Review by SueW:
This has been rather a culture shock for me as I’ve seen more snow in the last 24 hours than I have the rest of my life! Apparently the forecast was for about a foot of snow in Cleveland. Thankfully we didn’t have anywhere near that but if this gig had been in UK, it certainly would have been cancelled but being the hardy MidWest it went ahead, and on time too!

I missed Kasim’s gig here in August but two people remarked to me that there were less people here than back then (5 months to the day!) but there was still about 70 people so it was double what he’s had at his last couple of shows this week. I was last here at The Beachland Ballroom in 2002 and they’ve had a bit of a refurb as all the booths have been removed so more people can fit in as they have rows of seats now. Unfortunately they haven’t raised the stage so I could only just see Kasim’s head and shoulders above someone a couple of rows in front of me!

The opening act was Nick Riff who played for about 40 minutes. My favourite song that he played was Mystified (not the Utopia song but one he wrote). That song had some weird guitar sound in it that took a while to work out how it was played! It was great to see that he stayed and watched (and seemed to really enjoy) Kasim’s set afterwards too.

Kasim came on stage at about 8.30pm and he really looked the best he has all tour! He was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt with a snazzy velvet looking jacket. He took his glasses off for most of the set but the best news is that he’s obviously been to a chemist as he’s shaved off his beard (and 10-15 years off his appearance!). The music was very loud tonight but thankfully both Kasim and Doug’s instruments were well balanced so neither overshadowed the other!

We had the usual Kasim-plays-Set-Me-Free-on-the-keyboards-on-his-own-and-then-Doug-Kennedy-joins-in-for-Over-For-Now beginning to the set. Kasim then switched to guitar and played Somebody Loves You and then went straight into Yellow Cab. Next Kasim spoke about how he’d had to get up early today for the radio show so afterwards he’d returned to his hotel for a nap and then had watched a Styx video on VH-1 and about their weird movements in it! He explained that that is why in videos he’s always quite static!

I Don’t Mind At All was next followed by Libertine (with Kasim breaking a string in the song). Someone next suggested that Kasim played The Wheel but he joked that the song (and especially the bass part) was the most boring tune to play! They then played There Goes My Inspiration. All through the show there were people (especially at the bar) calling out (which often seems to happen in Cleveland!) and at this point of the show the guy that was chatting to Kasim said that he couldn’t make his last show here as he was in jail at the time!

Kasim then played Todd Rundgren’s Cliché which led into him neatly discussing playing with Todd in The New Cars. Kasim told us that it was after the concert at the Blossom Music Center that the accident happened and he explained that he was asleep in his bunk and he was first aware of the event when his curtains violently flew open which is when Elliot broke his shoulder as he was flung from one end of the bus to the other. He then sang Drive before switching guitars to play his spell-bounding The One Sure Thing. Kasim then spoke at length about his forthcoming album All Sides (release date 25th February) and played Are You Happy Now from it.

Kasim told us that he’s driving to Valparaiso tonight after the show and then sung Minutes Slipping Past before going back to the keyboards to sing In The Name Of Love which he said is also from All Sides. Doug then left the stage before Kasim sang Love Alone on his own. That song received a tremendous round of applause!

Doug then came back on stage to play the final song (One World) but Kasim realised that they’d forgotten Sacrifice (again, as they did in Ann Arbor too!). Kasim then did some banter with Doug (apparently he can’t use windscreen wipers correctly!) and asked Doug what was the one thing that he had taught him…apparently it was that “if you act like a victim, you’ll become a victim”! Kasim told us that they’d eaten in a Bob Evans (a family restaurant) in Ann Arbor and Doug had insisted on taking his guitars and luggage in with him!

After Sacrifice there was a load of discussion as Kasim said that he was going to only sing one more song but we managed to barter him up to 3 songs which was brilliant! First of all they played One World (after we’d practiced the “huh’s”!) and then John Lennon’s beautiful Across The Universe (for the first time on this tour) before ending with Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing.

Kasim then left the stage and went straight to the mens (the loos are right behind the stage here!) . When he came out people started clapping and cheering again and I was just saying to my friend that they’re wasting his time as he won’t come back when he walked back on stage (minus his jacket) so we actually got a proper encore which was just brilliant! For a fan like me whose going to all the shows (okay there isn’t a fan like me whose going to all the shows!), it was great as it meant the set was quite different to the others! Although Kasim’s patter is different at every show, with him having a limited set list, it’s so nice to see when he changes things a bit! Kasim’s final song was Don’t Hold Me Back before he left the stage for good!

Roll on Chicago tomorrow!

Pre-show page on KasimInfo.com:
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Kasim Sulton's Winter 2007 Tour