Review by SueW:
I thought this was an absolutely brilliant gig and a great one for me to finish on…..at least for 7 weeks!

The Ruth Eckerd Hall is a lovely venue for a concert as the view from virtually every seat is unobstructed as they gently slope down. There’s also loads of wood panelling everywhere so the acoustics are good. The venue is staffed mainly by people who appear to be retired so it’s all very genteel! There were no camera checks as we went in nor any announcement about no photography – I remember that on the 2000 StoryTellers Tour they announced no cameras but not tonight. Consequently lots of people took photos but during Paradise the guy in front of me who had a professional looking camera was told to stop taking photos. People in the front row were also told to stop just after this and yet the remainder of us weren’t stopped at all. They were all told that the instruction came from Meat Loaf himself.

It was a great crowd in the venue and there was an obvious sense of excitement, probably because this was the concert that was first canceled in April (about 20 minutes after the concert was due to have started) when Meat Loaf was first taken ill. It seemed as though this feeling was spread to all on stage too as there was lots of laughter and Meat Loaf was obviously in a very buoyant mood! Other than one brief spot in Anything For Love, Meat Loaf’s voice was excellent tonight and I didn’t notice any wheeziness at all. There are times like tonight when I think that maybe he could go on touring for another 10 years!

The concert started about 25 minutes late but lasted a full two hours. I was in the 4th row (but on Paul’s side) and there were 3 empty seats beside me plus 4 more empty in the row behind me but the concert was a sell out (I think the venue seats about 2,000).

We had the Nocturnal Pleasures speech and then the band burst onto stage! Kasim was wearing his light grey suit with a white T-shirt for the first section. He then (very briefly) wore his blue and white smock-top (I think that’s the only top he has on this leg of the tour for that section of the concert). He then changed to a black shirt (without his jacket) for the end of his set. Kasim used his pearl coloured guitar for all the set up until Paradise when he switched to his black KSulton bass. Kasim didn’t move around the stage quite as much as in Boca Raton (he probably wore himself out there!!!) but he did go up and talk to Mark about 3 times in the second half of the concert. He was also all smiles for all the concert – he really is the one who makes the most eye contact with the audience! Randy will often smile at people but Paul doesn’t seem to make any connection.

As there is no barrier at Clearwater and the front rows are near the front of the stage, they had nowhere to put the inflatable dolls for If It Ain’t Broke, Break It so they had two either side of the stage on speakers and then the other 7 were all along the back of the stage. Those dolls shooting up always makes for a dramatic effect for Meat Loaf’s entrance and all the audience stood at that point. On the whole most people sat through all the concert until Bat Out Of Hell.

Other than Bat Out Of Hell my favourites on this tour are Frying Pan and Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams and they were both played really well tonight with all the band looking as though they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Paradise By The Dashboard Light was really funny tonight. Meat Loaf started off the usual way by saying that he was looking at something that he shouldn’t be rather than in Aspen’s eyes but then he ad-libbed more than usual by saying that he loved the 70s as back then you could do something unpolitically correct like looking at a girl’s breasts!

Meat Loaf indicating where he shouldn't be looking!

After a bit more singing Meat Loaf went and sat on the speaker on Kasim’s side of the stage (as he usually does) but tonight instead of his usual waffle he said that he was being interrupted by some man (who apparently said his name was Jennifer!) who was talking about donkeys and something else! Meat Loaf was very funny as he was asking him about where his carers were and all sorts of things! Eventually Meat Loaf said that if he continued interrupting him, he would get down into the audience and kick his butt! (He also spotted someone with an Allman Brothers T-shirt which he said he approved of but that they weren’t playing tonight.)

They then sang almost all the remainder of Paradise (but without too much more of the usual dialogue which I far preferred) but just at the end Meat Loaf got down off the stage into the audience and just launched himself on the one guy! (Kasim came to the front of the stage at that point to watch.) Although I couldn’t see exactly what Meat Loaf was doing, it was an incredible thing to experience! (I was told afterwards that apparently Meat Loaf actually knew the guy anyway.)

Another unusual thing happened during the band bow as all concert long there were a couple of rather excitable women just in front of me and when the band lined up, one of them got up on the stage (it was only about 3 foot high) and hugged Paul Crook! Soon one of the guitar techs came and helped extract her from Paul and helped her back into the audience and then John Micelli picked up the tech and swung him around which he obviously wasn’t expecting! Later during the encore when Paul Crook was standing at the front of the stage playing a guitar solo, the two women were rubbing their hands up and down his legs which Kasim obviously found hilarious!

At the start of the encore Meat Loaf came out to the microphone and again thanked everyone who had held onto their tickets after the concert was cancelled in April and to everyone who had bought the returned tickets. Just before he started singing Mercury Blues he went over to the guy with the Allman Brothers T-shirt and told him that he would enjoy that song!

All in all I thought this was a brilliant concert and it’s really making me look forward to the European concerts in October and November although, of course, Kasim starts touring with Todd Rundgren on just this Friday!

Other websites:
Meat Loaf's official website MeatLoaf.net has a thread about this concert here.

Meat Loaf Bat Out Of Hell III Tour