Meat Loaf's histrionics charge up sold-out show

Grand Guignol rock sung by a 59-year-old guy who could hardly hit the notes should have no place 30 years after its initial, silly triumph - right?

Stop right there.

Gotta know right now. Before we go any further. Don't you just love Meat Loaf - the big guy behind those histrionics who sold out the Tower on Saturday with classics from not one, but three, volumes of the mad, operatic Bat Out of Hell? The third, released just last year, may not have been up to his outrageously grandiose best.

But Loaf's roaring grandeur - Wagner meets Springsteen during a knife fight on E Street - was stuff that the Killers would die for.

The sweeping majesty that Mr. Loaf & Co. brought to the chant-worthy "Life Is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back" and the horny, punkish "If It Ain't Broke Break It" fabulously put the "o" into overblown.

That crack about Loaf's voice? Pipe down. Though Meat's seen better days, his thespian hamming and braying managed to sell even sadly shaky songs like "Two out of Three Ain't Bad."

Looking like an old football coach, Loaf kvetched his way through "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" until he'd wrung every ounce of pathos out of the sorry thing.

Loaf even brought his epic bigness down to his nuanced best, like "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are." The piano ballad could have passed for an old Tom Waits song (octaves higher, though) until Loaf, his girl singers and metal-flecked band hit its big rawk bridge.

Fact is, when Loaf was at his cackling best, through the Spectoresque thump of "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)" and the operatic, doo-wop powered "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" - complete with a weird, fake, make-out session with a scantily-dressed background singer - Meat actually sounded pretty mighty.

Two out of three, indeed.