Jane and I took in our first Kid Rock concert the other night. He came to the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday night, and put on an excellent show! It was part of his 'Rebel Soul' tour, with Buckcherry and some other band opening for him (we missed the first band).
It was an interesting evening, because when we walked up to the entrance there were several guys out front handing out Christian literature. Two of them had signs that said, "Do you have a guilty conscience?" and one of them was preaching using a wireless mic of some kind. I can't really remember what he was yelling, but it sounded a lot like the "you're going to hell" rhetoric. I guess they must have assumed everyone there was a non-Christian. Anyway, people were being a little nasty to them. I didn't see anyone take one of their postcards that were offered, and people were yelling back at the guy preaching telling him to "shut up!!!" I felt kind of bad for them, so I took one of their postcards. They guy was nice about it.
I never know about things like that. I mean, I give them credit for going into the line of fire. But it doesn't seem they were having a whole lot of impact. At least not positive. Not that I was seeing. However, later on during the Buckcherry set I did start to pray that people might see the difference between what was being spewed out front and what was being spewed from the Buckcherry singer.
Anyway, we made our way inside and did the usual walk around the concourse to check out what was happening. I think our seats were in section 224, which was kind of the back corner. There were quite a few people there, so we moved over to section 228 because there weren't many people there. Buckcherry was on by that time. Eh, they're a band. They tried to act all evil and mean, and then they would say something like, "Thanks so much. We love you. God bless." So, you know, it's probably kind of an act. I suppose it's a marketing thing. They were trying to be as over-the-top as they could. Whatever. As I said earlier, I spent most of the time listening to them actually praying for the band and the people there anyway. Before they were done we took another walkabout.
It didn't take very long for the to get ready for Kid Rock to come out - maybe 20 minutes. We found some seats before he came out, and they started with this video. It was his voice, and I finally realized it was a prayer. He started out "Dear God," and then prayed and thanked him for traveling mercies, and that they would give a good show and that everyone would be safe, and things like that. And then ended, "We pray in Jesus' name." Then they came out and started playing.
I was actually quite surprised, and a little impressed, with the prayer. It didn't 'seem' like it was in jest. And he ended the show with a "God bless you!" So I don't know. Judging from the rest of the evening, I would say it has more to do with civil religion than anything, but still... kudos to the Kid. Of course, it also got me to wondering... Was all of this a part of how it's marketed. You know, for all I know, the preacher out front might be a part of the entourage. They get you with that, then the total evil of Buckcherry, then Kid Rock starts off with a prayer. Both bands songs contain a lot of biblical references (actually, most music does). You touch a lot of bases (and heart strings) with that stuff.
Anyway, I thought Kid Rock put on a whale of a show. Not a lot of talking, and just plain rock-n-roll. We actually weren't really in the mood for a concert when we left, and thought about giving our tickets away, but I'm glad we went. There was a good crowd. We saw a couple people we knew there.
Another nice thing about it... it started at 7:30 pm, and we didn't leave the house until 7:10. We parked, walked in, and were inside the stadium by 7:30. We got right out too, so we made good time getting home. All in all, a good night.
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