|
I Just Wanna Touch You Somebody Loves You Libertine Sacrifice There Goes My Inspiration The Traveler Cliché Love Alone Set Me Free The Long And Winding Road (part) Lady Madonna (part) Don't Hold Me Back One World 
Click here for more photos from this gig.
Click here for even more photos from this gig.
Review by SueW:
The Todd Rundgren ticket that evening was $150 whereas Kasim’s gig was only $15 for me (quite why I had to pay $5 for postage when the stamp was only 98 cents was beyond me) so for only a tenth of the cost, I thought this was by far the more enjoyable gig.
I had my reservations before it started as I didn’t like the beachwear theme. Thankfully, from what could have been really tacky, Kasim managed to carry it off very stylishly. Most of the fans did too with only one person wearing something inappropriate. (Most of the guys just wore Hawaiian style shirts.) Kasim wore a smart short sleeved shirt and a pair of shorts.
Kasim’s voice was slightly husky today when he started his set. It may have been due to the Todd rehearsals or because, as he said during his set, that it’s now been six months since he stopped smoking! Thankfully his voice soon warmed out and he sounded great.
From the time that Kasim walked on stage until when he left it was an hour all but five seconds! Someone had left a hat on his chair but first of all Kasim told us that he doesn’t wear hats. His first song was I Just Wanna Touch You which this crowd of mainly Utopia fans loved and clapped along to. Kasim then went almost straight into Nik Kershaw’s Somebody Loves You which he said was for about us (his fans) and followed it by going straight into Libertine. Unfortunately initially this wasn’t a great success as the audience didn’t get the idea that we were supposed to sing back some of the lines of the chorus to him. Kasim stopped the song and explained what we were supposed to do so the crowd then sang it with real gusto! Towards the end of the song Kasim got just the girls to sing, then just the guys (they sang it VERY deeply!), then just the pregnant girls, the Republicans and so on as he did at his gigs in May.
 The fourth song in was a Kasim Sulton song – Sacrifice which was great to hear! He played it slightly softer as he did at his gigs back in May but unfortunately today he didn’t play the muted guitar string part that I like. Sacrifice received a massive round of applause too. Kasim then spoke briefly about the Todd gig that evening (without giving away anything) before singing There Goes My Inspiration. After that Kasim spoke about the cover of his new album and how everyone could get their picture on the cover (we were handed a flyer about it as we entered the room too). Next was the highlight of the weekend for me as Kasim played the first completed song from his new album – The Traveller! As he wasn’t 100% sure of the words, he asked someone from the audience to hold up the words for him. He said afterwards that it wasn’t necessarily as it would sound on his album as it would have a whole band on it too but it was wonderful to hear. Kasim also said that the title was because he was a traveller himself. The funny part was that as he started it, he sang part of Puff The Magic Dragoon first! The song received loads of applause so it was obviously a big hit with the crowd. (The song was a different one to the one he sang a part of at his Boston gig in May.) Todd’s Cliché was next which the audience really liked too. Kasim then moved to his keyboards and, without going into details, said that he had had a lot of bad things happen to him this year so far but that you have to "keep on keeping on." He then played Love Alone before going straight into Set Me Free. This song produced a great audience reaction as most people clapped along and sang back the words to him! Kasim then spoke that earlier this year he had done "a Beatles thing" which he hadn’t advertised (he played Paul) before he played part of The Long And Winding Road. It wasn’t a totally perfect performance this afternoon but having previously heard him sing that song with an orchestra had been just magical! Kasim also played part of Lady Madonna which he had also sang lead on during the Beatles show. (He put the hat on for that song today.)
 Kasim moved back to his guitar and we had a brief Q&A about his album cover. He said that he will be signing and numbering all 1,000 of the copies and that it will be his last physical CD as in a few years nobody will be making CDs any more but will be downloading instead. He also spoke about the contest to win him playing a solo gig in someone’s living room but didn’t answer the question he was asked about whether he would stay the night there too! Kasim then sang Don’t Hold Me Back before saying that he wouldn’t go off the stage and then come back for an encore but instead just played One World. This received massive applause afterwards and all during the song people were joining in with the clapping and singing! At the end he encouraged us to sing while he threw loads of beach balls from the stage! And then, all too soon for me, it was the end of another great Kasim Sulton solo gig. Roll on Joplin, MO in October!
Videos
The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
The address of the hotel is 20 West Mill Street, Akron, OH 44308 and tickets are $10 (plus up to $5 shipping) from this link or can be purchased on the door. This set is expected to only be about an hour in length. This is a General Admission gig other than the front few rows.
This will be Kasim's second performance at this venue as he played here almost a year to the day.
This gig has a tacky beachwear theme but it is not compulsory and, despite that, the music will still be excellent.
Pre-show page on KasimInfo.com:
 All Rights Reserved |
