Photo by John von Pey
After 85 consecutive days of 9 hour shifts at work (since Cologne!) I didn’t take too much persuading to take the day off for a quick jaunt to Amsterdam! It was a lovely Spring day so about 10 of us sat outside for a staggered lunch as each of us arrived and a load of chat (me about Kasim, the others about Meat Loaf!).
Having meet Meat Loaf a few times before and not wanting to risk spoiling a lovely day, I opted not to go to the Meet and Greet but instead started queuing at about 6.15pm. I’m using queuing in the most loose sense of the word as Europeans don’t queue as we know it but rather congregate around the doors ready to dash in with sharpened elbows!
They seemed to have the policy that cheaper cameras were allowed but more expensive, more professional looking ones weren’t allowed. As I wanted to just enjoy this concert (and my car was broken into during the Dutch part of the NOTP tour) I had left my camera at home but I think that I must have an honest looking face as she just asked me if I had any cameras or cans and didn’t search me!
In the foyer they were selling the CD (both single and album) and some T-shirts (both the old design and some new 03 ones). I was told that the venue held about 5,000 but wasn’t (quite) sold out. The question that most of my lunch companions were asking was why this concert was being held? We weren’t complaining but the January concert in Cologne was touted as a promotional concert with lots of tickets going to the media but there was none of that for this gig.
I probably got into the inner sanctum by about 6.50pm and “somehow” just managed to stand on Kasim’s side of the stage. I was about 4 rows back which was just perfect and it appeared that all the tall Dutch people had considerately decided not to hog the front rows so I could see perfectly! Another bonus was that the stage was literally twice the height of the Cologne stage which was a relief. As the rest of my friends were standing in the middle the next hour dragged by as my feet got more and more tired and my back ached more and more. To make it worse, I couldn’t even listen into any conversations as they were all talking in some foreign language!
Probably at about 8.10pm the drumming backing tape started and soon Meat Loaf walked on stage to commence his pacing and starring at the crowd. Tonight it was an incredible crowd as they didn’t need any incitement at all before they were all whipped up into a frenzy. It was only a few seconds before Meat Loaf started doing his one side against the other (shouting) thing…. Kasim’s side of the stage won (with no help from me!).
Eventually Meat Loaf bashed his drum so Mark Alexander played his classical bit on the piano before John Miceli, Patti Russo and Sarah Douglas started banging their drums too (later John Golden also plays a drum). They’ve really perfected the lighting on the drums as they are all lit in such a way to reflect the drummers’ faces and make it appear when they are drumming fast that the sticks are just a rod of fire!
Eventually (it seemed to me!) I saw a flash of blue and Kasim came to the front of the stage to play a few bars of bass right in the centre of the stage (where he belongs). I’m not sure if it was my imagination or not but his part always seems shorter than either Paul Crook’s or John Golden’s (I always thought that during The Ikon on Todd Rundgren’s Power Trio Tour too!).
Tonight Kasim was wearing a black shirt over a black T-shirt (the first time I remember seeing him wearing that combination) and, inevitably, the promo tour light blue jeans (apparently they’re being called the eighth member of the band now!).
Life Is A Lemon is a great song to start the concert with and, even though it’s not been released as a single, most people in the audiences always seem to know it or maybe they just react to it’s great beat. Tonight they went back to fading to black for the “fade to black” line and used the tape for the “ohhs” near the beginning.
Before the song by song review a few general points are that this was one of my favourite Meat Loaf concerts. Meat Loaf made LOADS of mistakes but, for me, that really made the concert as he just seemed to laugh at the mistakes (whereas if there’s a mistake by one of the band or with the sound, they get a glare enough to curdle milk). One of my German friends (who has seen almost as many Meat Loaf concerts as I have) disliked the concert because of the mistakes but, having seen virtually the same set several times last Summer (other than the two newest tracks), I really enjoyed this particular concert. It’s usually a case of whatever “my German friend” likes, I dislike and vice versa (whether it be concerts, bass players or the best way to drive to Erie) but we both agreed that this audience were one of the best that either of us had ever seen! As I tend to zone out Meat Loaf’s voice I have to rely on what other people tell me and three long time fans that were there all said that Meat Loaf’s voice was not at his best tonight (they all said that he sounded better in Cologne).
The other thing that I really liked at this concert was the atmosphere on stage as ALL of the band (apart from possibly Sarah) looked really relaxed and as though they were ALL actually enjoying it! At the Cologne concert, I felt that you could have cut the atmosphere on stage with a knife as they all looked quite tense but tonight they all looked far better! This was SO emphasised when they played Couldn’t Have Said It Better - in Cologne they all looked tense, nervous and very static as they sang it but tonight it seemed to be a totally different song to me – they all seemed to enjoy playing it and that showed in the sound too.
