Libertine
(Please note that due to the poor lighting some of these photos have been artificially lightened so please click on them to view the original picture.)
The crowd tonight at the Tavern in the Beachland Ballroom was double the size that Kasim had when he played here in June which is a real credit to the dedication of his fans as this venue is about 15 miles outside the centre of Cleveland.
Kasim came on stage and cracked the Spinal Tap joke “Hello Cleveland” before launching into his great Don't Hold Me Back opener straight into Afraid Himself To Be before singing Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing. Tonight he gave quite a detailed explanation about how the latter song came to be written as he told us that it was originally written for Meat Loaf’s new album (which he said will be released later this year!).
Kasim started his Set Me Free / Alone / There Goes My Inspiration part of the set with his great opening “I used to be in this band called Utopia....” which was greeted with mass applause and cheers! He then told us about when Utopia stayed in a hotel in Cleveland called Swingos and about one night he and Willie were so drunk that they tried to throw an armour out of a window! Someone called out for the song Hoi Polli but Kasim misheard it as Hoi The Poi and said that that would make a great name for a band! He also told as that he likes the name “Appearing With” as the name for a band so that the posters would say “Appearing with Appearing With”! Next someone brought up an old black T-shirt that had “Kasim Sulton and Utopia” on it which made him laugh!
Poor Kasim seemed to be having an evening of mishaps as he had trouble keeping his guitar in tune (he’d just put in new strings) and twice his papers (set lists, words) fell on the floor! After Kasim played both Before She Was Gone and The One Sure Thing from his forthcoming CD, Kasim told us that he was going to play the next song as a tribute to someone who has helped him more than he’ll "ever know or admit” - he then told us that he was talking about Bebe Buell! Kasim explained that according to her autobiography she is responsible for everyone’s success so she must be responsible for Kasim’s too! Kasim then gave a faultless rendition of Todd Rundgren’s Cliché which this crowd of Utopia fans really appreciated! After Back On The Street some guy at the front started talking to Kasim about Todd, The Interocitor and showers (it was hilarious to listen to!). Apparently Todd asked this guy last week which “dive was Kasim playing in” which personally I thought was a bit rich considering that when Todd last played in this town, he played at a rib festival!
Next some totally drunk guy called Brad went right up to the front of the stage and started chatting to Kasim! He started asking Kasim to play the most ridiculous songs for a solo artist like Caravan and Trapped and even was asking Kasim for his autograph during his set! Instead Kasim sang the great One World (with Brad doing a Todd impersonation at the front of the stage during it!). Kasim included the lines “Brad talks to me before the song is sung” and "Brad's got it under control"! Thankfully most people joined in the clapping part!
Thankfully too the people enjoyed the set so much that they kept clapping so, after a gap of several minutes, Kasim came back and sang Libertine! I doubt that people realised there that Kasim has rarely returned to the stage once he left it so that was a great achievement for the Cleveland crowd!
Roll on Detroit tomorrow…..!
More Photos
Video Clips
Click here for some great photos taken by Lou at this gig
These are 15 second video clips which will take about 5 minutes to download on a normal modem. Unfortunately these clips are VERY dark but you can still hear how great Kasim sounded!
Kasim singing Set Me Free
Kasim singing There Goes My Inspiration
Kasim singing Cliché
Kasim singing Back On The Street
Kasim singing Across The Universe
Kasim singing Cleveland in One World
