Aire Crown Theatre
The Arie Theatre was a large (probably seated about 3,000) ultra modern building with a problem that loads of theatres have - parking! It was on Lake Shore Drive, nowhere near any other buildings but they seemed to have only one entrance to the underground car park! And they charged $10 which is a lot if there's only one of you in the car! It was nice to see several band members wandering around the foyer before the concert - John even seemed to be handing out the questionnaires!
This was one of the better concerts of the tour but it was a concert of mishaps! To start, Meat's microphone kept cutting out when he was giving us the no request instructions! A roadie gave him another one but this wouldn't work either so eventually he used one with a lead!
The second mishap happened when Kasim bounded (as he always does!) onto stage! Unfortunately a roadie was just walking off stage at that point and the lights were off for a second so they collided! Fortunately Kasim didn't seem hurt and was laughing about it!
At recent concerts most songs have been played as a result of a question from the audience but tonight at least the first four songs were from actual stories! I think the first story is best left unsaid (it concerns the bursting Levis part of the song!) but it was great to hear For Crying Out Loud again! It was probably one of the best renditions of the song as Meat didn't make any mistakes - as he says, it's probably one of the hardest songs to sing!
I'll Kill You if You Don't Come Back was next and, as Meat put it, "it sucked"! The band and Meat listened to it through their earpieces but they played it faster than how it is on the DeadRinger album and Meat just didn't know where to put the emphasis in the chorus. It was a shame as I like that track too.....
It wasn't the worst attempt of the night though as someone mentioned Nowhere Fast. Again they listened to the track as Meat kept talking but Meat got totally lost in the song so he got the girl who "requested" it to come up on stage and she virtually did a solo of it with Meat just helping out in the chorus! She was very good!
For You Took the Words, Meat got a girl and then her mother to lie on the piano for the "Hot Summer Night" speech. He also got his (extremely reluctant) wife Leslie on stage for that song and she looked really uncomfortable there! It was another free for all to become a member of the Meat Loaf Chicago Pops Choir and two young girls stood just behind Meat while he was ad-libbing before the band join in. Poor Kasim had to stand right on the edge of the stage (so that he could see Meat's mouth and hand signals to indicate to John when to play louder) because of one of these girls! When Meat did indicate he raised his hand in the air and hit the girl in the mouth with his microphone! (Mishap number three!) One of the choir started ad-libbing at the end of the song and she sounded really good so Meat let her continue!
Most of the band (Meat, Kasim, Patti, Tom, Damen and Pearl) were wearing all black tonight! Ray had on a silver top and John wore a sweatshirt with an Indian on it (from one sports team) and then had a Chicago Bulls T-shirt on underneath! Pearl's hair was curly again.
The final mishap of the concert occurred when somebody mentioned DeadRinger and then the next person spoke about Objects in the Rear View Mirror. Tom was sitting at the piano to play Objects when Meat decided to play DeadRinger first so Tom quickly got up to return to his keyboards on the shelf and slipped and nearly fell on some spilt beer on the stage! It's really great to hear Objects as Kasim's voice comes over so clearly in that track!
The Paradise couple tonight were good but subdued - they didn't need any prompting to kiss but that was about all they did do! Meat went into the audience during the Phil Rizzto part and asked "the straddler's" twin sister if she was always like this!
As nobody asked about Anything For Love, we had another two song encore so the entire concert lasted over three hours and twenty minutes but the time really flew by!
I'm not a Meatloaf fan and there was too much talk and not enough songs for me. Kasim looked wonderful. Can't believe he'll be 44 thisweek.......
Great to hear I would Do Anything for Love but I won't do That live (big gap after the screwing around line) and Paradise by the Dashboard Light was funny as they had a girl and a guy making out on a table.
My fav part was You took the Words out of my Mouth (Hot Summer Night) as I got to hear Kas singing solo to get the people singing in time! He's so good arranging all the other band members too.
