Love Of The Common Man Buffalo Grass Kind Hearted Woman Determination Lucky Guy Can We Still Be Friends? Espresso Love Is The Answer It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference Lost Horizon Flaw Soul Brother I'm So Proud / Ooo Baby Baby / La La Means I Love You / I Want You Hawking I Saw The Light Courage Drive Couldn't I Just Tell You?
Hello It's Me
Comments by fans posted to various messageboards and mailing lists include:
"What could have been GREAT was just mediocre, Todd underwhelmed by being cheap, no stage lighting and a teeny PA , Buffalo Grass even failed to rock the house because the sound had NO ooomph, the band was relegated to standing in the dark shadows of a poorly lit stage and never hand a chance to stretch it out and wow the crowd musically. Yes, Todd sang well, and the set list was great, but talented musicians were not allowed to shine."
"No obvious blunders (outside of those he intentionally caused, and the issues that were beyond his control...left side of stage had a power outage, Jessie's guitar failed during Love of the Common Man for a few moments, and he made a relatively effortless switch to correct the problem midway through)."
"The people that worked security for the Ohio Theater was pretty darn strict about not letting fans stand and no flash pictures! A guy close to me kept on standing during the show and finally the security just had it with him and threw him out."
"Jessie was layin' down the funk with some soulful picking and jazz chordings through out the set. Kasim seemed to be exploring alternate bass lines on some songs, this made an interesting combination with soulful harmony vocals by everyone through out the show. Prairie Prince is always great. His drums play the perfect sounds. Winding through all of this is John Ferenziks synthesizers and keyboards. Todd has picked a great set of songs and as always Todds lead guitar was string bending bliss and the singing was excellent."
"Really enjoyed the show - I thought it was quite a heroic performance given the challenge of some of the songs (Determination, Hawking) with a clearly limited vocal range - at the start of the show I thought it was going to be a struggle for him, but he made it work. Seemed that he was mainly having trouble belting out the high range on the louder rocking songs, but the voice was completely fine for the ballads like Lucky Guy - one of the highlights for me."
"The band is unbelievably tight - yes, the false starts were goofy, but even then, the false counts into 'Hello It's Me' that seamlessly went into entirely different songs like Courage would not be easy to pull off the way they did - great, subtle showmanship."
"The band was tight, Todd was playful, sharing intimacies with the audience in a way that surprised me, although I suspect the bottle of water with the blue cap helped:-), and the man sang his heart out! All I ask for at a concert, is that the performers don't make it seem like they're doing us a favor by showing up, and on this night in Cleveland, I got the feeling that they would have played even if no one was in the audience. They seemed to be having THAT much fun...For those who miss it, Todd yells at Jesse because Jesse plays the first three notes of --ahem- "Leroy Boy"...Yes, it's staged. Yes, it borders on the edge of corny, but dammit, sometimes a band just has to amuse themselves a bit."
Other websites:
WDOK Radio has a review of this gig here.
Videos
The band:
The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
The address of the venue is 1511 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115 and the gig tonight starts at 8pm. Tickets for this gig can be purchased from this link and vary in price from $49 to $10 (plus charges). Earlier this morning two seats together were available in the fifteenth row. The venue seats 1,000 people.
Between February 1921 and November 1922, five opulent theaters (the Allen, Ohio, State, Hanna and Palace) opened along Euclid Avenue between E. 14th and E. 17th streets. The theaters presented silent movies, theater and vaudeville. Unfortunately with the increase in the popularity of television four out of the five of these theaters closed between May 1968 and July 1969, the exception being The Hanna. However in 1970 a group known as the PlayhouseSquare Association (a nonprofit organization) was formed to make the area the center of theater culture in the Cleveland area. Playhouse Square is also known for its dedicated team of over 2,000 volunteers (known as "Red Coats" due to the red jackets they wear as part of their uniform). They provide various services for visitors including ushers, ticket takers and more. Many are retired seniors with a passion for the arts.
Of course Utopia was known as The Beatles of Ohio so Kasim Sulton has played in Cleveland numerous times in his 30+ year career. The last time he played a solo gig he was on Sunday 23rd May 2010 when he played a solo gig at the Beachland Ballroom.
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