Ted Nugent: Still rocking, still putting the Bill of Rights through its paces

Since I couldn’t make it to the Mall in D.C. today for the festivities there, I went to see Ted Nugent tonight at a club in Boise instead.

I had to go alone because I don’t know anyone here except friends and colleagues of my wife’s, and they’re all pretty reliably progressive and would only be uncomfortable at a Ted Nugent show. I saw Ted back in the ‘70s (he swung onto the arena stage on a rope, wearing a loincloth), but I haven’t seen him since. I lived for so long in L.A. through the ‘80s and ‘90s and so many bands came through town, I just never managed to allocate my concert dollars to Ted again during that time.

Cut to Boise. Now it’s 2010 and it costs about as much to see him from 10 feet away in a club as it cost in the ‘70s for loge seats. A sign advertising his appearance was the first truly welcoming sight I saw when we first moved here last month. It was a fait accompli.

The club he was playing in was cool, but had a fucked up camera policy, which was, if you were in the middle of the crowd, you got a pass from the bouncers. If, however, you were on the fringes of the crowd at the lip of the stage like I was, you were hassled constantly, finally ending with a promise to confiscate the camera and eject me if did it again.

So I didn’t do it again. Just as well. All my photos came out like shit anyhow. The ban was most onerous during the last song, when Ted came out for a single encore adorned in a flamboyant Native American headdress, but damn it, I had given The Muscle my word I wouldn’t do it again. Plus I really didn’t feel like getting ejected.

I want to be able to go back next month and see the Smashing Pumpkins. You may rest assured, I’ll show up plenty early and make sure I have a place in the middle of the throng. Maybe a slight disguise wouldn’t be a bad idea either…

Anyhow, after opening with an ear-splitting, shredding version of the Star Spangled Banner, Ted ripped through a generous selection of hits between all the crazy, eerily lucid rants (I’m getting to that part), including every single favorite tune this reporter had attended to hear. Admittedly that isn’t too many, and his set was padded with a few lesser-known numbers that would have had the crowd heading for the bar if it wouldn’t have meant giving up their place in the middle of the picture-taking free-zone. But he made up for any filler by closing the show with the song everyone there was waiting for, “Great White Buffalo” in full Indian headdress (below).

I don’t know what you’ve heard about Ted Nugent’s politics, but, eh, it’s probably as bad as you’ve heard. But so fucking what? I was going to a rock show, not a political rally.

And if I was going to a U2 show (ha! Fat chance now), I’d expect to get a lecture about Bono’s socio-economic pet peeve of the day. I’m sure there are some right-wingers who enjoy their music but could live without the prosthelytizing. But just like me going to a Ted Nugent show, they oughtta know by now what they’re getting into.

Basically, Ted is just a right-wing Arlo Guthrie. Unapologetically right-wing (think Tea Party plus bow-hunting minus God), he wears his politics on his sleeve and doesn’t give a damn what if any professional blowback occurs because of his candor.

I should also point out that while we learned that in addition to freedom, Ted likes dead things (a lot) and hates Obama (a lot!), he didn’t draw any connection between the latter two opinions, not even with a wink or a nudge. Maybe Ted just doesn’t want the Secret Service up his ass, but I prefer to believe that although he is heavily into dead things—particularly dead things which he has killed personally and plans to eat—he is enough of an honest-to-God patriot to not wish a fatal misfortune upon the nation’s Commander-in-Chief.

Although the song he dedicated to Obama, “Clusterfuck Me,” wasn’t exactly filled with the milk of human kindness.

Throughout the show, Nugent paused for colorfully-worded rants about issues of the day, the way he always has. Ted’s “raps” have always been a highlight of his live shows. Don’t believe me? Download 1978’s “Live Gonzo” from iTunes. Ted’s always had a motor-mouth befitting the self-styled Motor City Madman.

And speaking of Nugent’s native Motor City, he did a section in the middle of the concert that included an apparently sincere shout-out to all the black musicians who had already made Detroit famous for great music before he came along. He name-checked more soul artists than I can remember or even recognized, to the roar of the crowd, then he and his tight-knit 3-piece band tore through a medley of soul hits from Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man” to other tunes of the same ilk and era (whose names I am ashamed to admit were either unfamiliar or have slipped my mind).

So if you’re keeping score at home, you can put Nugent down for gun nut, necrophile of some sort, lover of Freedom, America and his native American spirit guide (I am not making this part up), but no fan of racism. I think that last counts in his favor. I’m not sure it balances out pretending to remove his middle finger from his anus and offering it to Obama by name. To the roar of the crowd. But it ought to be taken into account.

But like I told The Last Boy Scout prior to heading to the show, going to a Ted Nugent performance and being offended by his between-song patter is like going to a Tea Party rally and being shocked—shocked!—to find out there are Obama-as-Hitler placards there. It’s all part of the show.

As frankly off-putting as what much of what Ted says is, as the weenie, left-wing, First Amendment-hugging liberal that I am, I have to applaud his right to go so far out on the fringe—did I mention the prop Tommy Guns adorning the stage set? And the fact that he brandished them toward the end of the show, exhorting the crowd into a frenzy of Second Amendmentphilia? He’s right when he says this is what America is about. The right to say the dumb shit he says, as well as his right to bear toystore ordnance on stage.

That’s rock & roll, baby. Ted thinks that’s what America’s all about, too, and I’d be hard-pressed to disagree with him.