POP MUSIC REVIEWS : LAME LOAF

If the idea of watching pro football coach-turned-broadcaster John Madden busting through walls in beer commercials for 90 minutes plus is your idea of entertainment, then you and your kind should’ve filled the other half of the house when Meat Loaf played the Palace on Wednesday night.

The histrionic Mr. Loaf burst upon the scene a decade ago with the “Bat Out of Hell” LP, a mega-platinum pastiche of Springsteenian bombast, freeze-dried arena rock and eyeball-rolling theatrics that was not unlike being trapped in a Mobius loop of “little bit softer now, little bit louder now” routines.

Fronting a five-piece rock band with two bottle-blond bondage vixens on backing vocals, the big-voiced Texan alternated between the 10-year-old hits and the comparatively more restrained corporate rock of his latest album, “Blind Before I Stop.” The performance of the latter gave rise to at least one wickedly--if unintentionally--humorous moment: Bringing hard-rock hackster John Parr on stage to reprise his cameo LP vocal role on a tune titled “Rock ‘n’ Roll Mercenaries.”

Whaddya mean just another one-hit wonder workin’ hard on the comeback trail? The man is already a household word.