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Are You Happy Now Yellow Cab Set Me Free Sacrifice Summer's Gone The One Sure Thing Watching The World Go By The God Of Low Over For Now Mimi Gets Mad The Up Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing Don't Hold Me Back Do You Love Me 
The Kasim Sulton Band played their second gig tonight and it was a great sucess! They played for about ninety five minutes.
The set list was the same as their gig in Resisterstown, MD on Friday evening except that Mimi Gets Mad and The Up were switched and Don't Hold Me Back was played instead of Cliché.
Review by SueW:
Unfortunately the lighting wasn’t as good as in Reisterstown to take photos (at least with my camera). I managed to get a couple of half-decent ones of Kasim but, as we sat so close (not my choice!), I didn’t feel comfortable taking as many pictures tonight and, once again, both Mark and Mike were not lit well enough to get photos of them with my camera. Tonight I could see Tad slightly better but he had a drum microphone stand in the small gap between his cymbals and drums so I couldn’t have got a clear shot of him even if he was better lit. I did notice though that he doesn’t sing background vocals but thankfully tonight both Mark and Mike’s microphones were louder (at least where I was sitting). I thought the sound overall was pretty good in the venue, thankfully not too loud which can be a problem at smaller venues.
The Kasim Sulton Band came on stage just after 9pm after someone had announced them over the tannoy. Unfortunately it was someone who didn’t know how to pronounce Kasim’s name correctly as during the evening he said “Kazzem” 3 times! They received a massive round of applause as they walked on stage. After asking us how we all were, Kasim gave his set list to someone on the front table and asked her to tell him the next song through the gig as he didn’t have his glasses with him!
Their first song was Nik Kershaw’s Somebody Loves You which was well received and then they went almost straight into Are You Happy Now? In fact the set was identical to their gig in Reisterstown on Friday except that Mimi Gets Mad and The Up were switched and Kasim sang Don’t Hold Me Back instead of Cliché.
Next Kasim said that this was their second show (not that you could have told from tonight’s performance) and that he had “blown” his voice out during rehearsals. Personally I thought his voice sounded better than on Friday. It certainly didn’t sound all that rough though – most singers would kill to have a voice even like it is at the moment! Kasim then said that he knew the first names of most people in the room and, after asking what the next song was from his prompter, spoke about how he likes to involve the audience in the gig.
Yellow Cab was next and there’s a lovely bit of keyboards in the middle of that song and then all the vocals at the end really make that song sound special and quite different from the recorded version.
Kasim then spoke about being in Utopia (cue massive applause and cheers again!) and Kasim and the crowd started talking about the gigs they had played in the area, the main one being the Hara Arena. Kasim next spotted someone talking on their cell phone(!) so he made a point of checking that everything was okay at their home before he reverted to talking about the various Utopia gigs in Ohio over the years. Kasim said that their biggest gig was when they headlined at Legend Valley and that also on the bill was Roadmaster, The Cars, Cheap Trick, and Eddie Money. There was some discrepancy between Kasim and someone in the audience about whether or not Nazareth were on the bill that day! This then led into Set Me Free which the crowd here obviously loved tonight. It was an original version of the song tonight as there was one line that is not in the original song but I’m sure the songwriter can change his lyrics if he wishes (or forgets the original words!).
Kasim next introduced the band which is one thing I notice that he takes great care to do, probably because he’s played in so many bands. After Mike had retrieved Kasim’s capo from his bag, they launched into Sacrifice. I thought that tonight Kasim’s guitar part in the middle sounded far more confident than the way he played it in Reisterstown. Tonight I also noticed that at the end of that, instead of the muted strings part he used to play at his acoustic gigs, the band paused for a split second at that part.
Kasim asked us if we had any questions (“as it’s so frickin’ quiet in here”) so someone asked him how the journey was from New York. Kasim said that they had problems removing seats from the car (to fit in all the instruments) and then that somehow led to talking about Iowa and Kasim told us that apparently that state is the meth capital of the world and it is all due to Tom Arnold’s sister. Of course being British all of this conversation went totally over my head so I had to ask for a translation later to understand it! (Meths is a totally different thing in the UK.) Later in the set Kasim started talking about Triple A and Single A teams in Dayton and I didn’t even know which sport they were discussing! Kasim then told us about him writing with Phil Thornally before he played his song Summer’s Gone.
