Many thanks to OCSheri for the photo on that page.

Let's hope it's 3rd time lucky this time around for this venue!

A few weeks ago Meat Loaf's female vocalist Patti Russo quit the band (Meat Loaf first mentioned this to a couple of people at his charity golfing weekend in UK at the end of August) and Kasim said at The Cup on Saturday night that they'd auditioned about 15 girls for the role and finally found one that day. As Meat Loaf is also adding another musician to the band too, Kasim has said that he will be in rehearsals (starting today) for the next 12 days with the band as they have promo gigs coming up in London, New York and Toronto.

According to a post to a mailing list by Jennifer Salyer, Aspen Miller will be the new female vocalist in the band.

Kasim also asks that people do not get their tickets refunded as he plans to re-schedule the gig.

The Cup is described on their website as "1960’s Greenwich Village Coffeehouse meets Downtown Staten Island" and as "a coffee house with a laid back and comfortable feeling"! Apparently they have red brick walls, wood beams and the original tin ceilings with oversized couches so it sounds as though there will be a very relaxed feel to Kasim Sulton's first solo gig on Staten Island since February 2004! That gig was played at Dock Street and was really packed with even the bar area being about 6 deep!

(The Cup website also says that "you can get on-line with our wireless internet, play a game of chess, read a book, or watch a movie on our big screen TV" but hopefully nobody will be doing those things during Kasim's set!!)

As this is known as a coffee house, the venue offers desserts, flavored coffees, cappacinos and teas amongst other things and the price for alchol is reasonable for this type of venue with a glass of wines at $5, imported beer at $4 and domestic beer at $3.

The Cup is located between Beach and Wright Streets. There appears to be some confusion over what time Kasim's set starts as it was origianally advertised as 8.30pm but the venue website says 8.00pm.

Tonight will be the first time that Kasim will sing the recorded version of his new song Are You Happy Now! In the second verse of the song there are lines which say:
You're drinking decaff in Oyster Bay
I'm here in Staten Island half a world away
At his other gigs Kasim has sung the name of the city where he's playing rather than Staten Island but tonight (unless he sings "The Cup"!) we'll hear the recorded lyrics!

One great quote is "I'm really working hard on completing some songs for a new record."! The interview also says that Kasim may be giving out some recordings of some of his new songs at his gig tomorrow evening!

Many thanks to Jennifer Salyer for all the photos on that page.

Many thanks to Jennifer Salyer for all the photos on that page. Photos of Kasim's first set that evening will be added tomorrow.

On TheNewCars.com there are now a few photos of their gig in Atlanta, GA last Friday here. Unfortunately there's only one close-up shot of Kasim here (and then he has his bass across his face), plus one of him catching the tambourine during Bang The Drum here.

The Cup (Saturday 16th)
The original time announced for Kasim's set was 8.30pm, however The Cup website says that it is 8.00pm.

Chicago Street Theatre (Sunday 24th)
The time for the $75 meal seems to be in doubt. Origianlly it was advertised as a dinner and "somewhere to eat before the gig" but the tickets say that it starts at 3.00pm (4 hours before the start) and Kasim posted that it was a lunch which will start at 1.00pm (six hours before the start of the gig).

The Bitter End (Saturday 29th)
The doors for this gig open at 7.00pm and originally it was announced that Kasim's set would start at 8.00pm and that he would be the first act. However there is now another act listed before him on The Bitter End website and it's doubtful that she will complete her set by 8.00pm. Also it was advertised that tickets will be $18 in advance and $20 at the door but the venue website just lists $20 and there is nowhere to pre-order tickets. (Previously Kasim's official website KasimSulton.com had this gig listed for the past couple of months as Saturday 30th September but I managed to get that changed this week to the correct date.)

It says that he will be the second of six acts appearing that evening. Unlike his last gig here in July, it doesn't say that this set will be streamed on the Internet.