‘70s spirit puts new spring in Kid’s step

Kid Rock uses too much hip-hop to be very comforting for staunch classic rock fans, but the singer keeps looking backward for inspiration. At 33, he’s barely old enough to have known any of this stuff when it was new, and yet a Kid Rock concert usually means a journey through the music of ‘70s FM rock radio and the songs of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company and Bob Seger.

He has good reason. Because there were still plenty of intense hip-hop beats and raps in Rock’s concert at the Universal Amphitheatre on Saturday, he was most effective when the electric guitars joined in. The hard rhymes of “Devil Without a Cause” rode the momentum of an AC/DC riff before Rock sang a verse of Skynyrd’s “Free Bird,” though the only bird on Rock’s mind seemed to be his middle finger.

Rock’s not doing anything particularly new or special, but he does it all exceedingly well. He delivered with total commitment for a sold-out crowd that was on its feet the entire night.

He is not the great rock ‘n’ roll singer that either Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zant or Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers were, but he can rap and rage like the fanatic he is, which ignited his version of Bad Company’s “Feel Like Making Love.” He owed much to a seven-person band (plus two backup singers) that played and soloed like an old-time soul revue gone hard rock. Rock otherwise got by on flash and showmanship. The room was filled with confetti, the night was crowded with strippers and special effects, and Confederate and U.S. flags were raised and lowered.

For the grinding Southern rock of “Jackson, Mississippi,” he picked up a Flying V guitar as mushroom-shaped flames billowed in the air behind him. Even amid the bravado and boasting, he was ready to look inward, practically confessing to his failings: “I could say I’m trying to change, but that’s just another lie / It’s been a day and a half, and I’m still high.”

Later, Rock sat for some scratchy blues as he contemplated, “What if Kid Rock was president of the United States?” His answer included TV cameras in the Lincoln Bedroom and a national holiday for his late sidekick Joe C. He also promised to continue craving marijuana and whiskey, which is just one more classic rock tradition to embrace.