A show by rowdy Detroit rock band Dirty Americans Friday night at the Elbow Room promises to start Labor Day weekend off with a bang.

Dirty Americans’ rock credentials include tours in the United States and the U.K. with Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker, and appearances at a variety of festivals including the Festimad Festival with Jet and Ben Harper, the Stooges reunion, the Summer Sonic Festival with Green Day and the Detroit Harley Festival.

To add to their credits, the band’s songs can be heard in the PlayStation 2 games “American Chopper,” “Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey,” “ATV3” and “Gran Tourismo 4.”

Dirty Americans grew out of another, even harder-rocking outfit called Workhorse Movement, explained founder Matt Kozuch. “This is quite a bit more laid back than what Workhorse was … with Workhorse, we were out touring with Slayer and Metallica. This is a little more groovy, kind of a stoner vibe. … Some of it is, I don’t know, kind of like biker rock. (A) fast, rockin’ thing, you know? Makes you want to drive fast,” he said.

Besides Kozuch, the band includes Jeff “Freedom” Piper, Jeremiah Pilbeam and Patrick Bever.

The band got its name came when the group advertised for a drummer. Pilbeam responded and, when asked what type of band he'd like to be in, he replied “a band that just plays dirty American rock.” The name evolved from there, said Kozuch.

Kozuch has fond memories of the gig with hometown boy Iggy Pop, which took place in Turin, Italy, in 2006, in front of around 25,000 people.

“They wanted to make it a Michigan thing, so it was us and them” he said. “It was cool to even see the Stooges back together, and then we get to open the show and spend three days in Italy. Man, that was something else.”

Although they are fans, don’t expect to hear the band cover The Stooges’ iconic “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

“That was something we talked about a while ago, then Darren McCarty started doing that with Grinder (and) he’s doing a great job of it. We can’t do it now, that’s his thing. We’ll just leave that one alone,” Kozuch said.

Mostly, the band performs originals, with each member contributing to the songwriting duties. Occasionally, said Kozuch, they’ll throw in a cover “if we’re goofing around, or for an encore” (Neil Young’s “Ohio,” and Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” show up as live clips on YouTube).

Another Michigan performer, soul-influenced rocker Brandon Calhoon, who has played often with Dirty Americans, will open the Ypsilanti show (check out “Detroit City,” on his MySpace page). The Auctioneers are also on the bill.

Kozuch agreed that music along the lines of what Dirty Americans plays is getting harder to find these days.

“That’s probably why people are flocking to us like they are. There isn’t that much going on like what we’re doing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Elbow Room crowd can expect to hear tracks from the Dirty Americans’ forthcoming LP, “Black Feather,” which is in the final stages of production (a previous full-length CD, “Strange Generation,” was recorded in 2003). “We’ll probably be trying out all these new songs, people will get to hear quite a bit of the new album before it’s out,” Kozuch said. “Ann Arbor is definitely a good place to try some experiments.”

Roger LeLievre is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.