Rock music has gifted us its fair share of bigger-than-life characters; individuals whose over-the-top stage presence is central to their presentation, their vocal or instrumental talent aside.

When he exploded onto the charts in 1977 via his debut studio album Bat Out Of Hell, Michael Lee Aday — a.k.a. Meat Loaf — was truly a sight to behold, his massive sweat-drenched frame drawing as much attention, if not more, as his huge singing voice and stage theatrics.

Backed by his band Neverland Express, Meat Loaf’s first post-album gig saw him open for Cheap Trick in Chicago. An appearance on Saturday Night Live followed. Suddenly everyone was talking about the massive singer who delivered like few prior.

If you’ve guessed it takes a special performer to come even remotely close to capturing the sound, look, and body-draining emotion that defined Meat Loaf, you’ve guessed right. Since 2013, John Saxon Doboe has brought the Grammy Award-winning rock music giant back to exhilarating life for fans of his music across North America.

On Wednesday, July 13th at Del Crary Park, Doboe will do his thing, fronting the All Revved Up Ultimate Meat Loaf Tribute as part of Peterborough Musicfest’s 35th season. As has been the case since July 1987, admission to the 8 p.m. concert is free.

Backed by a seven-piece band based out of Long Island, New York, Doboe will deliver Meat Loaf’s high-energy signature songs — a long and impressive list that includes “Bat Out Of Hell,” “Paradise By The Dashboard Light,” “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad,” and “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That),” which earned Meat Loaf a Grammy Award in 1994.

Beyond the talents of Doboe et al, the Musicfest audience will be treated to costume changes, choreography, and even comedy as All Revved Up pays tribute to Meat Loaf’s music catalogue produced and performed from 1977 to 2016 when Braver Than We Are, Meat Loaf’s 12th and final studio album, was released.

Shortly after Aday was born in Dallas, Texas — on November 22, 1963, at age 16, he was a witness to history as events unfolded at Parkland Hospital following JFK’s assassination — his father, noting his new son resembled ‘nine pounds of ground chuck,’ convinced nurses to write Meat on his crib ID card. Later, in grade school, classmates nicknamed him Meat Loaf, a reference to his five-foot two-inch 240-pound stature. That nickname stuck like glue to Aday ever after.

VIDEO: Highlights from All Revved Up Ultimate Meat Loaf Tribute

An actor originally — he appeared in stage productions of Hair and The Rocky Horror Picture Show as well as in the 1975 cult film version of the latter — Meat Loaf burst onto the charts in 1977 with his debut album Bat Out Of Hell. Central to his initial success was his involvement with lyricist and producer Jim Steinman who composed the tracks for the Todd Rundgren-produced album.

To say Bat Out Of Hell proved to be a blockbuster debut is a major understatement.

The album’s classic cover featuring a long-haired man on a motorcycle bursting forth from a cemetery — designed by the late American illustrator and comic book artist Richard Corben, best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine — heralded the goods inside in the form of the title track along with “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad,” “You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth” and “Paradise By The Dashboard Light,” the latter augmented by a memorable shared vocal with Ellen Foley that’s stilled hailed as one of the greatest rock duets of all time.

Bat Out Of Hell sold some 43 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time, certified 14 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and still selling some 200,000 copies annually to this day. It also formed the basis of a stage musical brought to life in 2017 in England and later presented in Toronto at the Ed Mirvish Theatre.

While Meat Leaf continued to record with considerable success over the ensuing years, his output never matched the reception granted his debut album.

The follow-up album, 1981’s Dead Ringer, inevitably didn’t live up to critics’ expectations, and subsequent albums Midnight At The Lost And Found (1983), Bad Attitude (1984) and Blind Before I Stop (1986) similarly did little to recapture his debut’s success.

However, in 1993, with the release of Bat Of Out Hell II: Back Into Hell, the single “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do that)” brought Meat Loaf another chart-topping hit and a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.

Besides his music career, Meat Life returned to his acting roots, appearing in a number of feature films and television shows up until 2017.

Besieged by a number of medical issues — Meat Loaf was diagnosed in 2003 with Wolfe-Parkinson-White syndrome that causes a rapid heartbeat, and was also severely asthmatic — he was a vocal anti-vaxxer during the COVID-19 pandemic. On January 20, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee, Meat Loaf died in hospital. While no official cause of death has been provided, he was reported to have earlier contracted the COVID-19 virus.

VIDEO: “Paradise By The Dashboard Light” – Meat Loaf

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 16 free-admission concerts during its milestone 35th anniversary season, each staged Wednesday and Saturday nights at Del Crary Park in downtown Peterborough.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission remains “to provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert or the entire 2022 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.

Every Thursday, we publish live music events at pubs and restaurants in Peterborough and the greater Kawarthas region based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, July 7 to Wednesday, July 13.

If you’re a pub or restaurant owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our nightlifeNOW editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com. For concerts and live music events at other venues, check out our Concerts & Live Music page.

