Review by SueW:
When we walked in at just past 7.00pm, we were the first ones there which was slightly worrying but thankfully there was a good sized crowd by the time Kasim came on stage. The crowd wasn’t as large as the last time he played here (but then there was very little publicity for this gig again) but it’s so much better when he plays at the beginning of the evening as there isn’t the constant interruption of people coming and going once he’s started. There was supposed to be an act before his but thankfully she never turned up!

Kasim started his set by telling us that Julie-Ann Moore thinks he’s cute! (We discovered afterwards that she’d seen him in a restaurant before the show and remarked on that to some people!) Kasim then went straight into Somebody Loves You and Yellow Cab. Those songs make a really great start to his set and Dennis’ background vocals on Yellow Cab especially really improve the song tenfold!

They then went straight into Utopia’s Libertine (the first of several Utopia songs tonight) before Kasim started talking. He explained that he’d just spent the last two weeks in rehearsals with Meat Loaf – they’d even had another rehearsal this afternoon before tomorrow’s radio show in Boston. Considering how much singing Kasim must have done recently it was amazing tonight how great his voice sounded as it showed absolutely no signs of wear at all. Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for their guitars as they (Kasim especially) spent a lot of the time between sets tuning. A few people mentioned afterwards that they thought Kasim looked tired but I mainly noticed that he waffled on and lost his thought train a bit more than normal (but it made for a really amusing gig and was hardly surprising in the circumstances).

Nik Kershaw’s Jane Doe was next (another song that shows off Kasim’s vocals really well) and in the part where there’s a break in the song and Kasim usually does a loud sigh tonight he said "Julie-Ann Moore thinks I’m cute"!!

Kasim then told us that he’s going to be doing something that he’s never done before – playing in two bands at once! He explained that he’ll be going "kinda" on the road with Meat Loaf plus playing about 11 of The New Cars gigs. Kasim said that the Meat Loaf work included concerts at The Palace Theater on Broadway, The Mohegan Sun, one in Toronto and the Jimmy Kimmel show in Los Angeles, plus that they’d be playing for The Queen! He joked that it was The Queen down at 23rd Street and 10th Avenue before he mentioned that he’d already played for Prince Charles and now they’d be playing for The Queen of England. When Kasim said that he would be playing some of The New Cars gigs it received quite a large round of applause. This neatly led into The Cars’ Drive.

Kasim then went straight into There Goes My Inspiration and got us (mainly Shelley!) to sing the third chorus! Kasim next introduced the Double Ds – Dennis DelGaudio and Doug Kennedy. Kasim joked that Doug plays too loud for Kasim and then clarified that he meant during Doug’s solo to which the response was "it’s supposed to be loud"! We then heard the best news of the evening that Kasim has been writing new songs and that he has completed more than the two he was going to play tonight!! Hopefully his new album IS getting closer! Kasim explained that Are You Happy Now was written with two guys from London and is about a girl from high school who grows up and becomes a different person and forgets about the guy she knew back in high school. Tonight however I’m pretty sure that Kasim changed the song slightly. Although he sang about still being in Staten Island a world and a half away, I thought that on previous occasions he’s sang about a girl with long blonde hair but tonight it was long red hair.

Before She Was Gone was next before Kasim "accidentally" went into a brief bit of Anything For Love and then Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad! The crowd tried to persuade him to sing Two Outta Three and he started fine with the first couple of lines but then sang a line from the second verse and finished with singing that he wished we hadn’t made him sing the song as he was so tired of it! He also exclaimed that he couldn’t believe that people had it as a wedding song – "I want you, I need you but there’s no way I’m ever going to love you"!.

Kasim explaining Two Outta Three:

Kasim told us that it was his last solo show for a while (but he will be back in December / January!!) and then sang The One Sure Thing which was just beautiful. They then switched back to their original guitars and sang Sacrifice which was hilarious as Kasim made Doug play his (loud!) solo twice!

Next Kasim said that he only had time for a couple more songs and launched into his classic Don’t Hold Me Back. His voice was really strong on this song and he hit every note perfectly (unfortunately his guitar didn’t though!). People in the audience then asked for requests (Lysterita, Swing To The Right and Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer were apparently suggestions!) until Kris suggested that he sang one of his own songs so he sang his serious Minutes Slipping Past. As Kasim had just sung Don’t Hold Me Back (a loud song) his microphone was turned up loud and his face was just a picture at his brother Alex who was doing the sound when he started singing Minutes Slipping Past (a much quieter song) and he realised that he hadn’t turned it down! If looks could kill….!

One World was next and was a really great finale to an amazing tour! If there was any justice in the world then Kasim would be able to stop playing with artists like Meat Loaf and The New Cars and just play his own brilliant solo gigs full-time.

The good news is that it’s only 121 days until his re-scheduled gig in Valparaiso but he WILL be playing some more solo gigs before that!!!

Pre-show page on KasimInfo.com:
Click here

Kasim Sulton's 2006 Tour