Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert Rock Out TPUSA All-American Halftime Show

While there was a lot of attention on the build-up to the Turning Point USA All-American Halftime Show this year, alternative productions are actually not new.

There have been special episodes of shows like "In Living Color," "Beavis & Butthead," or "Saturday Night Live" that aired. Everyone loves the Puppy Bowl, that's probably the best known of the alternatives. But everyone from WWE and Victoria's Secret have all gotten in on the action. There are scores of others.

But Sunday's TPUSA show was a bit different, as it marked the first time a full counter-concert was being aired while the main show played on NBC. The virtual event was streamed live on TPUSA's YouTube channel, as well as a few other outlets, like on X.

The late Charlie Kirk's TPUSA organization pulled out all the stops for this one, with Kid Rock headlining the country-rock heavy event. Joining him were country stars Brantley Gilbert, Gabby Barret and Lee Brice.

Notably, things kicked off a little early for TPUSA, as the game had yet to actually go to halftime when a countdown timer on screen reached 0. But they smartly waited with an "Event Starting Soon" banner while the football game finished out the final 2 minutes of the first half. It took another 15 minutes of real time to finish that 2 minutes out (largely thank to a handful of late-drive timeouts and an instant replay review of a catch). But with Seattle up 9-0 over New England at halftime, things were finally able to get going.

A new 30-second countdown appeared and it was time.

The show was held in a live indoor venue (though it was not disclosed if the show was live, or pre-recorded), with a small audience. The staging and set design definitely had a high-end professional quality. An electric guitar rendition of the National Anthem from the members of Brantley Gilbert's band got the show started with a bang.

Gilbert was the first performer after that, taking the stage to pyrotechnics with his full band, giving a patriotic version of "Real American." It was clear that patriotism and American roots were going to be the big theme from the start.

Gilbert followed that with Jason Aldean's "Dirt Road Anthem," which he co-wrote for Aldean with Colt Ford. That was it for Gilbert, and the room went dark before Gabby Barrett appeared on stage immediately. This was our first clue that this was a pre-recorded event, as the stage switch happened immediate.

Barrett opened with her biggest hit on country radio, the jilted lover anthem "I Hope." Definitely not fitting with the core theme, but a strong performance from Barrett. She followed that with her second-biggest hit, "The Good Ones."

Another instantaneous band change later, and Lee Brice was on stage for his 7-minute set, immediately belting into one of his big hits, "Drinking Class."

After that song, he gave a short tribute to Charlie Kirk for giving people a microphone to share what's on their mind. "And this is what's on my mind now," Brice said before singing a new track called "Country Nowadays." It's set to be released on Brice's next album, and it's filled with cultural touchstone moments, and political statements.

After that, Brice closed out with his biggest hit, "Hard to Love." And then it was time for the big gun, Kid Rock.

Rock opened with a leap from the floor, and launched into "Bawitdaba," one of the biggest songs of his early career.

The tone drastically changed after that with strings playing essentially a full song that Kid Rock has been playing at some concerts recently, a cover of Cody Johnson's No. 1 hit "Til You Can't."

Kid Rock was then reintroduced as "Our brother Robert Ritchie," his real name. He then sang a stripped-down version of "Til You Can't." A new verse appeared during a live November performance of the song, and it was included here as well as a tribute to Charlie Kirk. The verse speaks of getting your Bible out and reading it.

It was during this performance that the football game kicked back off. The TPUSA show abruptly ended after that song, going into a tribute to Charlie Kirk.

With a country artist not having played the Super Bowl halftime since Shania Twain rocked out in 2003, the hunger for an alternative option had certainly grown. We'll see if this was a start of a new option of alternative halftime programming, or a one-off.