Kid Rock "Born Free Tour" - Greensboro, NC 2/22/11

I went to the Kid Rock "Born Free" tour last night in Greensboro, NC. And I figured I would give it a rundown.

We arrived at the coliseum at 7:10'ish, the show started at 7:30. It took us like 10 minutes to walk through the crowded coliseum to our seats. We were sitting near the top. 7:30 comes along and the lights in there dimmed and Country music singer Jamey Johnson came out and performed until 8:30. He performed shit from his debut (and only) album, I assume.. I never really listened to him. His set was rather boring, and alot of the crowd thought so, too. He just sat there on the stool in front of the microphone with his acoustic guitar and just played alot of slow tempo Country and Blues. He ended his set with his single "In Color". He got a decent applause, but no one really gave him a standing ovation.

After he left at 8:30 the people quickly took his equipment down and then this big black tarp began hovering over the stage so you couldn't see what was going on. And the main lights came back on. This lasted about 20 minutes.

Then all of a sudden you hear this louddddd explosion that scared the shit out of damn near everyone there (even the security were shook up for a minute) then the lights went off and you see a huge "Born Free" light above the stage above a disco ball type thing. Then these huge green, red and purple lasers started flashing in every direction. Then you see smoke coming from the stage and you hear the instrumental from "Straight Outta Compton" playing and the big tarp that was hovering over the stage rolled up and you see a giant bull with smoke blowing out of its nose and the bull was comprised of a band stand, where all the members of his band would be standing on the bull performing...the drummer would be on the head, the guitarists and keyboardists would be on the horns and the DJ would be at the bottom. The bull's mouth has doors.

Then above the bull a movie screen appeared and played "The History Of (Kid) Rock)" which gave you a quick rundown of his musical history. Starting from his "Vanilla Ice" era all the way up to his rock and Country era. Then his band started playing a slow rock intro and then the doors in the bull's mouth opened and Kid came out and busted out with "What's My Name" and everyone went nuts, screaming (including myself )

He performed a nice mash up of shit from Devil Without A Cause, Cocky, his self titled and Rock N Roll Jesus. After about an hour of non stop performing he went back stage and you see a recorded video of him on the huge movie screen talking about his roots then he's like "I'll never forget my roots...both mentally...and musically" then you hear a hip-hop beat and he ran back out in an Alien looking pimp suit with lights all over it and performed his classic "Early Morning Stoned Pimp" and a shit load of his other old hip-hop tracks. Then he went backstage again and they brought out a piano and he came back out with his normal clothes back on and he sat at the piano and performed his song "Care" with some female singer filling in for Martina McBride. And when it was time for T.I.'s verse he started talking about T.I. "This kid is a good kid, even with all his misfortunes" and he's like "My buddy T.I. couldn't be here but he was kind enough to do something for us" this T.I. appeared on the screen and spit his verse from the song while Kid Rock played the melody on the piano. That was cool.

Then he got up from the piano and stepped away and the piano slowly went underground and he got his guitar and brought Jamey Johnson out again and they performed a slow Country song together.

After that he started talking about how his birthday was recently and he is 40 now and he performed a tour exclusive song called "Fucking Forty" which was a comedic song about being 40. Before he performed the song Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien, Larry King, David Letterman and even Beavis and Butthead appeared on the screen wishing him a happy birthday.

After that he decided to show off his musical talent further by taking his bongo players bongos and rocked them. Then he went to the turntables and started scratching like a MF, he went crazy with it even calmly poured him a glass of Jim Beam and drank it while scratching without fucking up. He even scratched with his elbows while lighting a cigar and even jumped up on the turntable set and kept scratching. Not one fuck up. After that he went to the drums and performed a bad ass drum solo. And finally, he went back to the electric guitar and started playing All Summer Long. (Sweet Home Alabama on the guitar)

And for the grand finale, he brought a stool out and sat on it with an acoustic guitar and started thanking everyone for coming out to see him and he performed his song "Amen" and while half way through the song the movie screen started static and everyone quit playing music and he turned around and looked at the screen and it was Beavis and Butthead on there and they were giving him shit about "I thought his name was Kid "Rock", he is putting me to sleep, etc. etc." They were doing it like they were watching MTV in their shows, just giving him hell. Then the band started playing hard rock again and Kid began playing his song "Bawitdaba" and that's what ended the show. And he went back in the bull's mouth and the whole crowd chanted Kid Rock Kid Rock Kid Rock

It was hell trying to get out of the coliseum though. Crowded as shit, drunk mofos falling everywhere. When you get out to the parking lot all you smell is weed (there was weed inside the coliseum too) and some folks beating the shit out of each other lol.

And that was it. One of the best concerts I've ever been to. And I've been to ALOT. I don't give a shit what anyone says, this dude is one of the most talented musicians out there. And definitely one of the best live performers. I would recommend going to see him live even if you don't like his music. The energy is second to none. One of the most energetic out there. Dude performed for what seemed like over 3 hours without taking a break. Possibly more so than Tech N9ne (who is my favorite to see perform live) WELL worth the money. Can't wait to see him again.

I give it a 4.75/5. The reason it's not a full 5/5 is because Jamey Johnson's boring ass.

Yeah, I've seen Kid Rock twice, and both were excellent shows. He's a great live performer. I was gonna buy tickets for his show here last Friday, but it was sold out.

Isn't there a section for this?

Yep, and i moved it since i am a better admin that Linker.

Linker, have you ever listened to Hayes Carll?

Any of you guys tried that new Jim Beam that he promotes?

Red Stag?