Another great concert but unfortunately with the worst audience that there has been this tour! Nobody stood during Home By Now / No Matter What and it took a few of us hardened concert goers to even get them up for Life Is a Lemon! As soon as a ballad started a lot of the audience sat again. how can they sit through a Meat Loaf concert?! Their only redeeming factor was that they managed to sing the part in Two Outta Three without too much prompting from Meat Loaf!
It seemed to be the concert of new hairstyles too as not only had Pearl had her hair straightened but Kasim was sporting a new hairstyle too! It was shorter than in Germany and reminded me a lot of a style he had when he was with Joan Jett. It really suited him! The leather coat made a reappearance with his usual black trousers and the red / black / brown jumper.
It was the nice short version of Paradise again (long may it continue!) and You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth was the best version that I've ever heard because Kasim somehow went wrong and ended up singing You Took the Words during a the chorus when the rest of the band were quiet so it sounded like a descant! As it sounded so good, he just kept singing it, much to Meat Loaf's surprise and then approval!
I did enjoy the concert but I was just so disappointed with the UK audience. When Meat Loaf asked for requests in the acoustic part, he asked if anybody had asked for Modern Girl and there was just silence so he decided not to play it! I just hope tonight's audience at the same place are more receptive!
This was the first rescheduled date and I wasn't sure what to expect after Meat’s illness and cancellations but it was absolutely brilliant.
It started as usual with the simulated thunderstorm and supposed electrical fault during which Meat comes on stage and sits on his rock. After singing No Matter What and Life is a Lemon they play Dead Ringer For Love. At the beginning of this Kasim tries to get Meat to look over at the girls on the other side but Meat tells him to keep playing. When Meat finally notices them he has a go at Kasim for not pointing them out earlier, where Kasim clearly replies " I told you that". Meat also swigs down the remainder of Patti’s drink to the applause of the audience. After standing on the stairs by John and dancing Meat carries on.
After Dead Ringer come the powerful ballads I'd Lie for You & I'd do Anything For Love. The tempo rises as they play Lawyers, Guns and Money, which gets better every time I hear it, followed by Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams. During this song Meat goes up to John’s drums and starts bashing away making John flinch. They then play the new single Is Nothing Sacred followed by a shorter but still entertaining Paradise. The verbal arguments at the end have disappeared and there is more singing.
The band went off and the stage was prepared for the acoustic set. Meat then apologised and thanked us for being very patient during his illness. The band were then introduced one by one and the acoustics started. These included 16 Tons, Honky Tonk Woman, I Love Rock n Roll (Pearl sang this solo and it suited her better than Mercedes Benz ), 2 out of 3 and finally You took the Words. This was a shorter acoustic session than the other shows but still very good.
Bat Out Of Hell ended it all with the usual appearance of Bob the bat dancing behind John. Then there was a nice surprise as the whole band came out for another encore which consisted of Summertime Blues and Roll Over Beethoven.
All in all another great show with Meat back to his best
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After waiting over a month to see the band play again I have to say that it was well worth it! Meat Loaf's voice is back to full strength and Kas looked as good as ever! They even came back on to do a couple of Rock'n'Roll songs after Bat Out of Hell!
The new beginning of DeadRinger is so funny as the guys (Meat Loaf, Kas, Damen and Ray) stand at the right of the stage with the girls (Patti, Pearl and Andrea the wardrobe girl) on the left. Kas spots them first and points them out to Meat but he ignores him as he's playing his guitar. When Damen shows them to Meat, Meat turned round and started shouting at Kas for not seeing them! Kas shouts back that he'd tried to tell Meat!
I was surprised that the audience were so reluctant to stand during the concert: I don't remember the Wembley or Birmingham audiences showing such reticence. However the greatest disappointment this tour must be Patti's clothes as they are so dull. Apart from the wedding dress, all her clothes are black and not even revealing - she's even recycled some clothes from other tours too!
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