Kid Rock’s Greatest Show on Earth came to Toronto

There were red-white-and-blue scantily clad pole dancers, thousands of colourful streamers, enough fireworks to wake an entire postal code, a pseudo senate floor speech and a shout-out to Justin Bieber. In other words, Kid Rock’s “Greatest Show on Earth Tour” paid a visit to Toronto on Friday night.

Backed  by the Twisted Brown Trucker band, Kid Rock was all over the place literally and musically as he made his way through an almost 2 hour set. While it’s been almost 10 years since Kid Rock had a song in the top 40, (All Summer Long), he still managed to fill a the Air Canada Centre with fans for an audacious, if somewhat, chaotic show.

The opening song was more like a finale, with major pyrotechnics, streamers dropping from the ceiling and dancers — all hands were on deck. Kid Rock knew it was over the top and at the end of the song, he said, “Thank you, good night!”, and left the stage.

However, he reappeared shortly after behind a podium to deliver a politically charged speech that touched on topics ranging from welfare to deadbeat fathers to kneeling for the anthem to racism. For some, it was uncomfortable and tacky. Others enjoyed the gimmick. It it was probably better suited to a red-leaning Republican city in the US than Toronto, Ontario.

That being said, the remainder of the set got away from the politics and was old school, intense Kid Rock the rest of the way. The majority of fans stayed on their feet throughout the show right until the end, powering through Kid Rock’s multi-genre, career-spanning setlist as he kept fans engaged with drum and guitar solos from the band, video clips and even a callback session DJ set, in which he lights a cigar and pours a glass of Jim Beam, all while scratching records.

It wasn’t a perfect show by any means but Kid Rock is a showman at heart and at some points Friday he was at his defiant best. For those that didn’t like the political overtones, I am sure he could give zero fucks. If you missed the show in Toronto you’ll have to head to the US to catch him on this tour as this was his only Canadian stop. Full tour dates can be found here, kidrock.com/tour.

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