Hammer In My Heart
World Wide Epiphany
I last saw Kasim at the Milwaukee Summerfest in 1996 when he played with Meat Loaf at the Marcus Amphitheatre. Tonight's show with Todd was at the free (after the $10 Summerfest entrance fee) Miller Oasis stage. The Summerfest has hardly charged in the four years as there is still all types of food from all around the world! There was plenty of drink for sale and the people behind me were even openly passing around some dope!
Immediately after the previous band finished I made a beeline for the second row bench so I had a great view. Unfortunately though, as everybody stood on the benches, I spent the first few songs absolutely petrified that I was going to fall off the narrow bench, especially as the guy next to me kept dancing which made the bench wobble even more!
Our trio came on promptly at 10.00 for this ninety minute concert which
the crowd really enjoyed. Kasim wasn't using his cane tonight and,
although he sat briefly a couple of times, he didn't use every opportunity
to sit. As I could see so clearly tonight I noticed that he only tapped
with his broken foot and he used that foot each time to change his
pedals. He's also torn the back of his trouser to accommodate the plaster
which is almost up to his knee!
The sound was very loud tonight (it seemed to be twice as loud as last night) and during I Hate My Frickin ISP Todd's voice came over distorted but thankfully they corrected that. Kasim's ear pieces weren't working during that track either and it took the techs a while to sort it out. There was also something else about the sound that was bothering Kasim all evening as even during Todd's solo spot he spoke to the techs about it.
They sang Yer Fast earlier than normal in the concert tonight and then during the break in Love In Action Todd again went on about it being almost impossible to stop love in action - I wonder how many people actually know what that song refers to each night!
After # One Lowest Common Denominator (which Todd really does seem to enjoy playing), Todd announced that we were going to get all "soft and mushy" before they sang There Goes My Inspiration!
In Todd's solo acoustic part he sang The Beatles "Got to Hide Your Love Away" as "his friend" Ringo Starr will be playing on that stage tomorrow night. Todd also mentioned during the concert that a female singer (I didn't recognise her name) who apparently imitates other singers will also be appearing tomorrow. He then did his impression of her impersonating other singers and made a joke about Michael Jackson.
The Ikon was an excellent version tonight as all three seemed to play well both together and separately. That track was followed by Open My Eyes but then a pleasant surprise was that Todd started playing Trapped! They usually go straight into Buffalo Grass after Open my Eyes and, as they didn't play Trapped last night, it was great to hear it again and the crowd obviously thoroughly enjoyed it too!
After One World (no punch tonight but Milwaukee got the mention), Todd reminded us that "It's all in the cheese" before he vacated the stage. He'd mentioned the cheese last night too (it apparently comes from a television advert over here).
When they came back on for the World Wide Epiphany second encore Todd said that they were playing "Beat the curfew" which they just about managed!
Onto the Jaycees Festival tomorrow and hopefully this one will be on solid ground!