Kasim then told us that he had his solo albums Quid Pro Quo and All Sides available to purchase at the venue tonight as he switched guitars. There was some problem switching his new guitar on until Mike noticed that it wasn’t plugged in! The Kasim Sulton Band then played my favourite The One Sure Thing. I really like their live arrangement of the song and from where I was sitting tonight I noticed that the musical part is quite heavy on the keyboards which is very effective. After Kasim had quickly retuned his guitar slightly they then went straight into Watching The World Go By.
I then found the next part really interesting as Kasim told us about how the music business has changed over the years and that nowadays there are far less major record companies so that more of the work falls on the artists’ shoulders. He also said that as he now has to market his music and gigs himself (which is what a record company used to do) so that he spends more time doing Blogs and sending messages to his mailing list which means that he has less time to write songs. However he had just written a new song, The God Of Low, so he played that after stressing that it is not about anybody in particular. It has a really catchy tune but, as I noticed at Reisterstown too, it’s difficult to make out the words clearly as the music drowned out Kasim’s vocals considerably.
There was then some more chatter (I know that sounds dismissive but I prefer it when Kasim has some spiel worked out to say and just chats with the audience occasionally rather than after almost every song although it was probably suitable for a smallish crowd like tonight) and they played Over For Now. That song sounds really good with the full band and Mark’s keyboard playing especially is very good on that song. I know it’s hard for a non-musician like me to distinguish the bass playing in a band but Mike does a really good job and looks so happy on stage all the time which is great to see. I think Tad does a great job on the drums as he plays a strong, steady beat but I just wish that we could see him slightly better. However, as I said on Friday, the one thing I remember most about the band is that they all look happy to be on stage which is always lovely to see.
Before Over For Now Kasim had said that he would probably mess up the lead in it so when he didn’t he received a round of applause during the song itself although afterwards he said that he wasn’t totally happy with it! Next up was the Utopia section of Kasim’s set and he said that he chose them because they were songs that Utopia rarely played live. Of course they were Mimi Gets Mad and The Up which both received large applause as, not surprisingly, most people in the audience know Kasim from Utopia. Mimi Gets Mad especially emphasises Mark and Mike’s vocals and it was a nice sound level tonight although their voices didn’t come across quite as loud in The Up for some reason. Tonight Kasim counted in Mimi Gets Mad so it was a slower version, although they speeded up during the song.
Before The Up Kasim asked how many people were here tonight from Dayton and it seemed that most were but one lady said that she had come from Cincinnati which is impressive as that’s a good hours drive. Kasim next told us about writing Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing with Tommy Hambridge before playing the song. I do far prefer the band’s version of that song to the acoustic one – Mark plays some incredible keyboards during it. Tonight they stopped the song near the end while Kasim told a pretty disgusting story about Meat Loaf which I think is best forgotten.
The band then left the stage and Kasim asked us if we would like him to play a Utopia song or a Todd song. Some people called out for Todd, others for Utopia, some people for a Kasim song and someone called for both! Eventually we got the Utopia song Don’t Hold Me Back but this was a different version to how Kasim used to sing it on stage as he played it slower at the beginning with less guitar. At the beginning of the song Kasim struggled to reach a coupe of the nights so he sang the next lines lower and more melodically which was beautiful.
The Kasim Sulton Band then returned to the stage and they played The Contour’s Do You Love Me which went really down well with the audience so it’s a great one to finish on, especially as Mike and Mark get to sing some great background vocals so we get a chance to hear their voices clearly.
The Kasim Sulton Band received loads of applause (with most people standing too) which was great to see!
Roll on Chicago on Friday!
Videos of the gig:
The Band:
The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
The Cavern Street Tavern was opened in December 1981 and is described as "An intimate and unpretentious concert atmosphere designed for good living". Click here to view the venue website.
This wil be Kasim's first gig at this venue and the first of his own gigs in Dayton in recent years.
Tickets for Kasim's gig are $10 on the door. The doors open at 8pm and Kasim's set starts at 9pm.
Click here for directions to the venue. The address of the venue is 308 E 1st Street, Dayton, OH 45402 and there are plenty of places to park around the venue.
Pre-show page on KasimInfo.com:
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Tonight The Kasim Sulton Band play the second gig of