Before the concert there were all sorts of rumours and speculation circulating about why Pearl Aday wasn’t at the concert. Due to where I was standing I couldn’t see Sarah Douglas (Pearl’s replacement) for most of the concert but all the rest of the 10 people or so that I was “with” commented that they preferred Pearl. Although it was her first full concert with the band, they all said that Sarah was very shy, static and sometimes didn’t even appear to be bothering too much! (I heard the comments that she had to be told to pick up her tambourine and soon flagged on the drumming part – a couple of days later someone even remarked that holding Kasim’s microphone on the bus was about the only suitable role in the band for her! Ouch!)
The thing that struck me was that I wasn’t even sure if Sarah’s microphone was switched on during the concert. Obviously I could hear Kasim singing clearly, plus Patti and even John Golden at times (Mark Alexander only sings occasionally) but I didn’t hear Sarah’s voice once during the whole set. When Meat Loaf got Sarah to speak the Tear Me Down speech, he moved her to Kasim’s microphone .....but then later Kasim went to Sarah’s mike and sang Johnnie Be Good (although I don’t recall hearing his voice either during the song).
After Life Is A Lemon they played the first of the four “new” tracks that we were promised, Crazy About A Mercury, followed by the track that Meat Loaf has said that he HAS to play in Europe (even though it’s one I can’t stand!) DeadRinger For Love.
Next they played Tear Me Down but when the girls (Patti and Sarah) went to the front of the stage with their large Post It notepads for the speech part of the song, the speech never came over the PA! I don’t quite know what happened but Meat Loaf started saying some of the speech (mainly the part about him) which was funny! After the song Meat Loaf halted the concert and said that he was going to correct it so he got Kasim to stand at the front of the stage with Sarah’s Post It notepad while he moved Sarah to Kasim’s microphone for her to do the speech. Not only did he look far sexier than any of the three girls who have done it(!), he also had to help Sarah and Meat Loaf with the words a few times when they forgot the speech! (However he did race ahead a bit at one point as he turned over two pages instead of one!) That’s one of the things that never ceases to amaze me about Kasim as not only does he perform his own part perfectly in whichever band he plays in but he always seems to know the other parts perfectly too as he’ll cover for Meat Loaf or Todd Rundgren or whoever he’s playing with!
Next they performed Couldn’t Have Said It Better and, as I wrote earlier, it seemed a totally different song to how they played it at Cologne as they were all far more relaxed and confident. It also seemed to go on for ages too (not that I’m complaining!). Although the album hasn’t been out for too long in Holland, everybody around me was singing along to this particular song which was brilliant to hear!
Twice during All Revved Up Meat Loaf went wrong! On both occasions Kasim had to put him back on track! It always amazes me that it’s the older songs that Meat Loaf seems to get wrong and yet he was word perfect during Couldn’t Have Said It Better and Did I Say That?
It wasn’t until Anything For Love that Kasim could have his first cigarette break of the concert(!). It was funny to watch as he played the opening music and then while Meat Loaf was doing the slow singing part, Kasim had about 5 quick puffs before playing most of the song! He then went back to finish the cigarette while Meat Loaf and Patti Russo were doing the “screwing around” part! As that bit dragged on a bit Kasim sat on one of the boxes at the side of the stage, watching, until he was required to play again! Later, when Meat Loaf introduced the band and then brought his fiancé Deborah onto stage, Kasim again sat on the boxes! He wouldn’t last standing up for 5 hours for the concert and the wait beforehand!
Paradise By The Dashboard Light was long and predictable as ever…..the only new part was that at one point, Patti sat on Meat Loaf’s back as he was on all 4s on the stage.
It was obvious towards the end of the concert that they played songs out of order as Meat Loaf said that they were going to play different songs to what they actually did play! Meat Loaf did say that he’ll play For Crying Out Loud when he plays Holland on the tour in December (not that any concerts have been booked in that country yet!).
Bat Out Of Hell was just brilliant tonight but it helps that it’s one of my favourite Meat Loaf songs! A couple of people remarked after Cologne that Paul Crook rather messed up the guitar solos (they were edited out of the radio broadcast) but tonight he played it perfectly. Kasim always seems to sing that song really enthusiastically – I’m not sure if he actually likes it or whether it’s because it means that it’s near the end of the concert!
However not tonight as after Bat Out Of Hell they started playing I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth) but it was obvious that Meat Loaf had totally forgotten the words! He did say that he’d sing it in December though! (It was interesting during that song to see Kasim talk Paul Crook through the song – I wonder how many songs Kasim knows in his head?!!).
After Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad, they played Johnnie Be Good and Meat Loaf brought a Dutch DJ (whose name I forget) on stage to sing too. As he used Kasim’s microphone, Kasim had to share Sarah’s.
Too soon for me (but not too soon for my feet!) it was time for Kasim to do his jump in front of the drums to signal the end of the song (and for me to take 11 hours to get home due to very dense fog throughout Belgium and France)!
Roll on the tour…..!
More photos will be added later