Customer Reviews

Meat Loaf - 3 Bats Live

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The mighty voice rip-roars through the songs from the Bat trilogy with all the power of a jumbo-jet tearing down a runaway and blasting into a hell-raising takeoff. Here is another Meat Loaf performance that goes far enough to make the original studio recordings sound timid (listen out for "Objects In The Rear View Mirror", "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" and "Bat Out Of Hell").

"Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", "You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth" and "Blind As A Bat" are amongst the songs to have segments missed out - pity that these songs are 'incomplete' when they are sounding this good. It doesn't really matter that Meat Loaf doesn't always hit the notes like he once did or that he survives the chorus of "Blind As A Bat" with the help of a backing track because what he does sing, when he really goes for it, is all there.

I saw this show when the tour arrived in London, England by which point "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" had found a few great gags and "I'd Do Anything For Love" had a franticly awesome new opening arrangement (all of which are not present for this show). John Miceli's drum beats are pure rock, delivered like an earth quake bulging through an intravenous drip. The cover songs at the end are fine, but if Meat had the energy (and he does) it would be nice to hear him perform his own classics, after all, he has plenty more of those that aren't included on here. The show is superbly filmed and includes plenty of sweeping camera angles and a feeling that you're up on the stage next to him. It's this intimacy that helps give this DVD an edge over the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra DVD.

Where the show flounders is where the lead female vocals come into play, and they come into play frequently. Sure the girl can sing, but she isn't Patti Russo who, after 13 years, Meat Loaf appears to have unforgivably replaced in favour of a 'newer model', prior to the release of Bat Out Of Hell III, and a mistake that no amount of on-stage pyrotechnics can compensate for. Maybe Patti Russo was just too good. Russo is why I'll favour the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra DVD, and her absence here is my main reason for giving this DVD four stars and not five.

The bonus DVD is a fly on the wall documentary of the few weeks leading up to the show in London, Ontario and compliments Disk One perfectly. We see Meat rehearsing, driving his car, packing his suitcase, preparing for shows and collapsing from exhaustion after them. You might be disappointed to see this towering rock legend reveal enough of himself to make us realise how 'un-star' like the man behind the Meat Loaf character is: quiet, reclusive and fragile. It is a documentary that is in essence about the road leading up to the show on Disk One, and as for Meat Loaf himself - we are left little the wiser. Even his autobiography was told in glimpses. It does leave you realising that perhaps the on-stage and off-stage personas couldn't be flung any further apart.

The king of rock crown isn't leaving Meat Loaf's head (even if the king is missing his queen). Frankenstein has no hope of ever recovering this overweening creation.

This version that was released in the US is only one disc and unfortunately does not contain the bonus documentary, In Search of Paradise. The documentary gives an amazing and informative look at his creative process. I would recommend buy the European version for the documentary
This concert video is excellent. It is clear to see from this DVD why he is selling out shows after 30 years. He is an amazing singer and performer. He puts his heart and soul into every song that he sings. He performs all of his greatest hits from the Bat Trilogy albums. The entire band, Neverland Express rocks. This is definitely a must have for any fan of his music. Anyone who loves rock and roll performed at its best would also love this DVD.

I have been a Meat Loaf fan for a very long time. I too am a performer, and I have even played Eddie and Dr. Scott in "The Rocky Horror Show" which Meat Loaf played in the original Roxie cast. I just want to make it clear I have a deep love and respect for this artist before I continue.

This DVD is not Meat Loaf at his best, but his band and back up vocalists are totally awesome. I had to overlook many aspects of Meat Loaf's performance on this DVD because he is mostly flat, has problems with tempo and he is obviously struggling with some of the higher notes.
He is however; solid on lyrics.

It about broke my heart to see Meat Loaf struggling through the repertoire. It is very obvious his support band are helping him all they can. All the band members are extremely young and have more energy to perform these songs.

As an afterthought, I am not sure if Meat Loaf was having problems singing or he was having problems hearing. I know a faulty monitoring system will throw off a performance. Plus when I record, I only listen to the playback with one ear piece and not two. Trying to listen to yourself over a system can direct you to sing flat. It's good to have one ear open so you can hear yourself as you actually sound. Meat Loaf on this DVD has two ear pieces. He sometimes uses only one. He sounds better when he does this. Meat Loaf does fiddle with an ear piece a bit which led me to believe he may have been having a technical difficulty. I still feel external monitors are best...call me old fashioned.

The "Bat Out of Hell" songs are extremely difficult to perform and listening to the albums is a much better way of enjoying these challenging songs.