In the music business, strength in numbers on its own doesn’t guarantee lasting success. But strength in talent … well, now you’re on to something.

Since forming in Vancouver in 1997, indie rock band The New Pornographers’ success has been, and remains, a testament to the musical magic that is inevitable when the talented come together as one entity.

With eight studio albums to its credit — the latest being In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights — a winning formula of combining multi-vocalists with power pop elements has consistently won the The New Pornographers critical acclaim and a legion of fans.

On Saturday, July 9th at Del Crary Park, all the evidence one needs of the truth of that statement will be revealed when The New Pornographers take the stage for Peterborough Musicfest’s 35th season. As always, admission to the 8 p.m. concert is free.

The band’s attention-grabbing name was chosen by singer and guitarist Carl Newman, who was inspired by the 1966 Japanese satirical film The Pornographers as well as a song of the same name on the first record of fellow Vancouver indie rock band The Destroyers. He also thought it was ridiculous when bands use “new” in their name, like the British pop group The New Seekers (formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his Australian group The Seekers), so he added that to the name.

These days, however, the band sides with the popular belief the name comes from a quote by televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who once called rock ‘n’ roll “the new pornography.”

“That came after the fact,” Newman says in a 2019 interview with Chart Attack. “Somebody told me that and I thought it was so good that I was going to make it my new story.”

VIDEO: “Letter From an Occupant” – The New Pornographers

Three years in the making, the band released its debut album Mass Romantic in 2000 — the first of four albums voted into the Top 40 of The Village Voice’s Jazz and Pop annual poll of hundreds of music reviewers.

The record also won the 2001 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year.

In a December 2021 interview with Jonathan Dekel published in The Toronto Star, Newman said the initial critical review of Mass Romantic produced a revelation that still resonates.

“I was seated in our publicist’s office and I remember reading the first rave review of the album,” Newman recalls. “It was the first time I’d ever gotten a glowing review like that. They were just going ‘This is an absolute masterpiece’ and I remember thinking ‘Holy shit, this is the beginning of something really big.'”

Newman couldn’t have been more right.

From 2000 to 2006, either one of the band’s albums, or a solo album released by one of the band’s members, ranked in the top 40 on Village Voice’s poll list each year. The band’s third studio album, 2005’s Twin Cinema, was nominated for the 2006 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year.

VIDEO: “Your Hands (Together)” – The New Pornographers

In 2007, Blender magazine ranked Mass Romantic the 24th best indie album of all time. And, in 2009, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the band’s second studio album, Electric Version, at number 79 in its listing of the 100 Best Albums of the Decade.

More than two decades since the release of Mass Romantic, Newman remembers thinking it was “another mediocre album.”

“When the record came out, it was like the world had to convince me that it was good,” he says.

It was good — very good — and listeners were yearning for more from Newman et al.

Of note, each of the The New Pornographers’ original members was doing very well in Vancouver music circles prior to coming together.

Notable among them is singer Neko Case, whose exceptional career as a solo artist saw her release seven albums and receive a Grammy Award nomination in 2014 for Best Alternative Music Album for 2013’s The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You — likely the longest record title in the history of music, modern or otherwise.

VIDEO: “Champions of Red Wine” – The New Pornographers

“Ironically, I now see Neko more than I ever have before,” notes Newman. “When we were making Mass Romantic, we had to fight to get her into the studio for like a day or two over the course of two years.”

Alongside Newman and Case, the current band lineup features original members John Collins (bass) and Dan Bejar (vocals/guitar). Also in the mix are Todd Fancey (lead guitar), Kathryn Calder (vocals/keyboards/guitar), and Joe Seiders (drums/vocals). Touring with the band as a backing vocalist and percussionist since coming into the fold in 2021 is Nora O’Connor.

The New Pornographers’ latest album, In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights, was released in 2019 and has brought forth three singles to date, the first being “Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile” followed by “The Surprise Knock” and “One Kind Of Solomon.”

Earlier high-charting singles in Canada include “Your Hands (Together)” (2010), “Brill Bruisers” (2014), and “High Ticket Attractions” (2017).

“Ultimately, we never became super famous but it got to a point that I always dreamed about,” reflects Newman. “All of the bands that I loved were underground bands signed to (prominent indie labels) Matador, Merge, or Sub Pop. To become one of those bands was a dream come true.”

With Pitchfork having recently named The New Pornographers one of its most influential artists of the past 25 years and a late 2021 re-issue of Mass Romantic drawing new listeners while quenching the enduring thirst of longtime fans, Newman says — tongue in cheek, or perhaps not — Newman’s coming around to the band being seen as “an oldies” act.

VIDEO: “Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile” – The New Pornographers

“I think it’s for somebody else to look at us and go ‘Look at those geezers,'” he says. “We’re just going to be onstage and just feel like ‘Yeah, it’s us.'”

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 16 free-admission concerts during its milestone 35th anniversary season, each staged Wednesday and Saturday nights at Del Crary Park in downtown Peterborough.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission remains “to provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert or the entire 2022 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.