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| "Meat Loaf a little more gristly, but still tasty" | |
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daveake 02:41 am UTC 07/24/07 |
| SARATOGA SPRINGS It’s safe to say if not for Bruce Springsteen, the career of Texas-born singer Marvin Lee Aday might have taken a far different course. Maybe one of endless midnight movies, or a supper-club version of the "Rocky Horror Picture Show"; no million-selling albums, no paradise, by the dashboard light or otherwise. But by giving voice to the songs of Jim Steinman, the singer known to rock fans worldwide as Meat Loaf put his own theatrical spin on a Springsteen-derived "Wall of Sound," with resolute anthems full of wayward youth and untroubled futures, set to soaring saxophone riffs and resounding power chords. But with The Boss turning his attention toward hoary folk tunes — and a reunion with the E-Street band nowhere in sight — Meat Loaf has a highway that was once full of lonely heroes all to himself. Advertisement On Sunday, the singer and his rock-solid ensemble brought his super-sized brand of rock to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center for a two-hour show that delighted members of his hardcore following, a crowd estimated at 4,000. Thre were no Kenny Chesney-like antics or Garth Brooks-style swinging on ropes. Now age 59 and still carrying a few more pounds than he should on his frame, Meat Loaf instead stalked the stage in slow, purposeful motions, stopping only to belt out his well-worn themes, bent over like a boxer summoning strength for one last round. He essentially had two vocal modes: an intense, at times overwrought, delivery leading to the song’s finale, and the vein-popping finale itself. It was an approach that paid dividends on material culled from his three "Bat Out Of Hell" albums, which spanned three decades. "In the Land Of the Pig, the Butcher Is King" was the best of the new bunch from last years’s "Bat ... III," his terse judgments accompanied by video imagery culled from Fritz Lang’s "Metropolis" and George Orwell’s "Animal Farm." Indeed, the closest he came to a quiet moment was on "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" (from "Bat ... II, 1993), which followed a moment of thanks to the audience and grew in strength as his band members drifted back onto the stage. While far from shot, his voice was an inconstant instrument — "pitchy," as they might say on "American Idol" — and song after song, he saved his biggest punches for the choruses. Simply put, he needed all the help he can get. Meat Loaf was most comfortable with material from the original "Bat out Of Hell," like the title track, a pell-mell dash down Thunder Road, and, of course, the epic "Paradise By The Dashboard Light," a tawdry chronicle of teenage lust whose sentiments haven’t aged a bit. His "Rock & Roll Dreams Come Through" reminded one and all that even among the industry’s biggest stars, there is a fan whose childhood years were spent glued to the radio, and whose dreams remains the one constant through a lifetime’s worth of ups and downs. | |
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