Couldn't I Just Tell You
Love Of The Common Man
Black And White
Yer Fast (And I Like It)
Love In Action
The Ikon
Open My Eyes
There Goes My Inspiration
# One Lowest Common Denominator
Hammer In My Heart
World Wide Epiphany
One World
One World
It was about a six hour drive from Lancaster, PA to Vernon Downs, NY and I certainly had mixed feelings on the way there as it was the last concert of this brilliant 40 date tour!
I found Vernon Downs racetrack quite easily (certainly a lot easier than I found my car afterwards!) and, as I didn’t get there until about 5.00, there was no queue to park or to enter the place. As a friend pointed out to me, they advertised it as a good place to bring children (there was a funfair and firework display afterwards) but, having seen it, I didn’t think that it wasn’t a place that was suitable for kids although there were lots there. It was an extremely muddy field that reminded me more of a rock festival than a family day out. There was a lot of loutish behaviour and even more drunks, plus plenty of dope was being openly smoked – it was a blessing when someone lit up a nicotine cigarette!
Unfortunately I missed both Rick Derringer and Joan Jett (the artist list was like “Kasim Sulton, This Is Your Life”!) as I arrived just as Nazareth were taking the stage and they played a good set. The only song I recognised was My White Bicycle but they obviously had a lot of fans in the crowd. Both Kasim and Trey watched a lot of their set from the side of the stage! Amazingly in that 20,000 (or whatever) crowd I managed to meet up with some friends! The whole show was running half an hour late and Todd wasn’t due on until 6.30 so I stood back a bit until Nazareth finished. As always at these events, lots of people moved away from the stage so I managed to make my way right up to the second row on Kasim’s side so I had a great view!
Kasim, Todd and Trey came on promptly at 7.00 and played another brilliant set for an hour! Todd said that he wouldn’t talk too much as they had to keep to schedule for the fireworks but thankfully his voice sounded a lot better today! Kasim seemed to be having some problem with the sound at the beginning of the set as he spoke to the techs a couple of times.
We had the usual opening three songs with Kasim and Todd doing the scissor kicks in Couldn't I Just Tell You which the crowd loved! I must be SO unobservant because I hadn’t realised that Kasim is now using cordless guitars! I remember too well him stepping on his guitar cord in Anaheim when he broke his foot and then the next time they did the scissor kicks, I noticed he purposely moved the cord out of the way and it was only the other day I thought to myself that he doesn’t do that now. It wasn’t until it was actually pointed it out to me that, on this leg of the tour, he’s switched to the cordless guitar so he can’t trip on it now! As he’s free to roam now, tonight he stood on Trey’s drum riser to chat to him for a while and then tried to encourage a young child who was on stage to come to the front!
Yer Fast went down really well, even though obviously most people weren’t actual Todd fans in the crowd. They also loved Love In Action but tonight it was unfinished as, after the break in the song, they played The Ikon and never went back to Love in Action! Kasim gave another amazing performance in The Ikon tonight and received a massive round of applause after his spotlight part! If anything that has to be the one track when I can see such a change in Trey from the first concert in Santa Cruz as 40 concerts later he now just plays and plays and plays! He really seems to enjoy his spotlight time and makes some great faces too!
They next played Open My Eyes and Todd commented that the older the songs, the more people liked them! After There Goes My Inspiration, Jessie Gresse came on stage (he’d been standing at the back watching the set) in time for # One Lowest Common Denominator although Todd played all the main parts of that track. For the first time on the tour Jessie actually sang during Hammer In My Heart as he shared Kasim’s microphone (a la Beatles)!
They next played World Wide Epiphany (with Jessie breaking a guitar string) before they left to return to the coach which was right behind the stage. As Todd had already introduced the band and they usually finish with WWE, there was some confusion as to whether or not they would return and one of the techs actually went and spoke to them in the coach!
After a couple of minutes they came back and played the wonderful One World, complete with hand punch and the line “From New York to Vernon Downs” but very few of the crowd joined in with the clapping as they obviously didn’t know it.
(Okay, a personal note here, after the show a woman who had seen Kasim signaling to me from the stage came up and told me a great story about how Kasim had inspired her son to learn the bass and wanted me to tell him about it. If she’s reading this, please could she contact me via JudyGirls@yahoo.com. Thanks….)
When I first heard that Vernon Downs was going to be the last concert of the tour, I decided myself to treat Lancaster as the last concert proper and I think that this was the best way to view this gig as it was an abbreviated set list in a setting that wasn’t ideal for a concert with a crowd who weren’t Todd fans. Saying that though, they still put on a great show that went down well! They were followed by Blue Oyster Cult and a disappointing firework display compared to the one at Pittsburgh!
And there ended a brilliant tour…..!
