Review by SueW:
It took me 5 hours to drive to Plymouth (as part of the journey is on single track roads) but I reached Plymouth at 6.30pm so that was fine as I knew Meat Loaf wouldn’t come on until 8.30pm. I then joined the queue to the car park and it took over an hour to drive 1.5 miles! At 7.19pm the support band came on so I wound down the window to listen to them but their set seemed quite short. (The guy I sat next to at the concert said that he thought that they were called Hog and he really enjoyed them.) When I did get to the football ground a policeman told me that the car park was full and I should try to find a residential area and park in there! I couldn’t believe this ridiculous organisation as the football ground holds 20,000 people so what do they do on match days? The ground probably only held 1,500 cars so they must have known there were no spaces ages before I got there so why weren’t they diverting the traffic much earlier?!! At this time my language was quite unladylike but thankfully I found somewhere to park relatively quickly and only had to walk about a quarter of a mile back to the venue.

Thankfully they were taking quite a while to get the stage reset and the main act didn’t start until about 8.40pm so I had plenty of time to find my seat. I was lucky as it was almost in direct line with Kasim’s microphone. The weather forecast last night had said only a 20% chance of rain but there were drizzle showers through a lot of the set. Thankfully it wasn’t too heavy although it didn’t get a bit nippy by the end. I felt especially sorry for CC as she was quite scantily dressed and the wind must have been worse up on stage.

There were two blocks of seats in front of the stage with people standing around on the rest of the pitch and others sitting in the stands around the pitch. A lot of people in the front seats sat through most of the concert other than when they first came on stage, during the encores and during Anything For Love and Bat Out Of Hell. I don’t think that you have to stand up to enjoy a concert and certainly the people all around me said afterwards how much they enjoyed it, plus people rarely went out for drinks which is a good sign that people are enthralled with the concert. (It’s also the first concert I’ve been to when someone came around during the set with a black bin bag to collect our rubbish!) Personally I’m quite happy to sit during the concert providing that I can see Kasim clearly, especially if I’ve just driven for 5 hours with my foot locked in a 45 degree position and I know I have a 5 hour drive home in the same position too.

Just before they came on stage eight microphones were placed in a line at the front of the stage and the backdrop was raised into position at the back. It said Casa De Carne (House of Meat) which is the name of the tour and had a photo below that looked like the position a bull gets into before he charges in a bullfight. There were screens either side of the stage but I noticed a definite reluctance to show close-ups of Kasim again!

For the first song all of the band (except John who was on the drums) sang at the microphones at the front of the stage with the girls on either end. All the boys had guitars but they had swapped positions so Dave and Mark whose usual position on stage is on stage left were on stage right and Kasim and Randy had moved over to the stage left microphones (which means that there was a big switch of people walking across the stage after the song!). Meat Loaf stalked the stage a bit during this song but all the band (except possibly John) sang lines in the song (I think Kasim sang about 3 lines!). I’m not 100% sure but I think it was The Eagles Of Death Metal’s song I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News) which seemed an unusual song to choose to me.

If It Ain’t Broke was next which is a good rocking song but it was obvious that a lot of people around me didn’t know the song and I missed the blow-up dolls which used to give the song a bit of a wow factor on the last tour (the dolls were used near the end of the set instead). It was at this point that TC came on stage and fixed Kasim’s backpack as he was obviously having some problems with it. Contrary to other tours, Kasim used the same guitar (his pearl coloured one) throughout the whole concert. Even Paul Crook (who used to change his guitars for almost every song on the last tour) only seemed to use a couple of guitars in this set. Although I usually prefer Kasim in colours, he was wearing a snazzy black leather jacket tonight which looked good on him.

It was brilliant to hear the opening bars of Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire) tonight as I really like that song! I could see from long shots on the screens that they were using the paper with a light that look like flames at the back of the stage. It looked very effective from a distance but from the angle that I was sitting (with the stage being quite high) it just looked like about 4 little pom-poms moving in the breeze which made me laugh!

Next was Life Is A Lemon which seemed to be the usual arrangement other than Patti and CC played drums on stage at the beginning of the song (as they did a few tours ago – I think the Very Best Of Tour).

Bad For Good (from Bat3) was next which was brilliant as I really like that song but unfortunately, once again, a lot of people around me didn’t seem to know it. It’s a sad reality that in any audience a large percentage of people will only know songs from Bat Out Of Hell and maybe Bat II too and would be happy if Meat Loaf only played songs from those albums. I know Bad For Good is a difficult song for Meat Loaf to sing so I hope that they can keep it in the set list for the whole tour.

