Across The Universe
The Shank Hall is famous because of the film Spinal Tap so after Kasim's loud "Hello Cleveland!!!!" back in June it seemed really fitting that he played at this venue in Milwaukee! It was a large room with loads of tables (that filled up by the end of his set) close to the stage. The people of Milwaukee were very friendly too and there were a lot of long term Utopia fans (mainly male) who obviously respected Kasim greatly as a bassist.
Kasim was originally supposed to play two 45 minute sets but they changed it to one long ninety minute set which meant he could really get his teeth into the show and was far better. Kasim came out wearing a natty white shirt with black suit and a great shorter hair cut and looked really great! Even one guy echoed my feelings later that he doesn't look much older than 20 years old! Kasim's voice was slightly husky which gave a nice edge to his singing!
The audience started applauding as soon as the lights dimmed and were cheering when Kasim walked out. He gave a very funny introduction which I won't repeat as I hope he uses it at other gigs too. As somebody remarked at The Triad Lounge gig, he's changed the beginning of Don't Hold Me Back as he plays some guitar before bursting into "I gave no promise or guarantee" - I actually thought that he was going to start with Before She Was Gone as that's how it sounded to me.
After Kasim's great version of Afraid Himself To Be (I've so missed hearing that these past six weeks!), Kasim had to retune his guitar a bit and explained that he'd put in new strings only the night before. He said that a friend of his daughter's had seen him with all his guitars in the living room and had said "So..... do you play?"!!
Kasim next played Alone and told the story of how Set Me Free came to be written but expanded more on how Utopia set out to try to sell more records and be more commercial when they wrote Adventures in Utopia. He said that he wrote Set Me Free when he was "angry" at not being allowed out of Utopia to do a solo record so when he sang it, he paused at the "Just give me up so I can go" line to explain! Kasim called this "The Trip Down Kasim Sulton's Musical Career"! Somebody shouted out that they wanted to hear Trapped but he explained that he couldn't play that without a band but he did play a few of the opening chords! Kasim then went into his great Just A Little Bit / Ticket To Ride segway which goes down a storm at these gigs!
We then had a new addition to the set list as Kasim sang a really great version of This Must Be Love from his album The Basement Tapes. I always thought that this song was quite heavy on the keyboards but Kasim played it wonderfully on the acoustic guitar!
After There Goes My Inspiration, Kasim told an extended (and really funny) version of how Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing came to be written before singing that and then Before She Was Gone.
After Todd's It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference, Kasim sang his new wonderful The One Sure Thing (a slightly different version to how he sang it in Ohio).
Kasim then left the stage but, as the applause and cheers wouldn't stop, he was soon back thankfully! Someone shouted out for him to sing Eternal Love so he sang a brief part of it to massive applause! Someone next suggested Love Alone. Kasim said that he couldn't sing that as it's a piano song but he attempted it (after first playing a bit of air piano to get the notes correct!) and sang a great verse and part of the chorus! Kasim then said that he was going to do another Beatles song so someone asked to hear about the time that he met Paul MacCartney. Although he told this story at The Point, this was a longer version and was fascinating! He told us that he had a twenty minute conversation with Paul and Linda in the refreshment tent before he said about the scotch and water put down.
I think this was the longest gig so far of the tour and definitely was one of my favourites and I KNOW I'm not alone in that view with all the fans that I talked to afterwards and the quantity of T-shirts that were sold!
Roll on Chicago......!
Click here for some great photos by Sandi Daae of this appearance.
Video Clips
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Kasim Sulton Solo Acoustic Tour 2001
