One World
When Kasim played The Abbey Pub last August, it was very busy ……tonight it was packed! This was probably the largest venue of the tour so far and the people who arrived later were having trouble finding seats - all the tables were taken very early!
The opening act was a local girl called Kristen Shout who had a very strong voice but I didn’t think the songs she chose emphasised her range too well.
Kasim came on stage promptly at 7.45, looking very smart in a black suit with a brown shirt (he said that it felt like a brown-shirt venue to him!) to loads of applause and cheers!
Kasim started with his great dramatic Don’t Hold Me Back into Afraid Himself To Be opening before explaining how Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing came to be written. There were obviously some Meat Loaf fans in the crowd tonight as when Kasim mentioned him, he received some cheers, however when Kasim said “I used to be in a band called Utopia….” his comment received masses of cheers! Kasim also demonstrated again how the song More Than A Feeling was revamped by Utopia into The Very Last Time!
When Kasim told us about him signing an independent record label deal to release his new CD Quid Pro Quo, it was also greeted with applause, as were the two new tracks he played from it, The One Sure Thing and Before She Was Gone.
Unfortunately there was a new sound guy at the venue and Kasim was having dreadful trouble with the monitors as they were constantly fading in and out, so much so that after he mentioned it early on in the show, later he even stopped his set to get the sound guy to fix it! Fortunately that gave Kasim a chance to chat some more so he told us about when he and Tommy Price were writing the album Lights On! Apparently they were having trouble writing it in New York so they decamped to Jamaica but then spent all their money for their two and a half week stay within the first four days and hardly wrote anything!
Kasim next played Back On The Street and Todd’s own Cliché, both of which the crowd loved! One Todd fan in the crowd actually said that he’d heard Cliché loads of times but that tonight was the first time that he could actually understand all the words!
After This Must Be Love, Kasim tried to leave the stage but the applause and cheers were way too loud for him to do that so he asked us all to help him and he started off the two-one clapping before he started playing One World and people clapped it all the way through the song! Tonight we had the line “From Berlin to San Francisco, from CHICAGO to New York!” Once again Kasim received a standing ovation for his brilliant gig tonight!
As there was another gig later in the evening, the venue arranged for Kasim to go to the bar that was attached to the hall, in order to meet people and sign autographs. They set up a table and some chairs and it wasn’t long before a large queue formed with people waiting for up to half an hour as Kasim signed anything that was put in front of him and posed in photos for all that asked him in his usual good natured way!
Roll on Bridgeport on Thursday……!
My Wife (Carol) and I attended the show at the Abbey Pub Saturday night. I have never
been a big fan of solo acoustic music, but let me tell you...this was one of
the most enjoyable shows that I have ever attended. This was the first Kasim
solo gig that I have been to, and he was great! If you put solo Kasim and
solo Todd on a stage today, Kasim would blow him away! He was flawless...he
knows his songs, chords, lyrics, and NEVER sings a bad note. Anyway, the set list was the same as other shows. He started the show with my favorite Kas tune, "Baby Don't Hold Me Back", followed by Jason Falkner's "Afraid Himself To Be". My favorite songs of the evening though were 2 new tunes from his forthcoming CD titled "Quid Pro Quo", and "Across The Universe" by John Lennon. Oh yea, and a GREAT version of Cliché ...dead nuts duplicate of this great Todd acoustic tune. Todd has no chance of performing this song as good as Kasim did tonight.
Kasim's new CD will be worth buying for "The One Sure Thing" alone. Great melody, Todd-like chord changes, great catchy pop. Kasim is writing songs like Todd used to. This new disc is gonna be great.
Kasim talked alot about the old Utopia days, and how they made a conscious effort to hit it big with the "Adventures In Utopia" album. (Back in the day, I always thought that Todd and the band were above ever trying to copy anyone else's sound or formula, but the story that Kasim told squelched that idea!) He said that Todd and the band would get together in the studio and listen to the bands that were selling tons of records at the time...Journey, Boston & Styx...Geez this was tough to hear...I mean, imagine Todd in the studio listening to these guys...anyway, Kas explained that they tried to copy the formula of Boston's "More Than A Feeling" when they wrote and recorded " The Very Last Time". (And all these years I thought they were above it all.) I never thought of it before, but there is a slight resemblance. He talked about how big Utopia was when "Set Me Free" broke into the top 40, and how the band thought that they were very very close to stardom...lunch boxes, action figures, Saturday morning cartoons, etc...and then, 8 months later, they meet in Woodstock to begin working on the follow up to "Adventures", and Todd tells them that they're going to re-write & record Beatles songs. So much for stardom.
After the show Kas hung out in the bar talking, taking pictures, signing photos, etc. Just an all around nice guy. And my Wife is now even more in love with him since she got to hug him, touch him & talk with him. And I forgot my camera! (Thanks for taking the picture Sue!). I think I could have walked out the door and she wouldn't even have noticed!
Go see this show kids. It's great!
More Photos
Video Clips
Click here for some great photos taken by Sandi Daae at this gig
These are 15 second video clips which will take about 5 minutes each to download on a normal modem. These clips are slightly dark and I was standing a long way back so it is slightly shaky too!
Kasim singing Afraid Himself To Be
Kasim singing Set Me Free
Kasim's amazing guitar playing on Back On The Street
Even more amazing guitar playing - watch the speed his right hand moves!
CHICAGO!!
Click here for some great video clips taken by Sandi Daae at this gig
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