Meat Loaf: Guilty Pleasure Tour: Live from Sydney, Australia (2012)

I remember everything. I remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday. I went into the local JB Hi-Fi to get myself a copy of the latest album from Meat Loaf, 2011's "Hell in a Handbasket", so named because Meat had thought "the whole world had gone to hell in a handbasket." The front cover is a picture of Earth facing Australia (it faces different continents depending on where you live) and the whole planet is made up out of human skulls. He's really not mincing words here, not to mention pictures.

I brought the album home, which feels like a week or so before the 115th Annual Grand Final of the Australian Football League, and found myself instantly captivated. It was the first time I'd really been grabbed this way by a Meat Loaf album since "Couldn't Have Said It Better" and "Bat II" itself. It was an awe-inspiring experience. It was emotional. It was gripping. It was powerful. It had bits of rap in it. In my opinion, it stood its own ground compared to the wonders that had come before in Meat's work with Jim. This is the reaction I wished I'd had with "Hang Cool Teddy Bear" which so many people had been impressed with at the time.

Suddenly, there I was, watching the 115th Annual Grand Final of the A.F.L. where Meat Loaf was due to perform with his band during the pre-show entertainment. "I watched the whole thing there unfold upon my T.V. screen" as Meat sang on Track Number 4: "Mad, Mad World/The Good God is a Woman and She Don't like Ugly". I thought he had made a gallant effort, considering his age and many years of experience and stamina touring the world with songs in the field of "Bat" which is frightening.

I went back to my desk and someone said to me: "You've got to be kidding me. That was appalling." And that was the beginning. In the days, weeks and years to come, Meat's performance at the AFL became legendary for all the wrong reasons. It saddened me because it seemed to have happened due to forces he couldn't control.

It saddened me because this is the guy who blew it out of the stadium when he sang the American National Anthem in 1994. This is the guy who sang "For Crying Out Loud" and "Objects in the Rear View Mirror". In 1988, when he sang "Bad for Good" onstage during his "Lost Boys & Golden Girls" Tour, it is still one of the most awe-inspiring performances I have ever encountered, judging by the grainy video footage on YouTube. How could this happen?!

It also saddened me because Meat had just released this almighty new album "Hell in a Handbasket" and how many people were going to listen to it now? Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! That really sucks, you know!

Around this time was his Australian concert tour, "The Guilty Pleasure Tour", which is captured here in Sydney, Australia on both a CD and DVD release from 2012.

Similar to the "3 Bats Live" release, we are missing about three songs from the DVD, (which I haven't seen), but everything else seems to be accounted for on the CD. Also, how lucky are we as Australians to have two live concert releases being captured on our shores?

So what have we got here? Firstly, the credits: Meat Loaf himself on Lead Vocals, Patti Russo back in the picture again following "3 Bats Live" on Vocals, Paul Crook playing Guitars, John Miceli with Drums, Randy Flowers on Guitar and Vocals, Dave Luther returning on Keyboards, Saxophone and Vocals, Danny Miranda on Bass Guitar and Vocals, Justin Avery providing Piano, Keyboards and Vocals (prefacing his theatrical and operatic work on 2016's "Braver"), and Ginny Luke on Violin, Keyboards and Vocals. The performance was also recorded at the 12 October 2011 date at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Thank you to everyone involved!

Also, again, thank you to the Almost Complete Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman Lyric Archive and Wiki for getting me these details at the click of a button. There are more credits listed there, so by all means check them out.

Without any further ado, tonight's music!

"Hot Patootie/Time Warp"---this band is sounding mean as mean! They're like Terminators marching in the wake of Judgment Day. And I can't believe it, Meat and the band are not only beginning the show with "Hot Patootie" but they launch into a reprise of the mega cult classic "Time Warp" from the same "Rocky Horror Picture Show". Wahoo!

"If It Ain't Broke, Break It"---Meat and the band keep things moving right along at a brisk pace with this killer version of "Break It". They broke it all right. And nobody had to clean it up either. This is great.

"Bat out of Hell"---I'm used to "Bat" ending these live shows, but it’s cool how they shake things up by putting it earlier in the set list, and this is how it was done on the original "Bat" tour. Not to mention "Bat" begins with "Bat out of Hell". Again, this is sounding great to my ears.

"Peace on Earth"---we not only get treated to something that doesn't come from "Bat" or "Bat II", but we hear Meat on what I presume is a pre-recording performing narration which can be found in the special editions of "Hang Cool Teddy Bear" as a book. This alone is wicked and it continues with the following song. It is so cool hearing this and the following song live.

"Los Angeloser"---yes!!!! Like I said!!!!

"You Took the Words"---now we get back to "Bat" and since I just read on Wiki that these shows were intended to be the last Meat Loaf tour in Australia and New Zealand, it's even more significant now knowing how special this must have been to the audience watching this. They are all one on this song.

"Stand in the Storm"---now we get a song from the awesome "Hell in a Handbasket"! "Hell in a Handbasket" suddenly becomes "Hell, yeah!" and thank you for even doing this! Cool as!

"Anything for Love"---this is a pretty unorthodox sounding version of "Anything for Love", but this is one of the things I love about "The Guilty Pleasure Tour". We hear new interpretations and this is really going to shine the brightest later on in the evening, but I'll get to that soon. It would have been intriguing to hear a studio version of this take.

"Two out of Three Ain't Bad"---when I say later, I guess I mean now, because here it is! Listen to Ginny Luke on violin on this song!!!! OMGEE! I am falling in love with this song all over again! Of course Meat and the band are great, but this is like a movie remake when they get it right. Thank you!!!

"Boneyard/All Revved Up"---Meat and the band take us out firstly with this B-side from one of the "Hang Cool Teddy Bear" singles (there is another one called "Don't" and I "don't" own either one of them regrettably.) Eventually this hooks up like a train to the iconic "All Revved Up" closer. We have brought the book to a thrilling close!!!!

Sounds exciting, right, although everyone's going to have a different opinion, and like I said I haven't even seen the DVD version, but this was thrilling. After this, Meat would end up performing all of "Bat out of Hell" for the first time onstage on what was known as "The Last at Bat Tour" which resurrected the title of Meat *and* Jim's "Bat III" in the process. If it was anything like this gig, I would have loved a CD of that too.

Thank you for reading,

Ryan.