Meat Loaf: 3 Bats Live (2007)

Embarrasing performance

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. September 4, 2008

Meat past his best - his vocals have gone!

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) August 12, 2008

Meat CAN still deliver

Based on other reviews, I was kind of skeptical to buy Meat's lastest DVD performance. Then, one night DirecTV had an edited (shortened) version of the concert on one of its music networks and I was fortunate enough to catch it. Meat Loaf rocked! After that, I immediately bought the DVD for myself to the see concert in full. What a show! Meat's vocals were pretty much on the mark all night...the only exception being "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth." He seemed to struggle a bit on that one. Aspen Miller did a great job being Meat's leading lady as well. The rest of the band was flawless with their musicianship...Paul, Randy, John, Mark, Kasim, and of course C.C. all rock! Also, Meat delivered worthy covers of Black Betty and Gimme Shelter. Considering his age, and the fact that this DVD was recorded on the tour that he would later discontinue because of a cyst on his vocal chords, Meat Loaf gave a great show...like he always does! June 25, 2008

3 bats live

It is great. Every thing you could ever want from a Meat Loaf concert. Have watched it several times. Its one you will never get tired of. May 27, 2008

3 Bats Live: Great Band...Struggling Meat Loaf

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.



April 14, 2008

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