Review: Meat Loaf at the Paramount Theater

Sure, Meat Loaf gave the people what they wanted on Friday night (Dec. 5) when he served up plenty of his biggest hits during his show at Asbury Park's Paramount Theater. However, from the evening's opening number - a cover of the Eagles of Death Metal's "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)" - it was clear that the singer and his band were determined to keep things interesting.

For a hits-filled evening that kept the bulk of the audience members on their feet all night long, the show had its fair share of puzzling moments, such as Meat Loaf donning a Larry the Cable Guy-like costume and telling "redneck" jokes before "Dead Ringer for Love," giving a speech against the ego-stroking nature of encores only to do one a few numbers later and performing only the second half of "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth," while singing part of the song to a Wolf Man doll.

However, what should have been one of the night's stranger moments turned out to be one of its more poignant. As his band launched into the prom night favorite "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" mid-way through the show, Loaf took the stage in a long wig and a tuxedo shirt bib, harkening back to the look from his late-70s heyday.

While the costume could have seemed like the singer was catering too much to the nostalgia crowd, he played it with a knowing wink and nod until the song's final refrain. With the audience singing "it was long ago and it was far away and it was so much better than it is today," Loaf took off the wig and the bib, revealing himself for who he is today, 31 years after that song was first released, still passionately bringing the favorites to a devoted audience.

From "Paradise" until the end of the night, the show was all hits, even if some of them weren't Meat Loaf's. The singer closed out his main set with a pair of surprising covers, the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" and the Beatles' "Why Don't We Do it in the Road?" While those two staples of classic rock radio should by all rights have no tread left on them at this point, Loaf and his band seemed to have a blast playing them.

Before delivering a tender take on "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" which he claimed was his first time performing the song in New Jersey, Meat Loaf also dropped a bit of news on the Asbury Park crowd when he revealed that he is currently working with Rob Cavallo, the producer behind Green Day's "American Idiot" and My Chemical Romance's "The Black Parade," on a new album.

With a singer and a producer both known for their sense of bombast, that album should be one for rock fans to keep on their radar.

Here's the set list from Friday night:

1. "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)"
2. "If it Ain't Broke, Break It"
3. "Out of the Frying Pan (And Into the Fire)"
4. "Life is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back"
5. "Dead Ringer for Love"
6. Band instrumental
7. "Paradise by the Dashboard Light"
8. "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)"
9. "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad"
10. "Bat out of Hell"
11. "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through"
12. "Roadhouse Blues"
13. "Why Don't We Do it in the Road?"

Encore:
14. "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth"