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Bully Don't Hold Me Back Afraid Himself To Be Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing Before She Was Gone Back On The Street The One Sure Thing There Goes My Inspiration Ticket To Ride Cliché It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference This Must Be Love Across The Universe One World Set Me Free Somebody Loves You 
I love the American summers and the fact that it's still so warm in the evenings - I didn't need my jacket until about 8.00pm even though we were right by the lake. It was great to meet up with loads of Kasim fans there (and to meet some new ones) so there was a great atmosphere while we were waiting for Kasim's set to begin! Michele Rundgren was in the audience, as was Merf! When Kasim is on stage I tend to ignore everything else that is going on around me (sorry Kendra for ignoring you!) but someone said afterwards that he turned round and there were about 200 people there! Kasim walked on stage promptly at 7.30pm, said hello and then asked us to give him two seconds to do his soundcheck - it took him about 2 minutes! Kasim then went straight from his soundcheck into Bully. It was hard to point out where the soundcheck finished and Bully started!
 I began to think that this was the anti-Quid Pro Quo gig as Kasim started off by singing Bully, Don't Hold Me Back, Afraid Himself To Be and then Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing - none of the new songs from Quid Pro Quo. Other than a quick "thank you" after Don't Hold Me Back, it took a while for Kasim to talk on stage - maybe he'd talked himself out earlier that day at the Clinic! At one part in Afraid Himself To Be Kasim sang it really slowly which was very effective! In Don't Hold Me Back Kasim sang a VERY strong "strong" and nailed the next note absolutely perfectly which is always a good sign for his voice being great at a gig. In Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing when it got to the musical part, Kasim said his "take it boys" to his imaginary band as he often does but later after the song he again said that he wished he had a band with him. Kasim then mentioned Quid Pro Quo (which unfortunately didn't appear to be on sale at Summerfest) before he sang Before She Was Gone.
 Next Kasim told us that he was getting to bed last night at about 11.00pm when the (mini) earthquake happened. He described it as "that was a bit of a shake-up" and demonstrated by shaking his guitar. He then joked that this was Wisconsin and that they're not supposed to get earthquakes there! Kasim's comment "I used to be in a band called Utopia" received a massive cheer that they must have heard at the other stages in Summerfest. He then said "What would a Kasim Sulton solo show be without a Utopia song?"! He asked for a bottle of water before he sang Back On The Street. During the song he received a bottle of water from the Interstate Music guy and two bottles of water from the sound guy which made the audience all laugh and clap! Kasim had a really big smile on his face at that point! During Back On The Street there was one point when Kasim didn't quite hit the high note so instead he sang that part really deeply the next time which I thought was a nice touch! At the end of Back On The Street Kasim broke a string on his guitar. He kept playing so most people I doubt noticed it. He then said that his plan was to play most of the songs on that guitar and just a couple on his other guitar (as it's tuned differently) but he got Jeff Gauss up to replace his string for him (although in the end he didn't ever go back to that guitar). We then had my favourite song from Quid Pro Quo - it was just brilliant to hear Kasim's acoustic version of that song again! (I didn't take any video during that.)
 Next we had Kasim's "homage" to Todd Rundgren so he sang There Goes My Inspiration. For the first time ever Kasim then went straight into Ticket To Ride which made a nice link. He then went back to the Todd songs and sang Cliché and It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference. Kasim told us about the story behind This Must Be Love - how he recorded it in his basement and how it became the inspiration for his first solo album Kasim ("a neat little record"). Next Kasim sang one of his newest songs, Sacrifice and he played it with the muted guitar strings that I so miss off Quid Pro Quo now! Forget what Kasim said this afternoon at the Clinic as this song DEFINITELY has more than 3 chords in it!! After Across The Universe Kasim told us how he decided to play it in Liverpool, England in July 2002 when he was playing an opening set for Meat Loaf and that at the rehearsal he totally blanked on the words and that nobody else around him could remember them either! He then had to get online to print them out! One World was just brilliant tonight - everybody was clapping even right from the beginning of the song! Kasim got the audience to sing a chorus by ourselves which I haven't known him to do before. After he finished the song, some people even continued singing it which was a nice touch.
 Kasim then said that he wasn't going to play this song but that he would and he sang Set Me Free. I'm not sure how he expected to play a solo set without that song! Kasim did say that he was working on his new album (another cheer!) but that he didn't have anything ready to play yet - "what a tease"! He said that he hopes that by the end of the year to have some new music up on his website. During Set Me Free there was a part when he sang "Cos you just don't give a damn so please Kasim start playing with a band"! After the song Kasim said that he is in the process of getting a band together and he is "in talks about playing an eight weekend tour". Kasim's final song was the Nik Kershaw song Somebody Loves You. Kasim actually introduced it as his final song but someone from the audience shouted out that he should sing two more so Kasim said "You're not really in a position to negotiate"! Then immediately someone from Summerfest walked to the side of the stage and told Kasim that he only had 10 more minutes to play! Kasim explained that he only had one more song anyway! This was the first time that Kasim has sung Somebody Loves Me on stage and, just like Afraid Himself To Be, he's picked a song that not only suits his voice but the words are so appropiate to him too. After the show Kasim said that he's already been asked to play at Summerfest 2005 so fingers crossed that it happens!
Comments about Kasim at this gig taken from various messageboards and mailing lists include:
"I was pleasantly surprised at the number of folks who knew Kasim's music from QPQ that obviously grooved along w/ the songs. I'm guessing by the end of the show the crowd had much more than doubled in size."
"I thought Kasim's set was brilliant! (Better than Dock Street IMHO as he seemed more rehearsed and as though he wanted to be there.) "
"The gig was almost perfect. Kasim was in fine voice - he gave us a lot of his own songs, along with some Utopia greats and I think 2 Beatles songs."
"The show was just fantastic. Kas did a nice variety of song sand I have many favorites from Utopia but "Back on the Street "is one of them along with "Cliche"."
"I think that was the best solo Kas show I've ever seen. What a fantastic night."
"The show was fabulous and the best I have seen/heard him do- great pacing, song selection, interaction with crowd, and stories...simply wonderful. He was also very accessible and cordial after the show, taking time for the fans with autographs and pictures."
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