For most of the concert I’m more interested in the staging (especially on what Kasim is doing!) rather than listening to Meat Loaf’s voice but tonight the several times that I did concentrate on it, I thought that he sounded very strong and held the notes well. Unfortunately it’s hard to get good sound at an outdoor concert (especially when it’s windy) and that was proved when I was sitting still in my car listening to the opening act as at times they sounded too loud and at others too quiet but that was just because of the wind. The one criticism I did have about the sound was at the end of Rock'n'Roll Dreams when the girls and the guys in the band take it in turns to sing lines. We could hear the girls' lines fine but the guys' microphones weren't turned up loud enough and we could hardly hear them.

Next was DeadRinger For Love which is one of my least favourite Meat Loaf songs but it was well positioned in the set for the fans who don’t follow his career that much (and they probably make up a large percentage of the crowd at these sort of venues) as it was good to have a song that they would recognise. It started by Meat Loaf putting on a tartan jacket and baseball cap and bringing an ice cooler to the front of the stage. Patti Russo and CC Coletti were at stage right so Meat Loaf took them both over a bottle of beer from the cooler. He made it obvious that he was more interested in Patti so CC just sat on one of the speakers while he and Patti sang DeadRinger. It’s really great to see Patti back in the band again.

Next CC sang 45 Seconds of Ecstasy which was very impressive. That’s a track that I usually skip over on Welcome To The Neighbourhood but she sang a great version of it and it really suited her voice.

Amnesty Is Granted was next on the set list which was brilliant to hear again (it used to open the WTTN Tour and I have great memories of that tour) but unfortunately I didn’t think this version was very good, at least not tonight. It may have been the wind taking the sound away but it took me until halfway through the first chorus before I recognised which song they were actually singing! Hopefully it was just because of it being an outdoor show as that’s a song that is better live than on the album. (CC sang lead on that song with Meat Loaf.)

Patti Russo’s song Bible And A Beer was next. I’ll probably get it in the neck for my opinion on including this song but I really hope it is soon dropped from the set list as it seemed totally out of place to me. Don’t get me wrong because I think it’s a good song and Patti sang a brilliant version of it (her voice is so strong and suits it perfectly) but most people at a Meat Loaf concert go to see Meat Loaf sing and not members of his band. (During this song he just stood with his arms folded towards the side of the stage.) Probably the majority of the people at this concert won’t have a clue who Patti is (or any of the band) and won’t know that she hasn’t toured with him for a couple of years but will probably be wondering why at a Meat Loaf concert a whole song that they don’t know is sung by someone other than Meat Loaf! I appreciate that it gives him a bit of a break which is a good thing but I just don’t see may artists deciding in the middle of their concert to get someone out of their band to sing one of their own songs in the middle of the set. Even if in the middle of the set Kasim had performed The One Sure Thing, I would think it was brilliant but still a bizarre choice during the set.

Blind As A Bat was next which was brilliant to hear live again (it’s another one of my favourites) and then the band played an instrumental which was great. I don’t know the name of it but at least it gave Kasim a chance to come to the front of the stage! I did notice that tonight he didn’t move much from his microphone which is unusual. Other than during the first song when he’s on Paul’s side of the stage, he only went across that side once more which was near the end of the set. He seemed to be enjoying the set tonight (even though he looks quite miserable in every photo I took – sorry Kasim!!). There were quite a few times tonight when I noticed that Meat Loaf went to him for reassurance and once when he needed Kasim to count him into a song.

Paradise By The Dashboard Light followed. Meat Loaf was wearing his 70s wig again and it was funny that when he took it off and flung it at the end of the song that it ended up on Kasim’s microphone stand which really made Kasim laugh! Patti was wearing a bright pink dress tonight. She’s so good in this song and it’s almost as though she hasn’t been away. I did notice tonight that in the play by play Phil Rizzuto part, that they never kissed so I laughingly wondered if that was one of the conditions of her coming back! Towards the end of that section of the song, Meat Loaf ran around Patti unravelling her dress and then she pulled the remainder of it off at the end – she had a black skirt on underneath. Looking at Kasim’s face during the chatting part (which thankfully was quite short) it seemed that Meat Loaf was ad-libbing about Patti’s mother being fat! In fact tonight Meat Loaf didn’t talk much at all on stage. Near the beginning he joked that at least it wasn’t raining and near the end he said that he was glad it wasn’t raining and cold and that if it was any hotter he would have had to have taken all his clothes off. He then perfunctorily introduced the band by just pointing to them all during the last song.

After Paradise came one of the highlights for me as we got to hear Kasim singing a nice lot! What happened was that Mark Alexander started playing You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth and then Meat Loaf, Patti and CC sang part of it. They then appeared to want the audience to sing it (with Kasim leading us) but it wasn’t indicated too well so it took some of the audience a while to realise this so we could mainly hear Kasim for several lines which was brilliant!

Anything For Love was next and seemed to be a similar arrangement to other tours. Patti came on for the duet part of that song wearing a long black dress with sequins that looked very effective. They then went straight into Bat Out Of Hell and Kasim came to the front of the stage for the intro to that song.

