While Toby Keith's performance at the Bradley Center Friday had heaps of entertainment value, excellent music and political statements, it lacked passion from the headline performer.

Keith's portion of the show opened with two columns of fire blasting up from the stage while fireworks shot across the back. Throughout the show, fireworks, confetti and neon lights dazzled the audience.

His songs, with the exception of one, are all at least co-written by Keith and are passionate about their subjects — mostly drinking, women and the U.S. of A.

But throughout the show, Keith showed little facial expression, creating a disjunction between the well-performed songs and the singer himself.

The exception to this was in the encore, during which he sang two of his more recent and controversial songs — "American Soldier" and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)."

Bringing the 90-minute performance to an end, Keith played the song on a flag-decorated guitar while footage from his USO tour with Ted Nugent, the show's opening act, played on video screens. Fireworks and red, white and blue confetti ended the set with a bang.

Keith, a self-proclaimed "redneck," entertained the crowd with 18 of his most popular, honky-tonk songs, including "Whiskey Girl," "I Love This Bar" and "Beer for My Horses."

His live performance added interesting vocal touches to the well-known songs, as well as inserting local references. For example, in "I Love This Bar," he changed the lyrics at one point to say "We got cheese heads…," getting an enthusiastic reaction from the crowd.

He also encouraged the audience to sing along to hits such as "How Do You Like Me Now" and introduced the title song from his newest CD, Honky-tonk University, which will be released May 17 through DreamWorks Records.

Throughout the show, the 10-piece Easy Money Band supported the singer with trumpet, trombone, sax, guitars, drums and more. The band was careful never to overshadow Keith and enhanced his lead vocals.

In contrast to the headliner, Nugent opened the show with sharp political commentary that overshadowed the music of his 45-minute set.

He set the scene with speakers covered in camouflage netting and guns scattered on the stage. At one point he even picked up a rifle and called out, "Hey Gov. Doyle, ban that," in reference to the gun.

Nugent's rock portion of the show may have been a surprise to a crowd expecting a country show, although he did perform a tribute to Fred Bear, bow hunting and the wild with the "Wisconsin blood brothers theme song."

His final song, addressed to "the rest of the world," was an over-the-top condemnation of politicians around the world. The song, "Kiss My Ass," included references to the United Nations, John Kerry, Gov. Doyle and Ted Kennedy.

He followed this by lowering a cardboard likeness of Saddam Hussein and shooting an arrow directly into his heart with a flag-motif bow then walking off the stage.

Fortunately, Keith's performance, entertaining songs and the audience's enthusiasm overcame Nugent's opening to end the night with a positive experience.

Grade: B

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 24 2005.