The Hamilton Street Café was a nice spacious, airy café that reminded me a lot of a slightly downmarket The Point! There were paintings on the walls (which were slightly too interested in the female form for my taste - no male models!) and some modern sculptures (e.g. a chocolate sauce bottle punctured with nails!). When I first entered, I thought that I’d accidentally walked into the dressing room as the first people I saw were Kasim and another one of the acts sitting on comfy looking sofas! Eventually I realised that this was like the entrance room with the stage room being the middle one and the third held a pool table and jukebox. Again I felt sorry for Kasim as there was no dressing room so he was like a goldfish in a bowl all evening with people gawking at him - I think the poor guy hardly had a minute’s piece all night long!

It was advertised as there being three opening acts before Kasim but I’m not sure if there were or not! I arrived at about 8.00 (when the show was due to start) but I stayed in the first room for a while. I could hear some music but I don’t know if it was the PA system or the first act. The first guy I saw played various guitars to a backing tape but it was not a tune as such as he just made various (impressive at times) noises emit from the guitars. The second act I saw was a young teenager who played electric guitar with a very aggressive style and sang untunefully. He obviously had a load of his friends or classmates there as they all swamped him afterwards and then immediately left - it was almost as though everyone under the age of 20 there had a curfew!

Kasim and Doug started tuning up at about 10.20 so Kasim probably took the stage at about 10.30 and introduced himself by telling us his full name, his social security number and his address! He then burst into his usual great Don’t Hold Me Back opening before going straight into Afraid Himself To Be (he sang it slightly slower tonight)!

As part of Kasim’s intro into Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing tonight Kasim told us about the fact that it was written for Meat Loaf’s forthcoming Testify album and that there was someone in the audience (local guy Glen Burtnik) with whom Kasim wrote a song for Meat Loaf’s previous album Welcome To The Neighbourhood and apparently they were very, very, very close to getting it on the album too! Also in the audience tonight was Tom Brislin (and his Dad!) who played with Kasim in Meat Loaf’s band on both the Greatest Hits and StoryTellers tours!

After Set Me Free and the Kasim Sulton 2002 version of Alone with another set of words tonight(!), Kasim played the two songs that a lot of the people came along specifically to hear, The One Sure Thing and Before She Was Gone. Kasim told the Glen Burtnik Xmas Show tale before The One Sure Thing. Before Before She Was Gone Kasim gave Doug Kennedy a great introduction by telling us that he actually camped out on Kasim’s lawn parading a sign saying “I want to play with Kasim Sulton” before Kasim had him arrested a few times and then relented and allowed him to play onstage with him! Kasim can certainly tell a great story!

Kasim next went into the “walk down memory lane” section of the gig by playing (with Doug) There Goes My Inspiration, Cliché, Back On The Street, I’m Looking Through You and One World. For the first time on the tour Kasim sang Cliché Todd-style as he forgot some of the words! (He joked that he’d remember them later!) If anybody has actually read all my reviews on this site, you’ll know that I rave most nights about Back On The Street and tonight (again!) it was just amazing. Most people don’t realise which tune they are playing until Kasim starts singing as they play such a long intro into it (almost in a Spanish flamenco style) and the guitar only part in the middle is just amazing to watch and hear! That song was a total contrast to the next - The Beatles’ quite simplistic I’m Looking Through You.

For the first time on the tour too, unfortunately the crowd didn’t clap during One World!! One guy started but after he’d clapped twice and nobody else joined in, he gave up (I must admit that I was guilty of not joining in too). After the show I heard loads of people say how much they enjoyed it but this was probably the most subdued audience of the tour which was a shame as Kasim did a great show tonight - maybe it was because there was no alcohol being served in the café! My other complaint about this venue was that they turned off most of the lights when Kasim took the stage so it was almost impossible to take any decent photos! They did put a couple of candles on a speaker near Kasim and then they soon extinguished themselves!

All too soon it was time for Kasim’s wonderful version of Across The Universe and time to leave but, as there’s four shows in three days, I can’t complain too much!

Roll on Maynard tomorrow……!