Well, contrary to what most people on the Internet appeared to think, I didn’t actually think that this was one of Kasim’s best gigs tonight! To me he seemed not fully focused (he waffled a bit at times) and his voice wasn’t 100%. Of course if people thought he was great tonight, just imagine how brilliant they’ll think he sounds when he IS fully on form!

The Kendall Café would actually have been called a pub in England but they did sell food which at least smelt really good! The area of The Kendall that Kasim played in was small (intimate!) so it meant that everybody could see really well. Thankfully the lighting was great for taking photos tonight too!

The opening act was Lloyd Thayer who played (remember I’m no musician) guitars laid on his lap with those metal thimbles on his fingers. He also sang and told some long stories. It really wasn’t my type of music and his voice was slightly flat but he had several of his fans there.

Kasim and Doug Kennedy actually arrived during Lloyd’s set and, as there was no dressing room, carried their guitars to near the stage and just stood around waiting for Lloyd to finish his set (it STILL seems strange to me to see that sort of thing as I’m used to Kasim playing in front of 12,000 people or so in Wembley, UK!). It also gave us an opportunity to see Kasim and Doug do a brief sound check (mainly tuning in their guitars and getting Doug’s turned down a bit). There wasn’t even anywhere for poor Kasim to warm up his voice first so it wasn’t ideal that the first thing he blasted out was his great Don’t Hold Me Back but the trooper he is, he sang it beautifully (although tonight I noticed that he didn’t do the strong version of “strong” in it). Before Kasim actually started singing he introduced himself which was funny!

As this was gig was also broadcast on the Internet Kasim told us that there was someone listening to it from New Zealand…..and Eugene, Oregon and then Eugene, Oregon became the running joke of the evening!

Since the tour started at Club Passim, Kasim seems to have settled into his Don’t Hold Me Back / Afraid Himself To Be / Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing / Set Me Free / Alone (the Kasim Sulton 2002 version!) opening which works very well. Tonight, as he often does, he then played his two new songs from his forthcoming CD Quid Pro Quo, The One Sure Thing and Before She Was Gone.
Kasim told us how he was driving himself to these gigs and in the past three weeks he’s driven over 4,000 miles! Next someone asked him how Shank Hall, Milwaukee was and it turned out that someone else in the crowd was from Milwaukee and so there ensured a conversation about Milwaukee and cheese hats that went totally over my head (pun!) as I don’t have a clue what one of those is!

All through the show, Kasim was obviously having trouble keeping his guitar in tune and at one point he told us that he’d put new guitar strings in the previous day (he also joked that they were not ordinary guitar strings but were from cryogenically engineered baby dinosaur eggs!). Kasim also mentioned his now famous Aunt Sadie and how she still keeps asking him if he’s “doing the music thing”! He also said that the main questions he’s usually asked by people nowadays is “What’s Meat Loaf like?”, “What do you call him?” and “How did he get that name?”!

Doug Kennedy had joined Kasim on stage for Before She Was Gone and then they both played the great There Goes My Inspiration / Cliché / I’m Looking Through You / Back On The Street / One World segue way of the set which is always very popular! I know I’ve mentioned before how great Back On The Street sounds when the two of them play it together but it seems to be getting better and better - I’m sure that the intro into the song tonight was longer and more intricate than ever!

One World tonight also contained the line “From Berlin to San Francisco, From New York to CAMBRIDGE”! and then Kasim added quietly “And Eugene, Oregon”! I think everybody in the place joined in with the clapping for that song too!

Kasim then finished with John Lennon’s great Across The Universe that Kasim sings so well (it really suits his voice and he was fully warmed up by then).

Roll on Alexandria on Wednesday……!

More Photos
Click here for some more photos taken at this gig

Video Clips
These are 15 second video clips which will take about 5 minutes each to download on a normal modem. As the lighting was good at this venue, I took quite a few tonight!
Kasim singng Afraid Himself To Be
Kasim singing Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing
Kasim singing more of Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing
Set Me Free
Kasim singing Before She Was Gone
Kasim singing There Goes My Inspiration
Kasim singing more of There Goes My Inspiration
Kasim singing Cliché
Kasim singing more of Cliché
Sue attempting some arty shots during Cliché!
Kasim singing I'm Looking Through You
The amazing guitar playing in Back On The Street
The amazing guitar intro into Back On The Street
More of the amazing guitar intro into in Back On The Street
Kasim singing Back On The Street
Kasim singing more of Back On The Street
The amazing guitar playing in Back On The Street
More of the amazing guitar intro into Back On The Street
Kasim singing One World
"CAMBRIDGE!....and Eugene, Oregon"
Kasim's great voice in Across The Universe