Review by SueW:
I last saw Kasim play at Club Café in Pittsburgh back in 2002 and I’m sure that they’ve shrunk the place as it was far smaller than I remembered it! Goodness how they fit 150 people in there which is the number it’s allowed to hold! Unfortunately it was nowhere near full to capacity tonight but at least it meant that everyone had a seat. I’d bought a ticket online and I only had an e-mail confirmation so he asked to see my driving licence at the door. My type of UK driving licence doesn’t have a photo so I asked if he wanted to see photo ID and I had to laugh when he said that now it wasn’t necessary because as soon as I opened my mouth, he realised that I was the one person with a UK address that had reserved a ticket! There were only about as many people as at Schenectady (less than when he played here in 2002) but here there was one waitress who served everybody with food and drink in a timely fashion!

Kasim came on stage about 15 minutes late and played for about an hour and 20 minutes. I think the only song he played tonight that he didn’t play at all in Schenectady was Before She Was Gone. Once again Kasim started (without Doug) on the keyboards with Set Me Free before Doug walked on stage and they played Over For Now together. Kasim really does wallop those keys (the keyboard sounds very piano-ish) but once again Doug’s guitar was overshadowed a lot by the keyboards. Tonight a few times there was the faint sound of a radio station coming through the monitors!

After Somebody Loves You (I really need to find out what a “homeboy” is, plus knowing where Oyster Bay from Are You Happy Now is would be good too!) Kasim then went straight into Yellow Cab (complete with some do-dos at the end) before Kasim explained that I Don’t Mind At All is one of his favourite songs which is why he includes it in his sets. It really suits his voice too.

Next we had the Utopia section of Kasim’s set with Libertine straight into There Goes My Inspiration. Kasim said that he keeps telling Todd that Utopia should do another tour but the problem is that there just isn’t enough fans around. He continued that beside a few select areas promoters wouldn’t pick up on the tour but that Kasim is determined to keep trying to get them to do another one! Kasim then sung Todd Rundgren’s Cliché and spoke about how much he enjoyed working with Todd in The New Cars last year. Kasim also said that originally he was supposed to sing all the Ben Orr songs on the tour but that Todd ended up singing most of them! Someone shouted up that Kasim’s Drive was the highlight of the show so Kasim then sung that which was wonderful to hear. Afterwards Kasim spoke more about how much he enjoyed The New Cars tour and that he’d like to do more shows with the band in the future and that Elliot Easton is keen to play more.

It was then back to what we all came to hear – Kasim’s solo music! Sacrifice was first, followed by the song I was surprised not to hear in Schenectady – Before She Was Gone. Kasim then spoke about the fact that as soon as he reached 50, he was sent a membership pack to join AARP. (I must admit that this totally went over my head at the gig as I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about until I looked it up on online – it appears to be similar to what we call SAGA in UK!) He joked that he joined but that it wasn’t worth it! Earlier in the set Kasim had joked that really Doug ran everything and that he had to ask him about which songs to play and that we were supposed to ask Doug if we wanted to go to the bathroom during the set! As Kasim switched guitars Doug joked that we all had permission to go to the bathroom at that point if we wished! (Personally I thought that using The One Sure Thing as the loo-break song was a bad choice!) The One Sure Thing was just wonderful to hear live again!

Kasim then spoke at length about his forthcoming album All Sides. He explained that the songs he’s chosen from each of his 4 solo albums are his personal favourites (plus demos and the 3 new songs that he’s recently recorded). He also gave the release date as 25th February and played Minutes Slipping Past and Are You Happy Now from the album.

Doug Kennedy then left the stage and Kasim switched back to his keyboards to play In The Name Of Love and Love Alone. Kasim was then persuaded to stay and sing One World. Tonight Kasim got the crowd to do the “uh”s in the song but the rehearsals were sadly lacking initially! Thankfully they did them better during the song itself!

All too soon it was time for Kasim to leave the stage.

Roll on Ann Arbor tomorrow!

Click here for a batch of photos from this gig by RMAC.

Comments via e-mail and posted on various mailing lists and messageboards include:
"The attendance was rather poor....my friend counted 37 people including the 3 of us. I do believe *most* of the tables were occupied but it was an embarassing representation of the Pittsburgh fan base. At least those of us that did show were true fans!"

"Kaz was his congenial, grateful self as he chatted with his fans both during and after the show. "

"For any Kasim fan (or fan of great music & performance), this show is not be missed!"

"I definitely enjoyed seeing Kasim up close and personal again...it's been 4 yrs since he played solo in the 'burgh!"

"I find Kasim very soulful on the keys. Plus, he just doesn't hit a bad note when singing! If you have the chance to see this tour, I highly recommend it!"

"I think there were only 29 people there."

"Kaz does put his heart into every performance, regardless of how many people are there and is so genuine when he's thanking them afterwards."

Pre-show page on KasimInfo.com:
Click here

Many thanks to Deb Elliot for all the photos on this page.

Kasim Sulton's Winter 2007 Tour