The show in Pittsburgh was a total contrast to Friday's Cleveland show. Pittsburgh was more 'down to business' and Cleveland was the 'night o' big laughs and tunes.' The Rosebud Cafe itself might've played a role in the way the show played out -- The Rosebud was basically a huge warehouse type club, with a balcony and very high ceiling lights that were barely lit, possibly for atmosphere. Kasim and Doug performed from a stage and weren't quite as 'up close and personal' as the shows usually are. It was nice to see Kasim performing up on a big stage his own songs, like he should rightfully be, but it kind of makes the show a little impersonal, and it never usually is. Kasim normally makes you feel like he's focusing his attention, songs and stories right on each and every person in the room, and thats one thing (of many!) I like about his shows, and it was missed with the show last night.

Having said all this, Kasim's performance in Pittsburgh was great! His voice, to me, seemed even stronger then it was in Cleveland (and I thought he sounded really 'on' in Cleveland!), if that's actually possible. His set list varied but he still kept some show staples like, "Don't Hold Me Back," and "Goodbye," just to name a few. "Set Me Free" was one of the songs that Kasim performs on piano and the way he pounds the heck out of those keys, after strumming his guitar like crazy, and then going back to the guitars for even more fret work, well I wondered if he actually hurts his fingers (he kinda does, the poor dear!). He's as powerful a piano player, as he is a guitarist. No dissing stories tonight, although he told the wonderful tale of the day he saw John Lennon and Yoko Ono window shopping, and although he has told this story during other shows and tours, it still had a different twist and telling to it tonight, and was great to hear about.

After the show, as always, Kasim made time to see everyone that stayed afterwards. He had lots of friends and fans that came from all over to see him tonight, and although the venue wanted to close, it didn't stop him from spending some time briefly with everyone. That's another thing I always like to see -- so many people there, just for Kasim and how appreciative they, and Kasim, seem of each other. Kasim is a rare, and true, gem in the music world.

The blow by blow review follows below but a précis of the evening was: little promotion, a disappointing attendance, cold venue, nice tight white shirt, strong voice, brilliant gig!

I reached the club at 6.00pm and already there were about 10 people queuing outside. They didn’t let us in until about 6.20pm as “the support act was finishing his sound check”. My preconceptions of this venue were totally wrong as always! Being called Rosebud I expected something far more feminine and rosy. Instead it was quite a stark venue that didn’t have too much atmosphere but that was probably because it wasn’t over-populated and there were very high ceilings with steel girders leading up to them that broke up the viewing area. The Metropol which was next door (where I saw Kasim play with Todd in 2000) was definitely the classier venue out of the two. However, there were several tables and some sofas (including even one in the ladies loo!).

I was also slightly concerned when I read that this was in the “Strip District” of the city but it was more an area of warehouses than strip clubs, although later someone mentioned that this area was going downhill since a few shootings at the local clubs - wonderful! There was also a beautiful church that was lit up at the end of the street that was worth viewing.

The staff at Rosebud were VERY friendly and helpful and they sold a nice selection of food but the chef with no hat and a green Mohican haircut rather put me off (although maybe they don’t make a chef’s hat to cover a Mohican hairstyle yet). Kevin, the sound and lights guy, was excellent. He’d already ensured that Kasim and Doug were well catered for (how he’d got caviar and goose eggs at that time of night is anyone’s guess!) and made a real point of mentioning a few times that copies of Quid Pro Quo were for sale and details of other gigs at the venue. He was also very attentive about when Kasim switched guitars and muted them to avoid the loud bangs. The acoustics at the venue were very good too.

Possibly because there was “a Steelers game” today (some sort of important American sport game I understand) or maybe because the CD RELEASE gig was badly promoted (the guy at the Pittsburgh City Paper who interviewed Kasim during his last tour didn’t even know about the gig until I mentioned it to him a fortnight ago!), it seemed to me that there were less people here than there were for Kasim’s gig at Club Café in February. It is SUCH a shame as, to me (and probably most people there), Kasim is playing the best and most varied music that he’s played since he started these “solo” gigs. It’s just a testament to what a professional musician he is that, despite that, he still gives a brilliant performance and puts in 110% the whole time. It’s also a testament to how much his fans appreciate that as they drive hundreds of miles to see him play too. As well as fans coming from Chicago and Philadelphia to the show there were several that had seen him in Cleveland two nights ago and had made this trip (including “Officer AL” from the WAT tour!).

The support guy, Norm Nardini, who had played with Kasim at the singer / songwriter circle previously in Pittsburgh, was really funny again! He played for about 40 minutes, most of that time with his cigarette balanced on the fret of his guitar!

After a nice intro by Kevin, Kasim walked on stage at about 8.30pm to loads of applause and launched into his great Don’t Hold Me Back. It’s always interesting to notice that in songs like this that he’s obviously very comfortable about singing, he keeps his eyes open far more than in his newer material - we had a really strong “strong” tonight so I knew that we were in for a great show as his voice was excellent again, as it has been at almost all of these gigs!

