The staff here were all really friendly too - one of them even asked us all as we left if we'd enjoyed the set! While we were waiting for Kasim to arrive, Dennis was already on stage and he jokingly moaned that he had nowhere to put his bottle of water so the sound guy went and got him a table. Dennis also joked that he wanted a cup holder attached to the microphone stand to be put in the rider!

Kasim came out wearing a smart black suit and a white shirt. Previously I'd joked that this could be called the "tight blue jeans tour" but not tonight! Kasim said that they were going to get straight into it and they played the tour openers of Somebody Loves You and Yellow Cab.

Kasim then introduced Dennis DelGaudio and said that he normally has Doug Kennedy on stage with him too but joked that he'd been arrested last night and that Kasim had refused to bail him out as he was sure that whatever he'd been accused of doing, he had done! They then played Before She Was Gone with some really great background vocals from Dennis again! He really is such an asset to these gigs and Kasim's voice tonight was excellent (especially in the One Sure Thing when he seemed to sing it slightly lower than normal).

Kasim then told a funny story about Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing before they played the song. When Kasim used to play his gigs totally solo back in 2001 he used to joke in the musical part for his imaginary band to "take it" but tonight he just told Dennis to play lead on that part which was great to hear.

Kasim next told us that he'd lived on Staten Island for about 45 years now (which he said was surprising as he's only 27!). He also remarked that he was surprised that he'd managed to make a living as a musician for 30 years now (it's no surprise to us!). Kasim joked that people he met here would ask him for certain songs but that he doesn't do requests! He then sang Bourgeois Tagge's I Don't Mind At All (a song he said that he wishes he'd wrote) before going straight into Utopia's There Goes My Inspiration and then Libertine.

Kasim then told us that if we wanted to buy a copy of his CD Quid Pro Quo from this show that we were SOL (I had to ask someone what that meant!) but that we could leave our names and he'd get them sent out. He explained the reason was that by the time he went to his storage place today they were already closed and the reason that he was so late was because he'd been working for Meat Loaf for the past couple of weeks auditioning a new girl singer to replace Patti Russo. He said that today was the last day of auditions (they'd seen about 15) and today finally found one who was suitable. Kasim also said that he'd been writing new songs himself and played Are You Happy Now and Minutes Slipping Past from his next album.

After Don't Hold Me Back and before The One Sure Thing, Kasim spoke about how much he enjoys doing these solo gigs compared to playing with other people and about how important they are to him! He also spoke about his 773 mile journey to Greenville, SC and back and then a few days later the 500 mile trip to Cleveland, Ohio. When he speaks about those trips, it always makes me laugh as years ago we spoke about a long distance we were both going to do - Kasim in a tour bus (with video, beds to sleep in, coffee on tap etc) and me in a car doing the actual driving. I knew at the time that he didn't realise what it was like to have to actually drive it but now I think he does! The way Kasim spoke tonight was that although he had to drive such long distances for his solo gigs, he really loves playing his own gigs so much! I just wish he'd play more.

As I wrote earlier, it was a really great performance of The One Sure Thing tonight before they played Sacrifice (with that great muted guitar string part that I like so much!) and then Dennis had to leave! Kasim joked that he was going off to bail Doug out of jail! Kasim then spoke about his admiration for Todd Rundgren and played his great performance of Cliché.

After a lot of re-tuning of his guitar Kasim played Fairest Lord Jesus before his final song One World (well, Michelle was in the audience!!). After that I was hoping he'd do an encore but unfortunately he didn't. However he had played for almost 90 minutes by then and let's be honest, even if Kasim had played for 3 hours, it wouldn't have been long enough for me!

Tonight will definitely be filed in my memory as one of my favourite gigs on this 2006 tour of Kasim's! I spoke to a young boy there after the show who is about 11 and has just started learning the guitar and he was just bowled over about how great Kasim's set was! It's amazing how Kasim's music can affect people of all ages in this way.

It's just such a shame that we only have one more gig left now!!

Photo by OCSheri

Kasim Sulton:
Kasim described the gig as "Played for the hometown crowd last night. Last time I did a gig here on 'the Island' was a few years back and I chose a place that was better suited for drinking than it was for listening to music. That wasn't the case last night and I found it much more enjoyable. I actually had a great time playing for my 'peeps' and everyone else in attendance. Of course having my Mom in the front row was a little disconcerting because I had to watch my language but all in all, it was an extremely enjoyable evening. I look forward to returning to The Cup sometime in the not too distant future."

Pre-show page on KasimInfo.com:
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Kasim Sulton's 2006 Tour