Yellow Submarine
It was a sell out Friday night crowd at The Ahoy in Rotterdam. The venue was packed but not uncomfortably so as in Antwerp. There was still room for people to do a conga around the room in one track and others were waltzing in another!
Rob Di Nise made his first appearance at the concert and was very popular with the crowd as he’s Dutch. He sang two songs but I couldn’t tell which one was Malle Babbe as his pronunciation wasn’t that clear. Both songs seemed to require a lot of phlegm in order to sing them! What a shame there isn’t a recording of Kasim’s version of the song! According to a Dutch friend, Babbe is short for Babbette (a Dutch / French name) and malle means “silly”.
Meat Loaf’s set tonight was 44 and three quarters minutes long (probably the longest of the tour so far) and his voice is still sounding okay to me (not as good as Kasim’s though!). As I’ve said before (but my hopes are fast fading) although I would prefer to hear Bat Out Of Hell, this set really works well with the Dutch crowd as they love the theatrics of Paradise. It’s actually quite a well thought out set list as Home By Now / No Matter What is the more serene song that leads in You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth with some gentle clapping before the crowd gets rowdy in Anything For Love and then they go berserk in Paradise By The Dashboard Light!
I know I’ve mentioned it before but if you tune out Meat Loaf’s vocals (as I do!) during No Matter What / Home By Now, Kasim’s voice is SO good in that track. There’s one part when he sings “Aah” at four different levels, gradually getting higher and louder, and his notes are spot on every night!
I was up in one of the balconies tonight so I could see all the stage (and therefore Kasim’s wanders around stage) quite clearly and he’s still standing towards the back of the stage talking to Laurie Wisefield while Meat Loaf and Patti Russo are doing the “screwing around” part of Anything For Love. (Sometimes that part takes so long that he could be off stage sitting down with a cup of tea!) They then both come to the front of the stage together for the start of Paradise By The Dashboard Light. During the theatrical part, tonight Kasim just went and stood at the back of the orchestra while they were being conducted into sitting and standing - even the more staid members of the orchestra join in with that!
Tonight at the beginning of that song, Meat Loaf got the first violinist (Kasim’s jolting partner!) to stand beside Laurie Wisefield playing which was impressive. Laurie is a very talented guitarist - I just couldn’t imagine Damon La Scott being able to do the spot like that.
As usual we all had to sing the word “Light” but tonight Meat consulted with the orchestra before deciding that we didn’t sing it loud enough and then they all walked off! Some of them even got as far as the steps off the stage!
There were a few balloons being tossed around the venue tonight and during Yellow Submarine one had managed to get to the orchestra and they kept it in the air. I noticed that Meat Loaf, Mark Alexander and Kasim all had a go at hitting it until someone accidentally burst it with his violin bow! Kasim clapped at that point so I wondered if this is an American thing as when balloons burst in UK, it’s usually followed by floods of tears (the children get quite upset too!!!). The line to slap Meat Loaf’s hand was longer than ever tonight! Even some of the (older) guys with the double basses were leaning across to join in too!
I’m not quite sure who was singing the descant part of Yellow Submarine but either they weren’t singing strong enough or their microphone was too low but it wasn’t coming out too well. Thankfully Martin Fry got Kasim to sing into his microphone for the last line so that part sounded really strong!
It’s like it’s Christmas every day with me seeing Kasim on stage every night but it’s also really making me look forward to Kasim’s solo shows early next year more and more each night!
Roll on tomorrow night…..!
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