State Theatre
The audience tonight were the most receptive of the tour as they all stood during both Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Bat Out of Hell which they haven't done at other venues. Unfortunately the questions / comments were very lame and the songs they requested weren't very inspired (they didn't have to use the songbook once tonight!) but perhaps it was just the people that Meat Loaf chose!
A pleasant surprise was Hot Pattotie, Bless My Soul from The Rocky Horror Picture Show as somebody asked about the film. Meat reckoned that it wasn't until 5.00 today at the rehearsal that Kasim decided that they should do an arrangement for it as he thought that someone would ask for it tonight(?!).
Again Meat played Rock and Roll Dreams without anybody requesting it and it was interesting to watch him obviously tell Kasim during I'd Lie For You that they were going to go straight into Dreams and then Kasim went around the rest of the band telling them! They really extend the end of that track (as they did in Europe) and Meat is always breathless afterwards! A potentially ominous note as Meat said that he had a slight sore throat!
The encore tonight was Midnight at the Lost and Found and the way it performed was so effective! They had the hand clapping intro again but it started with John on his own on the drums, then Patti walked on stage clapping followed by Damon and Ray. Pearl walked on clapping next and then Tom ran / skipped on and finally Kasim and they all stood there clapping until after Meat had sung a couple of lines. They also changed the arrangement of the song itself as it wasn't as fast as at the other concerts on this tour and Damon didn't do his fast lead into it but I liked it!
The couple who re-enacted Paradise tonight were probably the best we've had yet and the trio who sang You Took the Words sounded so good that Meat had them singing for a couple of minutes by themselves while he got other people up on the stage!
Meat came in too early for one line during Bat Out of Hell so the band just sang the line in the correct place and Kasim came over so clearly which was wonderful!
Although I complained about the scheduling of this concert (look at a
map!!), it was one of the better concerts so far on this tour and well
worth the 650 mile trip!
