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Paradise By The Dashboard Light You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire) Life Is A Lemon Anything For Love Objects In The Rear View Mirror Rock 'n' Roll Dreams
Seize The Night
Black Betty 
Review by SueW:
I arrived too late to hear whether any of All Sides was played as people entered the venue but I did see that it is for sale at the merchandise stands. It's £20 which is about what I paid when I ordered it online after all the postage charges had been added. Considering that the tour programmes are £15, I think £20 for All Sides is very good value for a 27 track, 2-CD album especially considering you'd only read a tour program once and throw it in a drawer whereas All Sides can give you hours of listening pleasure! Another nice touch was that Todd Rundgren's It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference was played between Marion Raven's set and Meat Loaf's (they played it in Manchester too).
Once again FanFire had done me proud as my seat was in the front row of the middle block (although on Paul's side but at least it gave me a different perspective of the concert). This was the fourth concert of this leg of the tour and although it wasn't my favourite (the second Manchester one currently holds that honour but I think that was more to do with my mood that day), I thought it was easily the best so far! The set list was the same as the previous two concerts but it just seemed that the band (and especially Meat Loaf) had more energy, specifically far more than on Monday evening. There was also a obviously lot more laughing and smiling on stage throughout the concert and even more so during the encore part. The audience too seemed to get into the concert a lot tonight, plus it was the longest of the tour so far, lasting almost exactly two and a half hours.
The other very noticeable thing tonight was how great Meat Loaf's voice was! Usually I find it safer not to mention it (!) but tonight he sang really well through most of the concert. Someone posted recently that nowadays they thought he struggled more with the slower songs but tonight he especially held the notes in the "screwing around" part of Anything For Love for a long time with full volume and great depth. That was one of the times it was easy to forget that he'll be 60 years old later this year.
 Just before Objects In The Rear View Mirror, Meat Loaf sits at the front of the stage and just chats to the audience which is usually quite amusing. Tonight he again was talking extensively about how we pronounce Birmingham in the UK and he decided to just say it the way they do in Alabama! The funniest thing is that at the end of the concert, when he says "thank you very much" and the name of the city, tonight he said "Manchester, England"! He realised his mistake and said that he'd never done that before. All in all it was a very light-hearted concert. As soon as Meat Loaf walked on stage he punched Kasim on the arm which he rarely does. He often "abuses" Paul Crook and Randy Flowers but not Kasim! Later, during the encore part, Meat Loaf was even saying things to some audience members which again he rarely does. Kasim was all over the stage during the encore as he first of all shared Aspen's microphone, then, as CC hadn't returned to the stage yet, he used her microphone. Once she did reappear he shared her microphone for a while (and wore her hat!) and then he moved across to sit on Mark Alexander's piano stool. As I was on Paul's side of the stage, I wasn't in a position to see whether Kasim performed the nightly striptease between Paradise By The Dashboard Light and You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth but we did have a special Kasim solo part as in You Took The Words Meat Loaf indicated for the band to stop singing but Kasim obviously didn't see that so continued to sing which was just brilliant to hear! When Meat Loaf introduced Kasim he again got him to crouch down by the drum riser and said that the cartoon photo looked like Kasim when he was a young boy! (There are similarities.)
 It seems that Kasim has been on a shopping spree lately as he was wearing another new (to me) top in the first section. I won't try describing it (but it reminded me of a Sergeant Pepper style loose shirt) and for the second half he had a new (to me) jacket with amazing pockets! They were very long and thin...maybe they were designed to hold a water bottle?!!! For some reason tonight Kasim switched to his black KSulton Bass at some point during the first half of the concert.
 The pyrotechnics were amazing again tonight. The heat on my face from those six flame bursts was quite intense so I wonder if John Micelli on the drums wears a heat resistant shirt! There are also 3 bangs at the end of songs during the concert and each one really made me jump, even when I knew that the one at the end of Life Is A Lemon (for example) was going to happen! I don't know if they were louder tonight or whether it was because I was at the front but they seemed to be exceptionally loud. The camera shots on the big screens were better tonight too. On Monday night I noticed a few times that they missed "the action" as they were filming elsewhere but tonight they seemed far more on the ball. I could see the cameramen the other side of the barrier tonight and they really did dash about a lot! Literally running at times from one side of the pit to the other to get the shot they wanted!
 Many thanks to Caryl Burton for some of the photos on this page - more will be added soon. All Rights Reserved |