!

Next up was Rob Zombie's little brother's band Powerman 5000. I'll make one or two little notes about this band: 1. The only other time that I've seen so many fans wearing a particular band's t — shirts in one venue was at a — well, any — Korn show. And 2. I truly believe that Spike, the lead singer of Powerman 5000, just happens to also be Brian Byrne, lead singer of I Mother Earth. I've never seen two frontmen sing and act the exact same way. Damnit, it has to be him!

Those crazy observations aside, Powerman 5000 actually had a nice little set after DDT. It was aggressive, tight, and they used the house lights to their total advantage onstage. It was quite reminiscent of White Zombie shows of the past — wait a second, maybe that's because the lead singers of both bands just happen to be related! Big bro Rob must be giving little bro Spike some tips.

I knew that Kid Rock was just about to grace the stage at 9:30 with his pimp daddy presence when all the middle — aged rockers in the crowd rushed closer into the mosh pit with their beers, and most of the younger, screeching girl — groupies positioned themselves right behind the stage's barrier, waiting to flash one of Detroit's finest. Sauntering onto the stage draped in a long, white fur coat with a cane at his side, he was a poor white man's version of Huggie Bear (that's a Starsky and Hutch reference, just so you know). Kid barreled through most of the songs from his platinum — selling album Devil Without A Cause, all the while shaking his thin blonde hair every which way and throwing up his middle fingers so often at the crowd that I was afraid he was going to incite a repeat Woodstock '99 hooligan episode down at the Warehouse.

I was pleasantly surprised, though, at how well Kid Rock's band plays together. Backed by a keyboardist, lead and thrash guitarists, bass player, scratch DJ, and a kick ass female drummer, Kid doesn't really need to do much except jump around with his midget sidekick (although the little one was absent this night due to an illness). The band broke into some cool little jams of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," but the set was all about the rap — metal. And it went over so well with everyone there that I'm not so sure we'll be seeing the last of bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn, and even Kid Rock playing this music.

But as long as he's got that band backing him up live, then it's all good for Kid Rock. Without them he'd just be relegated to being poor white trash. Oh wait, isn't that what he is anyways?