On a warm Friday night in a bar far away, Kasim Sulton and friends waded through the humidity and horrendous Baltimore Harbor Tunnel traffic to find themselves at Zigs’ Bar & Grill in Alexandria, Virginia. I’ll stand by these words, Zig’s is a great set up of sound, video screens and large seating area, but has yet to stir the local, musically-anemic, population in any noticable way. The venue had added a locally appropriate guitarist, but otherwise not, to the bill and before the warm and fuzzysounds of Kasim. We were delayed by the local flavor (complete with 2 hoses running to his mic, one for cigarette smoke and another for alcohol, singing the usual covers as well as original songs about his love of drinking and his penis,….. not sure about the order of that!)
So Kasim gets things started, but the crowd was sparse as the 10:30pm start had a number of Maryland parents unable to attend (we are getting SO OLD! “Heavan Help the Child” but first get us a baby sitter who doesn’t have to be home by midnight!) Anyway, after we found out that there is nothing too funny about the Autumn Equinox, the set kicked off with “Baby Don’t Hold Me Back” and admittedly, it took 3 or 4 songs to settle Kasims’ new best friend “Tom” (moniter sound) and find a comfortable and relaxed pace.
Quid Pro Quo was very well represented w/ 7 of 10 songs performed. I thought the impromtu version of “Where Is My Soul” was interesting but Doug Kennedy was even more surprised by “The One Sure Thing” as Kasim had the capo in a “new” fretted position! The “Goodbye” serenade was warm and sweet leading into “Across The Universe” which was as heartfelt as I’ve seen him play it!
The best story of the night came in introducing “Love Alone”, and his performance on the “John Davidson Show” ….yes…..JD had a show! (Lia not the old goalie!) There were the usual bar suspects and some Utopia faithful towards the back. Frank & Felicia welcomed us and I had a couple of friends join us up front. Its’ amazing: that there could have been hundreds there ( as I’m sure would be the wishes of all involved
and I know that it would still be a show that would be intimate and touch each and every one of us!
Kasim & Crew were so ever gratious to us all afterwards: signing CDs, talking at length, posing for pictures, and he’ll see us again on this tour! It will be SO worth the trip up 95 to recharge our spirits!!!
Thanks again Kasim! See you at The Bitter End!
Originally I wasn’t planning to write any reviews for these gigs as I tend to waffle on and on and on and it may spoil it for people who are going to later gigs. Then I thought “blow them”! I saw (and will see) some great gigs and I want a permanent record for myself. If people don’t want to read it, then they can just skip them or if they disagree with my review, they can just write their own. So this is my first SUBJECTIVE review of these few gigs that Kasim is playing to help promote Quid Pro Quo……
Considering it was a Friday night and that the posters for this gig called it a "CD Release Show", personally I felt that this show should have been far better promoted. With 16 separate newspapers in this area that have music features and only one having an article about Kasim, consequently I was disappointed in the attendance tonight as it seemed that there were only about the same number there as for Kasim's last gig which was midweek with no CD. However the people who were there tonight certainly made up for it in volume of applause and cheers, and in enthusiasm for Kasim!
Along with several people, I also had a fraught journey to the venue so I totally missed the first opening act but the second, Kevin Poole, was probably about the best that I've seen open for Kasim! He played some of his own songs but also a lot of covers (anyone from Marmalade to Peter Gabriel) which I always think is good for an opening act to do as the crowd don't get bored by a load of unknown songs and can judge how well he did against the originals.
Kevin had a good voice and accompanied himself on an acoustic guitar but his paraphernalia on stage was amazing too! Under his left foot, he had a tambourine which produced the beat. In addition he had two plastic tubes that ran along the length of his microphone stand onto a table. Out of one of the tubes he'd occasionally suck his drink and out of the other tube he'd inhale a cigarette! Thank goodness he didn't get the tubes muddled up!
Kasim came on at about 10.40pm to loads of applause. Unfortunately the lighting at this venue is very dark so few of my photos are clear but Kasim was wearing black trousers and a black jumper (in American English, he was wearing pants and a sweater as I discovered what the Americans refer to a jumper as!).
