Some artists go soft in their old age, but at age 62, Marvin Lee Aday isn't about to serve up the same old leftover Meat Loaf. After spinning a career out of the seven epic piano rockers and sweeping ballads on 1977's Bat Out of Hell, the Dallas native turned his back on a promising future in Southern California Jimmy John's franchises to unleash a whole new album earlier this year. Hang Cool, Teddy Bear is all hard-boiled attitude; Meat's got no patience for namby-pamby ballads this time around; he's older, he's angier, and he's got a problem. It's in his pants, and in "California (Isn't Big Enough)" he'll tell you all about it. If you know Loaf's preceding record, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, you might already have an idea. If nothing else, his latest bout of in-your-face lyricism proves you can't cut a man down for jumping the shark in his later years, if his entire career has been one unending, operatic, shark-jumping, hog-back circus ride through a ring of hellfire--nearly, but not quite, broken by a dalliance with sandwiches. Meat Loaf's daughter Pearl opens his show this Thursday at the House of Blues; doors are at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $34 to $100. Call 214-978-2583 or visit houseofblues.com.
Thu., Aug. 26, 8 p.m., 2010