A welcome return to Kasim’s set list tonight was his second song, Jason Falkner’s Afraid Himself To Be (which could have been written for both Kasim and for his voice). Straight after that, Kasim started strumming Back On The Street without waiting for Doug Kennedy (from the band The Isle Of Q) to get ready! Tonight the gunshots were also returned to the song (although tonight they sounded more like machinegun fire!). That Utopia song received loads of applause as usual. Kasim then explained that he and Doug had been spending a lot of time together driving so they had some pet names for each other - Doug calls him “Mr Sulton” and he calls Doug “Phyllis”!

After Kasim had mentioned Quid Pro Quo, they played Sacrifice from it. That track always receives an amazing amount of applause for a new track but possibly it’s because they do some really nifty guitar playing in the middle of the song that isn’t on the CD. Or possibly it’s just because it’s a great song!

Kasim then spoke about how many bridges there are in Pittsburgh (I believe three rivers converge here) and that when he and Doug were driving into the city last night, Doug was overwhelmed about how pretty the city looks at night (it actually does!). Kasim reckoned that Doug was easily impressed (and then he had to remove Doug’s hand from his knee!) - part of the charm of these gigs is their banter on stage (or more the fact that Doug takes it all!). They next played Before She Was gone from Quid Pro Quo. Although I like the version at the Meat Loaf concerts with an acoustic guitar, drums and piano, it sounds beautiful with just two acoustic guitars too- whoever thinks that playing on acoustic guitars is boring would revaluate their opinion after seeing these two! I’m no musician but it’s interesting that Kasim plays the twiddly bits while Doug strums the chords that make up the main part of the song.

After my favourite, The One Sure Thing, Kasim said that he was going to play some Utopia songs and they started with Libertine. Kasim and Doug’s guitar playing in that song is just amazing, as Kasim said “That was pretty good….for a girl!”.

After There Goes My Inspiration, Kasim moved across to his piano. He told us that he first got a piano when he was about 16 so that he could teach himself to play piano and that his mother used to call out to him when he had phone calls which is how he came to write the opening words of Love Alone - “When she calls my name, nobody says it quite the same”, he then screeched “KASIM” in almost a Monty Python style voice!

Kasim’s intro into Heaven Help The Child about his daughter was really heartfelt (one lady told me later that she even shed a tear when she heard that song tonight). Kasim explained that it’s often little things like a paper rainbow that will instigate him to write songs - thank goodness for paper rainbows if we get a great song like that out of them.

Doug Kennedy then returned to the stage and they played Set Me Free. From the angle I was sitting at, I could see how hard Kasim pounds his keyboards during that song! Kasim next played the opening bars of Sweet Little Accident and was almost persuaded to play it but he said that he’d have to practice it fully first! Instead they played a great version of Bad Company’s Shooting Star. It was an evening of amazing guitar playing as next they played Kasim’s own This Must Be Love with that lovely part when they play up the neck of their guitars.

Next was One World (which tonight included the lines “And there’s Kevin who runs the club” and “from Berlin to San Francisco, from New York to PITTSBURGH”) before Kasim explained about how Goodbye came to be written and that the former version of the song was actually written in Pittsburgh! He explained that he’d written the song on his 1929 Regal Tenor Guitar (that didn’t ever see World War One but “maybe it saw the World War One of my mind”!). An interesting point that Kasim made about songwriting was that you have to reduce a story into three and a half minutes.

Kasim went to leave the stage but was persuaded to come back to sing John Lennon’s great Across The Universe. As much as I like hearing Kasim’s amusing banter on stage, the really special parts of the show to me (other than the great music) are when he talks about the personal things to him like his daughter or his “once in a lifetime” meeting with John Lennon.

All too soon for me (and for all the audience), that was end of another brilliant Kasim Sulton gig (his 28th solo gig and his 70th gig of 2002) but it wasn’t long before he was back out signing CDs and things and posing for photos with everybody that wanted something. In fact tonight he made sure that everybody went home happy for so long that they turned the lights on fully and even started mopping the floor before he left!

I just wish that more people had heard about this great gig…..

Click here for some great photos by Jennifer Salyer of this gig

Video Clips
These are 15 second video clips which will take about 5 minutes each to download on a normal modem.
The opening of Back On The Street
Kasim singing Sacrifice
Kasim singing Before She Was Gone
The One Sure Thing
Indulge me - I love this song!
Kasim singing Libertine
"Take it Phyllis!"
Kasim singing There Goes My Inspiration
Kasim singing Love Alone
Kasim singing the chorus of Love Alone
Kasim and Doug playing Heaven Help The Child
Kasim singing Heaven Help The Child
Kasim playing a scale - the part he said that he likes playing in this song!
Kasim singing Set Me Free
Shooting Star
Our Shooting Star
"One more"
Kasim singing This Must Be Love
Kasim singing the chorus of This Must Be Love
Guitar playing on One World
"From New York to PITTSBURGH"!
Kasim singing Goodbye
"I was the shoulder....."
"....from night to day"
Guitar playing on Goodbye
Kasim singing Across The Universe
More of Kasim singing Across The Universe

Back to Kasim's promotional appearances to promote Quid Pro Quo