I wasn't sure just how many songs I'd be familiar with other then The Warrior, Goodbye to You and Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough, but actually, I was surprised I was familiar with a few others as well, I just wasn't familiar with the titles of the songs. The opening song, Love's Got a Line on You, as well as Beat of a Heart, are songs I definitely have heard before, but just didn't realize it until Patty, Kasim and the rest of the guys played them live.

I enjoyed Friday night's Westbury gig so much, that I had decided to purchase a ticket for the Saturday Atlantic City gig as well. Patty is one of the liveliest performers I've seen. She's not over the top and in your face, but you sure can't tie her to a chair onstage either! And its also pretty cool to see a lady rock out like she does. Kasim, Patty and the other guys (sorry, I'm bad with names!) really have a great camaraderie with each other between songs and they seem to enjoy themselves while performing together. Westbury's show, you could hear Kasim really wonderfully, and his background vocals blended well with Patty's lead vocals. Keith Mac performed some backing vocals as well, but from what I noticed, Kasim seemed to be doing the most. Keith does some great guitar licks throughout the whole show.

Kasim was dressed quite nice - it was casual yet dressy and suited him rather well. But heck, who am I kidding, he could come out in a pair of old grungy jeans and a t-shirt and I’d still think he'd look great, at least to me anyway. Kasim, Keith, Patty and the other band members (including Thommy Price who is a great drummer!), really had some fun Friday night and Patty seems to have this thing about Keith's big head, which prompted a funny but naughty joke from Kasim at one point. Friday night, not only did Patty come out into the audience several times, which gave one of her roadies a workout, she also sat in a guy's lap and sang, as well as stood on chairs in the rows during songs. Her energy level is amazing and quite contagious - I hated the fact that this audience sat on their butts for the most part, but I still found myself bopping along in my seat and singing along a lot too, which is something I don’t do often.

Saturday's Atlantic City show was somewhat similar to Friday's with the energy, the great backing vocals, the great looking bass player and the great performances from the guys. A few added highlights though were: When Patty sang "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough" and dedicated it to her 19yr old daughter, whom she wrote it for and was at one of the front row tables, she stood in the middle of a nearby table, and I could see she was a little more into the emotion of the song then the night before. What really made it even more poignant for me, was hearing from a friend afterwards that her daughter was so moved by emotion, that she had to fight back tears throughout the song. I don’t know why that got to me, hearing that, maybe its because I know the feeling of having to lose a parent to separation at a very young age.

Anyway, the entire show was great but my favorite part of the entire evening was when Patty brought up Keith Mac's stepdaughter. She immediately put a smile on everyone's faces, in fact the whole time she was up there being the 'go go girl' for River Deep Mountain High, Kasim couldn't stop smiling for one second, and who could blame him, she was cute and an amazing little dancer too! At the beginning of the song, she took off her pink hat, and put it on the stage floor so she could dance about, and Kasim immediately picked it up and put it on for the whole song (I guess its a good thing his head isn't as big as Keith Mac's, who again was teased by Patty about the size of his head at one point in the show) - even in a silly pink girl's hat, I thought he looked pretty cute!

The shows ended all too soon for me, there should be more gigs from these amazing performers. I know Patty mentioned a possible album coming up, but someone else also mentioned they had heard there might be a chance of more gigs as well soon. I sure hope they were right, as I’d love another chance to check them out!

Review by SueW:
Well tonight I saw The Scandal Trio! Occasionally Patty Smyth would flit in and out of my line of sight too!

I last saw Kasim play at The Trump Marina on the 1999 Meat Loaf StoryTellers Tour but this time they played at the slightly smaller “The Shell” hall within the casino. It may have been smaller but I’m pretty sure that there were almost as many people crammed in there tonight. This gig was sold out (or almost sold out) as the place was packed.

Packed is the correct word as they crammed us in at our tables! Why they opted for tables is beyond me as it was almost impossible to get a drink (at least from our waitress - she didn’t serve our table until Goodbye To You!) and it would have been far more comfortable (and they could have fitted in some more people) if we had been seated in rows! But still there were 10 of us sitting at my table (which comfortably would have held 6). Immediately my accountant’s brain calculated that they made $300 from just my table! There were 15 tables in my tier ($4,500) and I was in the fifth out of 6 tiers ($27,000!).

As we were all sitting in lines at our (cramped!) tables, it meant that I could only see three members of the band (plus Patty whenever she wandered across)! Thankfully Kasim was one of the three and he was wearing a black suit again with a white T-shirt (which really looks good on him!) - he took off his jacket for the encore. He used his black-brown bass again.

The set was slightly shorter again and started about 15 minutes late at 9.15pm. Tonight, for the first time on the tour, they played the whole of the song which they use as they’re walking on stage.

A lot of the crowd knew members of the band and Patty got the venue to light us up so that she could see everybody! There were 19 Smyth’s on the table next to us and a lot of Keith’s family and former band members were there. Patty’s oldest daughter, Ruby, was there too.

Patty told the crowd about how she could get to the audience in Westbury last night and complained that tonight she wouldn’t be able to unless she took her shoes off and stood on the tables (they led right up to the stage) so she promptly did just that! She later apologised for the state of her feet as she hadn’t had a pedicure for a while!

After Heartache Heard Round The World Patty said that none of the band would sing the line about being a “rock and roll girl”! She singled out Kasim at this point so he said that he would next time! She then thanked him for playing again. Someone shouted out to ask how old Patty was so she said that she was 47.

After Beat Of A Heart Patty joked that she’d have to give Keith $20 as “he really worked his ass off in that solo”! She next asked if we’d heard Ozzy Osborne being paged in the casino foyer and told us that they used to get venues to page dead people! She was using the example of Victor someone who apparently is still alive so she asked if Perry Como is dead yet to which Kasim replied “he always was”!

Despite this being another seated gig (thank goodness next weekends gigs are both standing!) the crowd really got going well in The Warrior! Next she sang Wish I Were You which she said was on the soundtrack to Armageddon (she doesn’t think it was actually in the movie) and that the proceeds of that song enabled her to put two of her children through college!

The break between Goodbye To You and Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough seemed to be longer tonight. Patty dedicated and sang Sometimes Love to her daughter Ruby and I was told by someone near their table that Ruby was crying during that song, as were other people at that table! It seems that it was only the professionalism of Patty that got her through that song. Thankfully Kasim’s vocals came over louder tonight than in New York (but not as well as at Westbury).

Patty then came into the audience to get Keith’s daughter Julia as she was going to dance with Patty on stage. Julia was amazing! A total stage-stealer! She was about 8 years old and was totally confident and was dancing all over the place! At one point she played some air guitar beside Keith and then just dropped down onto her knees to play! She really made the show tonight!

Patty Smyth and Scandal got a standing ovation tonight from this packed crowd. Kasim seemed to be enjoying himself on stage (he even put on Julia’s hat when she dropped it!) and he’s visibly smiling and chatting more to the other band members than he did in Hartford.

Afterwards I stayed chatting to some friends there and it was interesting to see how well organised the venue had arranged “the signing” as they had a long table and some chairs all laid out with the people in an orderly queue behind!

It’s just a shame that this “tour” is only 8 gigs long as it means we’re already three quarters done!

Many thanks to Gary "Goat" Goveia for all the photos on this page which were taken at the Westbury gig

Back to Patty Smyth and Scandal Tour