Kid Rock tops wall-rattling week at Knitting Factory
Country-rap-rock, heavy alt-rock and down South underground rap sounds will be shaking the walls at the Knitting Factory Concert House in the coming days, highlighted by a sold-out show by Kid Rock.
Here’s a look at what’s coming down the assembly line at the Knitting Factory Concert House, 919 W. Sprague Ave. Tickets for Knitting Factory shows are available through www.ticketfly.com.
Kid Rock with Ty Stone
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Tickets: Sold out
More than two decades, eight albums, and five Grammy nominations into his career, Kid Rock is as free-spirited as ever.
Rock is wearing his free style proudly on his latest record, “Born Free.”
Scoring his fifth platinum album in a row with his 2010 release for Atlantic Records, Rock is going gung-ho with his patriotism, and he brought plenty industry friends to the party.
To make the 12-track album – his first without a parental advisory sticker – Rock recruited help from a list of guests that reflect the same broad range of styles contained in his music: country singers Martina McBride, Zac Brown and Trace Akins, rapper T.I., fellow Detroit roots-rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist Bob Seger and pop star Sheryl Crow.
While Rock has always been a country boy at heart, “Born Free” puts the focus on his love for his country. It’s especially evident on the lead single and title track, which was adopted as the theme song for TBS’s Major League Baseball playoffs broadcasts, and the WWE’s “Tribute to Troops” special.
While he’s rooting for the home team, Kid Rock is also waving the flag for his hometown of Detroit. Following “Born Free,” Rock released what was billed as a Detroit-only EP called “Racing Father Time.” It features alternative versions of “Born Free” songs along with a couple of new cuts, including “Midwest Fall” about a man losing his job on the auto line.
Rock is readying his next album, tentatively titled “Chillin’ the Most,” due in 2012.
Devin the Dude
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Tickets: $20, $23
Consistently breaking the Billboard Top 200 with little air play, Houston rap anomaly Devin the Dude broke out of the respected Rap-A-Lot Records camp – home to Scarface and the Geto Boys – and has carved out a venerable career as an independent solo artist.
His seventh solo release, 2010’s “Gotta Be Me,” finds the Dude picking up where he left off – neck deep in trunk-rattling beats and ocean-deep bass, preaching his high praise for smoking pot, through simply honest, if not oddball, lyrics.
Puddle of Mudd
With Landsdowne, Sugar Red Drive, The Fail Safe Project
When, where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: $15-$20
After a highly publicized quarrel with Fred Durst, Puddle of Mudd seems to have made up with its musical mentor, having quashed the band’s beef with Limp Bizkit’s famed frontman to join the juggernaut of hard rock bands for this past summer’s Epicenter 2011 tour. After a year shaped by the release of the band’s first covers album, “Re:(disc)overed,” and an effort to re-release its first two albums, Mudd is back in the studio making its fifth studio albums, slated for release next year.