It was then that I think was the encore part but they didn’t really leave the stage before starting Rock’n’Roll Dreams. As on some tours, they’ve really extended the end of that song, tonight’s version seemed shorter but it was still the full album version. In the middle of the song Meat Loaf bought Dave Luther down to centre stage to play a really long sax solo which received a big round of applause. At the end of the song most of the band went to the front of the stage and Randy Flowers and Paul Crook played their solo part that they did on the tour last year (although it looked more effective on the last tour as they had the pyrotechnics too).

The final songs were (I think) The Beatles Why Don't We Do It in the Road and The Doors Roadhouse Blues. I questioned why on a previous tour they ended with a cover (We Are Family) and I wonder now why they chose these songs as they are not really famous songs. I guess they are easy songs to arrange and just keep playing for as long as Meat Loaf wants on any particular evening.

Then, all too soon for me, it was all over! (Their set was about 1 hour 50 minutes.)

All in all I thought it was a good concert (especially considering it was outside and you really can’t expect good weather in England during Glastonbury weekend!) and I thoroughly enjoyed it but something was missing for me. I can’t quite place my finger on what but as I’m seeing 12 out of the 20 concerts on this tour, hopefully the concerts will grow on me as the tour progresses as it’s always difficult at the first one. It's just that I'm usually more "fired up" up the first concert of a tour but I didn't feel that way after this one.

Video of Anything For Love:
Click here for a 21 second clip of Kasim Sulton singing Anything For Love during the Meat Loaf concert in Plymouth, England last night. The sound isn't great but it was very breezy at this point in the gig!

Other websites:
The Plymouth Echo newspaper website has an article online here.
The comments from people there are mixed about the concert itself (especially about Meat Loaf) but praise the band including the phrases:
"Fair play to his backing group who kept the crowd entertained and in particular to his 2 female singers who performed well over and above the headline act"
"His group kept it together and the female artisits were great"
"The band were brilliant"
"the band was superb - the girl singers fantastic"

There is a thread of posts and photos of this gig on Meat Loaf's official website MeatLoaf.net here.

MLUKFC.com has a thread of reviews and photos of this gig here.

If you're interested in absolutely everything about the concert, then this website might interest you too!

Kasim Sulton:
Kasim Sulton posted a new journal entry here and added a new video here.

In Kasim's online journal he says about this concert that it "went extremely well. We're doing a spate of new songs and had a great time trying to make sure the 'clams' were kept at bay". Kasim also writes "This particular tour has a story line that weaves through the first song all the way up to, and including 'Paradise'. It's not at all hard to follow and personally, I think it works really well. For the first show, I couldn't have asked for more from a bunch of very talented musicians. We have a ways to go before we're done and I can only imagine it's going to get better."

Comments posted by fans on mailing lists and messageboards include:
"Picked up 2 seperate people last night after the concert (as a cabbie ). The first couple said they enjoyed it big time ... and next a steward who said he was out of tune except for the backing singers who saved the night."

"There may have been times when Meat was struggling, but I think part of it was just first-show nerves."

"I was pleased there were a few different song's in the list."

"His voice is in great shape."

"Backing band were brilliant."

"I have been too many outdoor concerts and have too agree the sound wasnt great and far too quiet.The band were excellent and really put in 100%.The great man himself was well below the level I have seen him in the past but after 30 years of rocking what do you expect."

"As a Meatloaf fan I cringed at the sound and honestly felt embarassed for him, if he wasn't well the gig should have been postponed! The band and female vocalist were fantastic but I wish I hadn't paid £35 to see Meat struggle so desperately to remember the words and attempt to sing in tune!"

"The band was good as were the female singers, Meat Loaf is a legend and it was good to see him perform but sometimes a legend does not meet the exacting standards some fans expect of him."

The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
Tonight Kasim Sulton plays the first gig of The Meat Loaf Casa De Carne Tour. The concert tonight is in Plymouth, Devon in the south west of England. Plymouth is the city that launched the Meat Loaf Couldn't Have Said It Better World Tour in 2003 and from where The Mayflower set sail in 1620.

The concert tonight is being held at Home Park Stadium, Plymouth, Devon, PL2 3DQ. This venue is the stadium where Plymouth Argyle Football Club (a soccer team) hold their matches.

Tickets for this concert vary in price from £65 ($120) to £45 ($80) plus there is an option to meet Meat Loaf (but not Kasim) for £155 ($310)! Click here to purchase tickets. There are two blocks of sets in front of the stage with standing on the remainder of the pitch and seating in the stands. The stands alone seat 19,500 people and cost about £11m ($20m) to build!

Click here to view the venue website. The concert tonight starts at 7.00pm and the weather is expected to be dry (with a 20% chance of precipitation) and to be about 60 degrees.

As usual, KasimInfo.com welcome reviews and photographs of any gig. Please send all contributions to SueW@KasimInfo.com.

Meat Loaf 2008 Casa De Carne Tour

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