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All Revved Up (part) Life Is A Lemon It's All Coming Back To Me Now Paradise By The Dashboard Light 
Review by SueW:
Apparently MixFest is run by a Boston radio station and was held at quite a large modern arena which wasn’t too difficult to find. The parking was easy too (although expensive) around the back of the building.
Security was quite tight as they actually gave us a body search but they didn’t find my camera! During the concert some people were openly taking photos with no problems but others in places were stopped.
We got there just as Augustana (the first act) were just starting but they were excessively loud! We even stood right at the back of the arena and behind a wall and it was still too loud to talk when they were playing! They played for about 20 minutes and then it took about 15 minutes between the sets to get the stage ready for the next act. The first few acts all played for about 20 minutes but the later acts were allowed half an hour or more. Meat Loaf wasn’t due on until 8.35pm (the show started at 5.30pm) so we stayed upstairs for the first few acts as there was more room there.
Natasha Bedingfield was next and I wasn’t at all impressed that she sang along to a backing track for her first and last song as she had no band on stage! A guy on acoustic guitar came out for her middle 3 songs. KT Tunstall was next and she wasn’t as good as I expected. Her band were good though as at least two of them played two different instruments during her set. Between acts as they were changing the stage, they opened the back curtain and it looked like a massive garage sale there were all the different bands’ instruments just stacked back there!
We then went down to our seats in time for The Bare Naked Ladies. I must admit that I didn’t know their music at all but they were excellent – definitely a band I would go to see again! They sang some funny songs and really seemed to enjoy their time on stage too which was great to see!
During BNL some people started standing at the front of the stage and by the end of their set it was about 6 deep. I think they were stopping people from the back of the arena coming forward but there was no problem for us at the front. Lots of people stayed in place while the stage was changed for Meat Loaf’s set so it was a couple of rows deep but just before he was due on, some security guards moved everybody away! We then had this massive gorilla of a guy standing in front of our section so I didn’t dare take my camera out just in case! The annoying part was that he moved away RIGHT at the end of the set but by the time I’d turned my camera on, their set had finished! If they’d have played an extra 4 bars, I would have got a photo which was a bit frustrating!
Unfortunately Meat Loaf’s set is not suited to these sort of events where there is no sound check and no chance to test things. This set was full of technical problems and I felt really sorry for Meat Loaf and especially for Kasim and the rest of the band with all the rehearsals they’ve done recently. For example, throughout the whole set I could hardly hear Meat Loaf’s vocals as the instruments were a lot louder. I could hear Aspen okay but not Meat Loaf and yet I’ve watched a video taken from the other side of the stage and his voice was a lot louder there. Also during Life Is A Lemon the bands’ “It’s defective” were hardly audible until halfway through that part of the song.
They started with All Revved Up with the long intro that they often play on stage and then they just played only one chorus of the song. They started this song with the new saxophone player Dave Luther playing a long sax intro at the front of the stage, or at least that was the plan but unfortunately no sound came out so we had this guy standing there playing with all his might but we could hear absolutely nothing! Later when he was at the back of the stage one of the techs did something to his backpack and then the sax blasted through until they corrected it to a reasonable level!
Just by watching Kasim you could tell that this was the first concert of a tour or the first outing for a new format of a band as he was all over the stage being the Musical Director again! Especially when things went wrong later in the set, he was all over the stage getting things fixed and directing the band about when to start playing! It reminded me a lot of the way he is on stage with The New Cars the way he whizzed all over the stage but without all the smiles tonight! (Although he did take the time to acknowledge a Meat Loaf fan in the front row which was a nice touch!)
After All Revved Up they went straight into Life Is A Lemon. This was the usual performance of the song although Meat Loaf did start the song wearing a guitar (like he did in Toms River) which he didn’t used to do. We had the usual antics during the song and other than Aspen missing her first solo line during the "What about…." part, it all went okay.
Aspen then left the stage and they got two stools out. Meat Loaf mentioned Bat Out Of Hell III and said that he was going to sing his new single It’s All Coming Back To Me Now. He introduced Marion Raven as from Norway but that she had had either 7 or 8 number 1 hits in Asia. Apparently they were supposed to have a recording playing of the strings at the beginning of the song but they just could not get them to play. Kasim was dashing all over the place and I could even hear him from my seat shouting whether they had them playing yet! Meat Loaf explained that they were on a computer or something and then decided that as they were playing live they would just skip the strings and play the actual song. I don’t know if they heard something different to us on stage because it was at that point that we started to hear the strings but anyway the band just started playing. Obviously I’ve heard Celine Dion’s version of the song a lot and I’d only heard Meat Loaf’s version through some crappy speakers on my old laptop so for me this live version sounded a lot better than his recorded version.
Next they sang Paradise By The Dashboard Light. Obviously lots of people there recognised this song and people started to stand by their seats for this one. The way they acted out the song was that Aspen was the aggressor so she was making all the moves on Meat Loaf and during the baseball part she was getting him to put his hands on her bum and her bust.
Obviously this was the first time that Aspen has played a concert (or part of a concert) with Meat Loaf and I thought her voice was nice and clear and quite strong (certainly strong enough for the part) but the main problem is that she looks SO young and fragile compared to Meat Loaf. Apparently she is 28 but he turned 59 three days ago so there is already 31 years difference in their ages but there looks like there’s 41 as she looks like a teenager! I know that there are young girls who fall for older (and richer) guys (sugar daddies we call them in UK) but they’re usually laughed about - I’m not sure about them performing it in a song on stage! I know full well that it’s only acting but it just looked all wrong to me especially with her being about a quarter of his size (she’s even shorter and slimmer than Patti was!). I’m sure there are lots of Meat Loaf fans who will accept it and not think anything of it (but let’s face it lots of his fans would accept him “groping” a 5 year old on stage!!!) but to me it just doesn’t look right or even funny. (Quite possibly this is a cultural thing though as one American Meat Loaf fan I spoke to afterwards found it quite acceptable.) The other thing is that at the end of Paradise they talk about "Praying for the end of time" and that they’d been together for ages and aren’t happy together which obviously isn’t the case with this couple unless they started dating when she was VERY young!
As I said before I thought that Aspen sounded fine. She played the part well enough too but she does tend to stomp around the stage a bit more like a petulant teenager than a 28 year old woman! She was also wearing a dress that made her look younger too which didn’t help. In fact all the band and Meat Loaf (and even Marion Raven) were wearing all black tonight so I certainly hope that’s not the tour’s colour scheme as Kasim looks really good in colours!
All too soon it was time for them to leave the stage. Three and a bit songs just isn’t long enough especially as they only played for just the half hour. Although it was tough getting up the next day at 2.45am(!) for my flight, it was good to see the first outing of this line-up of the band and once again I was really impressed by Kasim’s abilities as the Musical Director!
Other websites:
There is a photo of the set from side stage here.
This is a link to a blog entry with an unflattering review of the set.
This is a link to photos of the set but unfortunately none of Kasim. They are #40 onwards.
Here are some quite negative reviews of the set from a Bare Naked Ladies messageboard.
Kasim Sulton's 2006 Gigs and Appearances
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