We had the usual openning instructions followed by Home By Now / No Matter What (Meat admitted that he felt "p**sed off that someone else recorded it") and Life is a Lemon. Meat then picked on his pre-decided late arrivals and made them request a track and then another couple arrived even later so Meat tried to entrap them. They said that they didn't know any tracks but were fans of the Bay City Rollers so Meat told them that John used to be the drummer with that group! THEN another couple arrived - almost an hour into the concert! Apparently one of this couple was a television presenter whose show Meat appeared on the previous day so Meat gave him some grief for being so late as Meat arrived on time for HIS show!
Someone got Meat talking about the movies he has appeared in which lead into Hot Patootie. During this song Meat always indicates to the band how many times he's going to repeat Hot Patootie at the end for them to sing along with. Tonight he indicated four times but later than normal so only Kasim was ready to sing the first one so he sang that on his own (which sounded wonderful!) before Pearl and Patti joined in for the other three!
The next song that was asked about was Rock and Roll Hero which none of the band had heard before! Meat remembered that he'd recorded the song but couldn't remember how it went so he got the guy who suggested it up on stage to sing it with (for?) him. Luckily the guy had a good voice and performed it really well!
It was then that something really unusual happened on stage that probably most of the audience missed! I noticed before Rock and Roll Hero that Kasim went over and spoke to someone who was standing by the guitar techs and this person then went out the back door. After Rock and Roll Hero Kasim went off stage (unfortunately out of the sight of the audience!) and then came back on stage in a different shirt! I've never seen him do that before but it'll make my photos interesting for tonight! He was wearing his short sleeved red shirt and changed into his light blue long sleeved shirt - maybe his arms were getting cold?
It was then that the concert went downhill slightly. It wasn't really Meat Loaf's fault but it was just that people were asking him questions about anything but songs so he couldn't get to sing anything! Two people actually complained about the lack of songs and walked out so Meat (cleverly) just got the next person who asked a question up on stage to lie on the piano (and then her husband too) and we went into You Took the Words. Tonight's Meat Loaf's Toronto Pops Choir were in Meat's opinion the best of the tour so he didn't get anybody else on stage or stop them singing at all!
The highlight of the concert for me tonight was the inclusion of A Kiss is a Terrible Thing to Waste! This was the first time that they've played it on this tour and they did really well! It wasn't in the "Let's Cheat a Meat Loaf Song Songbook" so, as Meat admitted afterwards, he got a few words wrong but they had loads of background vocals so the sound was very full! Unfortunately I don't think that many people in Toronto knew the song as it only got a brief round of applause which was a shame as Meat and the band performed it sowell!
The Paradise couple tonight were very good and didn't need any urging to start kissing! The "record executive" was a sight to behold as he was wearing a gold coloured pyjama style suit with a top hat tomatch!
I'm always amazed at Meat's face while Damon is playing the Todd Rundgren guitar solo during Bat Out of Hell. I don't know how to explain it but Meat just has this look on his face. I'd love to know what he's thinking as he just stares at Damon in the spotlight. It's almost as though he's thinking "he's got to go" but I'm sure it's not that. He just has the same amazed look every night - I can't remember if he used to have it when Pat Thrall used to play that part of thesong.
It was certainly a concert I'll remember tonight but there were some aspects of the usual concert missing. There were no band introductions and both I'd Lie for You and Rock and Roll dreams were missing (as they have been ever since Meat was ill). Meat asked us all to give a round of applause to Jim Steinman and said that he hoped that Bat III may be recorded in 2002! Someone got up on stage and performed some of Swan Lake which Meat joined in with!