Kasim gave quite a long intro tonight before he burst into his traditional opening song Don't Hold Me Back. The thing that struck me immediately was how VERY strong and clear Kasim's voice was tonight! With hardly a break for us to applause Kasim went straight into Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing which wasn't a song I expected to hear at these gigs as it's not on Quid Pro Quo.
Next Kasim introduced Doug Kennedy (from the Philadelphia based band The Isle Of Q) and Doug had only just sat down when Kasim started strumming the opening bars of Back On The Street - thankfully Doug quickly put his guitar on and played. That's a great first track for Doug to play as it sounds amazing with the two guitars. Kasim's voice remained strong throughout all of that song (sometimes on the last tour he struggled to hit some of the high notes) but tonight he omitted the gunshots.
Next Kasim introduced Mark Alexander (who he plays with in Meat Loaf's band) and there was some discussion as to whether he is a pianist or a piano player (they decided on pianist) as Mark was playing Kasim's Kurzweil keyboards. The first song that the three of them played together was Before She Was Gone which sounded great with the two guitars (Kasim was playing guitar and Doug was on acoustic) and the keyboards.
After that they played Sacrifice and then my personal favourite from Quid Pro Quo, The One Sure Thing. This was the only song tonight that Kasim played acoustic guitar on and it sounded wonderful! In fact the back of the stage resembled a small guitar store as Doug had about three guitars and Kasim had at least three if not four!
After There Goes My Inspiration (which I thought was the only song that didn't really benefit from having the keyboards added), Kasim sang The Finn Brothers' Where Is My Soul - Kasim's voice sounded especially good and deep on that song!
Next Mark Alexander vacated the keyboards and Kasim move across to use them - there was certainly an audible gasp of anticipation at my table when he did that! Kasim started by playing Set Me Free which was great to hear as it was originally written for the keyboards and, with Doug playing guitar, on it, the song sounded amazing! Next Kasim sang Love Alone which is the song that most people seem to have been asking him to bring keyboards to the gigs TO play! It was really great to hear that and was worth the price of the ticket alone! Next Kasim played his wonderful song from Quid Pro Quo called Heaven Help The Child. He explained that it was partially written several years ago when he saw his eldest daughter sleeping in her very girly room - she’s now 19! Kasim forewarned us that he may well mess up the song ….and indeed he did make a couple of mistakes in it as he played some wrong notes in the intro (which he corrected on the second attempt) and forgot some of the words! It was still really lovely to hear the song though!
Next Kasim moved back to the centre of the stage and showed us his small 1929 tenor guitar. He then explained how his song Goodbye was originally another song but has evolved back into this great track which is also on Qui Pro Quo. Doug Kennedy came out to play it with him but Kasim decided that he’d play it on his own.
Doug Kennedy was allowed back on the stage for the next two tracks - This Must Be Love and One World. The former sounds just amazing with the two guitars (definitely one I’m glad that Kasim’s carried forward from his previous tours) but surprisingly we just had the correct words in One World tonight with no “from Alexandria”!
Doug Kennedy then left the stage and the “encore” was Kasim singing Across The Universe by himself. He told us that he’d sung it in Liverpool and tonight he seemed to sing a slightly different version as he put the emphasis on different words to normal.
All in all it was a great show tonight! It was wonderful to see Kasim counting for “his” band to start and end songs and I SO hope that this soon progresses to a full band. It was also lovely to hear more songs from Quid Pro Quo performed live.
Roll on Philly on Sunday…..
A word about the photos
Video Clips
Back to Kasim Sulton's promotional appearances to promote Quid Pro Quo
All the onstage photos currently on this page are VERY dark - the lighting in Zigs leaves a lot to be desired. Consequently most of the pictures have been artifically lightened which may cause some of them to look slightly odd. I can only apologize for that.
Click here for some great photos by Frank Ciapanna of this gig
These are 15 second video clips which will take about 5 minutes each to download on a normal modem. These clips are VERY dark and may not be visisble at all on some screens but will give you an idea of what a great show Kasim played!
Kasim singing Where Is My Soul
Kasim singing Set Me Free
Kasim singing Love Alone