Mid Hudson Civic Center
It started with the usual introduction and warning not to request any song and then Home by Now / No Matter What which went straight into the "tribal drumming" intro of Life is a Lemon. Generally I think the light show for this tour is very good as it's slightly understated (thankfully the lights aren't dimmed for the line "fade to black" as they were on previous tours) but during Lemon there are loads of flashing lights - the front row is not the place for an epileptic during that part!
Yet again some people who were in the front row arrived late (no, they weren't stooges) and were entrapped into requesting a song so all the audience shouted at them "F**k you!".
The first two audience chosen songs were Heaven Can Wait and Anything for Love so I was beginning to have a feeling of deja vous from the Trump show! Either the blackboard was repaired or they have a new one as it was dragged out again for the "that" explanation. The person who asked the question was called Danni but Meat misheard her as Sandy so he tried to rub out her name on the blackboard but the eraser had no effect at all which was hilarious!
After the Poughkeepsie Meat Loaf Choir singing You Took the Words, someone asked about Objets in the Rear View Mirror may Appear Closer Than They Are. I think this was only the second time this tour that they've sung it and this time they performed the first and third verses (the other time it was the first and second ones). At the beginning there was just some swirling lights on Tom on the piano and Meat said that he liked the atmosphere it created but that he needed more light to read the lyrics! It was interesting to see during the song that Kasim sang all of Meat's part of the chorus and some of the verse with him (Meat actually indicated for him to sing louder at one point) but in the third verse when Meat sings "See her rising up" in time to the drum beat, he mistimed it so he stopped the song and he re-sang it correctly. Unfortunately he then also forgot the words "It was long ago and it was far away" so again Kasim had to help him out! He really does rely on his Musical Director!
Someone, quite early on in the concert, mentioned Staten Island so Meat immediately introduced Kasim as coming from Staten Island and then introduced the rest of the band! Again Ray supposedly was born in Poughkeepsie!
Meat got someone on stage to sing Hot Pattotie with him using Patti's microphone and it really showed what a strong voice Patti has as we could hardly hear this girl singing.
The original Paradise lady refused to straddle and kiss the guy on the desk so he again asked for a volunteer from the audience. The girl who became "the straddler" was another great outgoing person who was obviously not wearing a bra under her jumper which really amused ALL the band - John even used some binoculars too!!
We actually had a two song encore tonight as Meat explained that nobody had asked about Two Outta Three but that back in 1975 someone (I forget her name) had asked Jim Steinman if he could write a song as simple as Elvis Presley's song I Want You, I Love You, I Need You. Apparently Jim replied that he couldn't but he could write "I want you, I need you, But there ain't no way I'm Ever going to Love you - Two Outta Three Ain't Bad"! After this they went straight into All Revved Up which is a great rocking way to end the concert but I still miss the bat in Bat Out of Hell!
Kasim was wearing a red patterned shiny velvet type loose shirt with his black trousers and he really did carry the concert tonight!
