Set List:
Don’t Hold Me Back
Afraid Himself To Be
Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing
Set Me Free
Alone
The One Sure Thing
Before She Was Gone
There Goes My Inspiration
Cliché
Libertine
I’m Looking Through You
One World
Across The Universe
The Van Dyck was a really nice restaurant in Schenectady and would have made a lovely venue for the ending of the tour…..but fortunately there’s one more gig next weekend!!
Kasim was playing on the upstairs level which had the bar at the back and the tables laid out in an L shape with the stage at the angle part so that most people could see well. Most people except me that was! I was really unlucky tonight as for both shows I had two different guys who kept blocking my view of Kasim all through the sets! In the second half of the first set I opted to stand at the bar so that I could see better (although I was further back) but in the second set I just kept moving my head either side of a rather portly gentleman as he dipped his head down to his food each time he took a large mouthful! Also back where I was sitting it wasn’t too bright so my photos are dark but as it cost $30 for the evening ($15 per show), I was determined to take at least some photos! Thankfully there were other people there taking pictures so hopefully theu will be posted soon.
Thanks to the amazing efforts of the Decotis family in spreading the word about the show (and putting up flyers all over the town), both shows were well attended. The first show had lots of Amy’s friends there which was great to see and the second show had more verbal Utopia fans so it made a nice mix! Although the majority of both sets were the same, Kasim made each show different with his great patter that he is SO good at doing!
After Kasim’s usual Don’t Hold Me Back straight into Afraid Himself To Be opening, he gave one of his longest intros into Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing of the whole tour as he told both jokes tonight! The two Utopia “oldies” Set Me Free and Alone received a great reaction tonight, as did Kasim’s wonderful new(ish!) The One Sure Thing!
Kasim then told us that it was a little known fact that he sometimes does some charity work and that part of his work is to help criminal offenders come back into society and basically that was why one of them would be playing on stage with him before he introduced Doug Kennedy! Kasim was actually so convincing that later in the evening I heard someone ask Doug “You’re not really an ex-criminal, are you?”!!
Doug Kennedy played alongside Kasim on Kasim’s great Before She Was Gone, Utopia’s There Goes My Inspiration and Libertine, Todd Rundgren’s Cliché and The Beatles’ I’m Looking Through You before Kasim gave Amy Decotis a great introduction and all three of them played One World together! Kasim joked that later he was going to show Amy how to set her guitar on fire (a la Hendrix)! When Kasim started playing, Amy’s guitar wasn’t switched on at first (hence his comment in the second set). Amy gave a really great performance again and I was just amazed at how self-assured and un-nervous she looked again!
After Amy and Doug vacated the stage Kasim finished with John Lennon’s lovely Across The Universe but tonight Kasim played a different version of it. I can’t really explain how it was other then it was quieter and sounded more acoustic (if that’s possible!) to me - it was just beautiful!
Video Clips
These are 15 second video clips which will take about 5 minutes each to download on a normal modem. These clips are dark and I was standing a long way back.
Kasim and friends playing One World
More of Kasim and friends playing One World
Kasim's great new version of Across The Universe
Set List:
Don’t Hold Me Back
Afraid Himself To Be
Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing
Set Me Free
Alone
The One Sure Thing
Before She Was Gone
There Goes My Inspiration
Cliché
Back On The Street
Libertine
This Must Be Love
One World
It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference
Across The Universe
Kasim told us about his new CD, Quid Pro Quo, that will be coming out in April on Sphere Sound Records and even his comment that he was about to play two songs from it brought a smattering of applause tonight! There’s been some talk amongst Kasim fans about the thoughts behind his beautiful song The One Sure Thing and tonight Kasim explained that it’s “about finding the thing in your partner that keeps you together for the rest of your lives…..and when you find someone like that, don’t ever let them go”.
Kasim next told us that one of the best things about having been in the bands that he’s been in is he’s gained a lot of respect as a musician and that sometimes people will recognise him in music shops and places and say how much they’ve enjoyed his music! He then continued that unfortunately it can be a double edged sword as there are some nut-jobs who stalk him and don’t leave him alone! One guy (apparently) threatened to camp out on Kasim’s lawn if Kasim wouldn’t let him play with him on stage! Kasim said that he ignored these threats until one day he WAS outside his house with a placard saying “I will play with Kasim one day” walking up and down outside his house! Kasim got the guy arrested and he was put on suicide watch in the jail until Kasim went to visit him and has agreed that he can play on stage with him - Doug Kennedy!
They then played Kasim’s great Before She Was Gone (also from Quid Pro Quo) before launching into There Goes My Inspiration, Cliché, Back On The Street, Libertine and This Must Be Love, all of which the crowd definitely loved by all the applause!
Someone next called out for Trapped which Kasim attempted briefly before he sang a few bars of Eternal Love and then Swing To The Right and The Martyr. Kasim joked that he should have done a set of just two lines of about ninety songs!
Next Kasim told us that he ran an advert in the paper for a volunteer to come on stage and perform a song and that a fan had written in to say that she would like to play with him! Kasim then spotted a few of Amy’s young friends at a table so he asked if they were enjoying his music and whether they’d prefer it if he sang some Boyzone or N’Sync music so he sang a few bars of Oops I Did It Again!
Amy Decotis then came on stage and Kasim told her that the first thing a musician should always do when they go on stage is to switch their guitar on before saying that she was actually mentioned more in the Albany newspaper article than he was! He said that he was going to play the tune slightly faster than they did in the first set and he started off at an amazingly fast pace (it actually sounded more like I’m Looking Through You than the slower One World!). Kasim said that he’d slow it down a bit before he played it just as fast again! When he did play it at the proper speed so that people could recognise it, there was loads of applause and cheers, plus most people clapped through most of the song! Tonight Kasim included the lines “And there’s Amy who plays the guitar in Sche_nec_tady” and “From Berlin to San Francisco, From New York to Amy’s house!”. Kasim also got Amy to clap over her head during the clapping part (as he did in Albany)! He was just so good with her and she’s obviously already a very talented guitarist, with absolutely no signs of any nerves!
Kasim next played his new, quieter version of Across The Universe that I really like before it was all over for another gig!
Roll on The Bitter End in eight days….!
Video Clips
These are 15 second video clips which will take about 5 minutes each to download on a normal modem. These clips are dark and I was standing a long way back.
Kasim singing Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing
Do NOT watch this if you're going to The Bitter End and you don't want Kasim's joke spoilt for you!
Kasim singing Set Me Free
Kasim singing The One Sure Thing
Kasim and Doug playing There Goes My Inspiration
Kasim and Doug playing This Must Be Love
Kasim and Doug in the musical part of This Must Be Love
Kasim, Doug and Amy playing One World
"From New York to Amy's House!"
Kasim singing Across The Universe
More of Kasim singing Across The Universe
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