This was one of my favourite gigs of the tour so far!

Café Carpe was located beside a river in the picturesque town of Fort Atkinson (population 10,213). It was about a seven hour drive from Detroit but a cultural jump away too. The café part of the venue was at the front with Kasim playing in the room at the back. On Sunday night when I looked in, a forgettable English guy had been playing there to a handful of people but almost all the seats were taken for Kasim tonight!

The café was a very relaxed place (the kitchen staff all wore jeans) so Kasim took the same relaxed, casual approach both in his clothes and his set which was just perfect for this delightful town.

After the owner had introduced him, Kasim told us about how much he was enjoying the tour before he burst into his great opener Don't Hold Me Back! That song really grabs everybody’s attention at the beginning of his set!

After the owner had fixed the sound to make it slightly more echoey, Kasim sang his great Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing straight into Afraid Himself To Be.

As part of Kasim’s intro into Set Me Free he told us that Utopia decided to make a conservative effort to reproduce some of the hits of the day to make their own hits. Kasim then played part of Boston’s More Than A Feeling and showed how they translated it into The Very Last Time! I’d never noticed the similarity before but when Kasim played it, it was really obvious!

After two more Utopia greats (Alone and There Goes My Inspiration), Kasim told us about his record contract and then played both his spell-binding The One Sure Thing and Before She Was Gone from Quid Pro Quo.

Next Kasim said about what a debt of gratitude he owed to Todd, Roger and Willie for letting him join Utopia and about how green he was when he started with them but that he learnt so much from them (you could see by the look on his face about how much he meant it too). By way of a homage to Todd, Kasim sang Cliché - afterwards he received massive applause! Although it’s obviously a difficult song to sing, I’m always amazed too at his faultless intricate guitar work during it!

After Kasim sang The Beatles’ I'm Looking Through You he told us about his admiration for John Lennon and about how he met him once on a street in New York before Kasim sang his beautiful song Across The Universe.

Some people were clapping almost all though One World tonight! Kasim switched one line to “And there’s Jeff who ran the bar in Madison, Wisconsin” in honor of Jeff Gauss who arranged Kasim’s gig there last year! As well as adding some “nananas” in the rift part of the song, Kasim also sang “From Berlin to San Francisco, From Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin!” before almost everybody joined in the clapping!

Kasim then received another standing ovation (by literally everybody in the room)! Roll on Milwaukee tomorrow…..!