| Kasim Sulton's Set List: Don't Hold Me Back Before She Was Gone Sacrifice
Meat Loaf's Set List
Johnny Be Good |
 |
| Kasim Sulton's Set List: Don't Hold Me Back Before She Was Gone Sacrifice
Meat Loaf's Set List
Johnny Be Good |
|
Although the audience were the most staid, this was probably the most amusing of the six concerts that I've seen so far on this tour! Some people in the front row were even told by security to sit down as the people behind them couldn't see! Towards the end of the set though Meat Loaf told us all to come up to the barrier (the stage was about 8 foot high again and there was the pit in front of that and a lower canopy where the cameramen stood so they were a long way off!).
The opening act, The Real People, just do not improve no matter how many times I hear their songs!
Thankfully at 8.00pm sharp they introduced Kasim so he walked on stage wearing a black top with dark mauve trousers. He introduced himself by saying that he is Meat Loaf's bass player and then launched into Don't Hold Me Back! Unfortunately his voice wasn't perfect all the way through for that song (he does play his own solo set, Patti's set and then sings an awful lot of vocals throughout all of Meat Loaf's set - he's actually on stage for longer than any of them!) but for his other two songs, he was note perfect! Afterwards a guy was asking me if Don't Hold Me Back will be on Quid Pro Quo and when I said that it's on The Basement Tapes, he asked how he could buy that (www.SlickMusic.com)!
Kasim next told us about Quid Pro Quo and sang Before She Was gone from the album! After the first verse and chorus, John Miceli joined in on the drums and Mark Alexander played the keyboards which sounded beautiful! Although John won't be joining Kasim at any of his gigs this Autumn, Mark will be playing at all but two of them (plus Doug Kennedy on guitar too of course!) and after hearing Before She Was Gone with the keyboards is making me look forward even more to the gigs! I just wish that there was more of them!
Before She Was Gone received a great round of applause and then Kasim played his newest song Sacrifice which possibly received even more applause (although this may have been because Kasim was walking off stage at the end of his great set too)! I find that each time I hear that song I notice something new in it - the words especially are very clever and poignant!
Within about 30 seconds (just as the applause for Kasim had died down) they announced Patti Russo and she took the stage. As I was too busy watching a member of "her" band, I didn't realise that her microphone wasn't working (Kasim uses his own microphone for his set) but, of course, that band member had noticed so he soon walked over to the techs and got it switched on. It then became time for Kasim, John Golden and Mark Alexander to sing and their microphones weren't switched on either!
Eventually all the equipment was functioning fully and Patti sang her three songs. The first one she sings is Tie Your Mother Down but the second two Madeline and another one she actually wrote (and I assume that Kasim helped with the arranging as he produced her demo) - out of the three I prefer her third one best.
Although it must be really tough playing with just an acoustic guitar and his voice to 7,000 Meat Loaf fans (as it was tonight) in some ways Kasim receives a better reaction on stage than Patti does as by the time she comes on stage (and not everybody knows who she is) the audience have already endured the opening act and (thoroughly enjoyed) Kasim's set so they just want to see Meat Loaf by then!
At about 8.25pm the drumming tape started and Meat Loaf walked on stage (security had moaned to me earlier that Meat's dressing room is only about 30 feet from the stage but he had insisted on using a golf buggy to travel the distance - they called him a "prima donna"!). There then proceeded to be one of the longest intros into Life Is A Lemon as most of this Welsh crowd were very staid and took ages to get whipped up! Eventually Meat must have decided that they were excited enough so he started the song by hitting his drum which brings Mark onto the stage for a few bars of some classical music before John Miceli, Patti Russo and Pearl Aday start their drumming. Mark then moves to another drum and OOMS plays some great bass rifts at the left side of the stage with the spotlight on him! Kasim then moves in front of the drums while John Golden (who later also plays a drum) and Damon La Scott are highlighted. All in all, it probably takes about ten minutes before the singing of the song actually starts!
One of the annoying things I find about a Meat Loaf show is that he spends so long actually finishing a song (he makes the band hold the end chord for ages) that most people have already finished clapping when the song is actually over! That's probably why they only leave about three seconds before they start the next song! Crazy About A Mercury was next and I've finally realised that a Mercury must be some type of car (I'm a bit slow on the uptake!) as they sing about cruising in a mercury - I thought it was something to do with thermometers as it's difficult to make out all of the words!
Next was Lawyers, Guns and Money and Tear Me Down (I'm still not over keen on that one even though Kasim does sing most of the vocals with Meat Loaf!) before a really funny thing happened! At all the UK concerts they've next played DeadRinger For Love but tonight John Miceli started played All Revved Up. As I can't stand DeadRinger I was quite pleased as I hoped that they would reinstate Rock and Roll Dreams but then I realised that something was happening on stage as all the band started talking to each other quite avidly - John had started playing the wrong song! They continued with All Revved Up (which the audience really enjoyed as it was the first song that most of them will have recognised) before (unfortunately!) singing DeadRinger For Love.
Next they got back on track by playing Anything For Love but I was surprised to see that even after Damon had started the intro into the song, John Golden had to ask Kasim which song they were playing!
Of course Paradise By The Dashboard Light followed next and then they brought out the stools. Meat Loaf then made his appeal for bras but probably the least of the tour were thrown however he soon got Kasim on stage to tie them to his microphone stand - I bet there are times that he hates his job! It was then that Meat told us to stand at the barrier and made a few disparaging comments about the security people! Eventually he got one of their yellow jackets, said that they looked like bumble bees and buzzed around the stage (digital cameras weren't allowed at this concert so I couldn't take any photos of this part even if I'd wanted).
Meat Loaf next introduced all the band (John Miceli was introduced as "John which song are we playing Miceli"!) before playing Two Outta Three Ain't Bad. In the middle of that song, after the rift, Meat Loaf suddenly called out "We're playing Two Outta Three John!". The staid audience actually sang this quite well so Meat sat on some boxes below the stage (and got Patti to join him there) before they started I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth) but, of course, Meat reckoned that he's heard someone call out the name of another song! He then made the usual comment that as it was his birthday today he would sing that song and at that point a birthday cake was produced from backstage! It was a large strawberry flan type and I wasn't sure what he was going to do with it (both Kasim and John Golden were off their stools and were backing away at this point too!) but Meat Loaf just put his face into the cake!
All too soon for me it was time for the great Bat Out Of Hell! Several of us doubted whether they would come back on stage (one person commented "this crowd don't deserve an encore"!) but they did so we got to hear Johnny Be Good again! Right at the end Meat Loaf did one of his famous rolls across the stage - he's surprisingly agile for someone so large (even though he does only roll across his shoulders).
Only one more concert of this part of the tour....roll on Liverpool tomorrow!
Video Clips
These are 15 second video clips which will take about 5 minutes each to download on a normal modem.
"My name is Kasim...."
"....no promise or guarantee...."
The end of Don't Hold Me Back
"....Quid Pro Quo...."
The start of Before She Was Gone
The Kasim Sulton Trio !!
The beautiful music of the Kasim Sulton Trio
Before She Was Gone - with eyes open!
Kasim thanking "his band"
The start of Sacrifice
A close up of Sacrifice