This DVD is good to keep as a perspective piece but not as a keepsake of great performances. It almost should have been billed as "Meat Loaf's Band and Meat Loaf". I'm surprised it was released in this condition.

The producers/directors should have had Meat Loaf dub himself afterwards to correct the vocal flaws before the DVD was released.

But the US release is significantly worse than the UK release. I say this because the UK release comes with a bonus disc with the movie "in search of paradise" which is an excellent movie. However people from the US can't see it unless they buy the UK release and get a multi-regional DVD player. But the concert itself was INCREDIBLE. Meat Loaf sounds so much better than he does on many different youtube videos that I've seen, and he is for the most part, in tune. Sometimes he's a little off, but most singers are. The performance of I'd Do Anything for Love is the best I've ever seen. Better than Melbourne or any other performance he's done. I do wish In the Land of the Pigs was played, but I got to see him perform it so I'm not upset. I'd suggest getting this CD. I have a feeling that In Search of Paradise is coming out in theaters in the US which is maybe why it wasn't released on this DVD.

I've always been a huge Meatloaf fan and I even still like his non-Steinman recordings which never were dull (esp. Midnight at the lost and Found and Blind before I stop - I mean the songs not the album). I've seen him twice in the last 5 years, always to my big disappointment. I just couldn't see him publishing a concert in that low quality of singing he offered when I was in the audience, so I had higher hopes for this disc. But, well, it's the sad new story: He and his voice are burnt out unable to cope with enormous amount of versatility and range that Steinman-stuff demands. He tries to get away with some acting and putting more "expression" into his voice, but it sounds stained, he's off the mark a lot of times, his voice cracks and out of tune. This actually is a sad document of an artist who is not able to live up to his own standards. He should ease-up, go into clubs, with a small band and do it more acoustic. He just can`t hold up against the massive wall of sound anymore. No blame on the band which is excellent and tight. The mixing could've been more powerful. And the female leads (yes, pretty) should stick to what Steinman wrote (-he sure still knows better as his refusal to work on the ill-fated (and soundig) BAT III shows).

I'm okay with the fact that Meat can't sing like he used to, no points deducted for that. But, I'll agree with many reviews here that say the legendary singer is "off" at times during the concert. Credit due though, he NAILS it more than he misses.

The video is awesome, shot in HD (featured/promoted recently for free on DirectTV HD) and excellently edited, by far the highpoint of this DVD. Five stars for video, all the way.

Although the audio is also five stars (great bass, crisp cymbols, everthing in between), it's the AUDIO MIX that takes all the bang out of this concert for me. The guitars are too far back in the mix, making this sound more like an 80s contemporary rock concert than classic hard-rockin' Meatloaf.

I already own the concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and I think it's much better (performance and audio mix) than 3 Bats Live, even though audio and video quality can't compare to this release.

This is a UK release. The US Version is scheduled for release on November 20th... Why it's not listed on Amazon US yet for pre-sale is suprising.

I've heard recordings of this tour and got to see him locally in FLA which was cancelled after 3 songs (Meat was sick) and couldn't make the rescheduled make up date (Bummer!) When healthy, the fat guy can really bring it on. Anyway, this should be a great DVD when it's released. I'm giving it 4 stars and will save full judgement till then.

First off I am a big fan of Meat Loaf so I hate rating this so low. But here goes..

On the first line on the first song "All Revved Up With No Place To Go" he wasn't even near the melody of the song. I'm talking WAY off here....not just a little flat or sharp. As I continued to watch it became clear to me that something was terribly wrong with Meat that night.

The band is hot but because of Meat's poor performance I'm sure I'll never watch this again. It was just too painful.

It's no wonder this DVD isn't even mentioned on Meat Loaf's official website.

This product should have never seen the light of day.

I've ben a huge fan for years & have seen ML over a dozen times.

All I can say is that he is now past it, his vocals are woeful on this DVD & he ends up ruining some greast songs.

A great backing band try to make up for Meat's shortcomings, but sadly he doesn't have the range any more & his tempo & timing are pityful at times. He chooses to change the vocal melody on so many of the songs & often finds himself rushing the end of each line of lyrics to catch up with the next line! It's infuriating to listen to, especially when he's rarely in tune.

I hate to say this, but he should have overdubbed most of this performance & he should listen back to the performance & realise that volume does not make up for singing flat!

I wish I hadn't bought this, although I give it one star for the great backing band & vocals & a good documentary included on the bonus disc (UK version)

I'm a long-time Meatloaf fan and was really looking forward to this. While the old songs still stand up and and are great to hear, Meatloaf, at least in this concert, just doesn't cut it vocally. God bless him he's trying but the range and sound just isn't there anymore.