Comments by SueW:
I saw Kasim play The Odeon in Cleveland twice in 1999 on the Todd Rundgren Half Twisted Tour but tonight the venue was a lot smaller than I remembered it! Unfortunately the gig wasn’t all that well attended, more than in Boston but nowhere near as many as in Sayreville, New York or Atlantic City.

As I’d had my knuckles rapped for not saying anything about the opening act in Westbury(!) I ensured that I got there in time to see tonight’s but, other than the fact that Lou was nice enough to come up and saw hello during their set, I wish that I’d spent that hour having a dose in my hotel! They were called “The Swim” or “The Slim” (they weren’t listed on The Odeon website) and were nothing memorable. To be fair to them, the sound was diabolical as it was way too loud so it made everything sound very distorted but all their songs were very similar.

Patty Smyth and Scandal came on stage at about 10.10pm (after all their introducing music was played again) and the set was slightly shorter again as they had finished by 11.20pm. Patty seemed to lack some of her energy tonight to me but she still ran around a lot in songs like Goodbye To You and The Warrior.

• One of the funniest parts of the evening was that one girl flashed her boobs at the band during Hands Tied, even Patty found that funny!
• Patty said about them being on tour again and that they only got together because of the VH-1 Bands Reunited show (she said that her daughter Ruby had to talk her into doing it!) and joked that two of the band were currently living at her house!
• Kasim didn’t sing the “I wanna be a rock and roll girl” line in Heartache Heard Round The World after all!
• Patty wished that she was staying in Cleveland long enough to go to the Rock and Roll museum.
• Patty’s sister (and cousin) was in the audience again - she’d driven over from Pittsburgh to see the gig.
• Kasim was using his black-brown bass again.
• Thankfully Kasim’s vocals were louder again tonight, although it was very obvious after Patty left her microphone off stage during the break before the encore, that when she spoke into Kasim’s microphone that his is a lot quieter than hers! Benji King trotted off to get Patty’s microphone for her!
• Patty didn’t make a big thing out of thanking Kasim tonight.
• “Don’t mention Billy Idol!” Apparently he “stole” Thommy Price from them which lead to the break-up of Scandal - “and now Billy has the same hairstyle as Thommy!”.
• The lighting on Kasim at this venue during most of the gig wasn’t very good - it made him look as though he’d spent all day under a sunbed!
• Apparently Keith reminded Patty that she used to get the audience to sing part of The Warrior before the band did so tonight she got us to sing one verse and a chorus afterwards.
• There appeared to be a small area between the stage and the audience which Patty was sometimes helped into so she could get nearer to the crowd.
• Before Wish I Were You Patty said that “Johnnie Mac” was at home playing “”Mr Mum” with the six children and that tonight she doesn’t wish she was him as she’s glad that she was on stage! Patty also said that all the children had the same stomach bug this week…all at the same time!
• Before Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough Patty told us about her singing I to her daughter in Atlantic City and about how emotional they both got!
• Kasim’s voice came over really strong tonight in Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough.
• At the end of Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough she started to sing the slow part but decided that she wasn’t singing it low enough so she tried again and the band got her to sing it lower and lower!
• Kasim seems to be getting more and more relaxed with the other band members at each gig which is good to see.
• As I left the venue they were again saying that Patty and the band would be coming out in about 15 minutes to sign things.

Many thanks to Kevin Conley of TheMusicView.com for the photos on this page.

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