Click here for some great photos of this gig by Marilyn.

Review by SueW:
The Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City, Los Angeles was probably the largest venue they've played so far on the tour (it seat about 6.000) and it was all but sold out! I arrived about a quarter of the way through Blondie's set (lots of other people were only arriving then too) and there were already loads of people standing. This venue had screens either side of the stage (although back a bit on the left side) but they didn't really show any good close-ups - I think they need cameras with better zooms!

Regular tickets for this venue varied in price from $39 to $78 (plus charges) and the VIP packages of over $400 were also available. This venue also held two online auctions recently. The first one was for two second row Orchestra Pit seats and two Backstage Hospitality Passes that went for $150 per seat (so $300 in total). The second auction was for two front row Center Orchestra Pit tickets, two Backstage Hospitality Passes, and a Gibson Epiphone Les Paul Guitar signed by The New Cars. The winning bid was $505 each seat!

The Pit area probably held about 100 seats and I know that some were Comps plus radio station winners but I'd love to know how other people there got their tickets as I bought mine within 5 minutes of them going on sale on 17th March and *only* got 5th row in the area behind the pit. Although the seats were good (they slope well here so people can see okay), it seems that at least at this venue, it's not always a good idea to buy tickets as soon as they go on presale! (I later heard from soneone who bought front row centre on TicketMaster the morning if the concert!)

I thought Blondie played the best set that they have out of the 6 concerts on this tour so far - even the band who are usually quite staid were more animated today. During the encore they played an additional song because it was Joey Ramone's birthday today which meant that they had to cut their final song (Heart Of Glass) slightly short! They received a good reception (the best they have all tour).

During the interval some people (maybe 5% left) but I was told later that Los Angeles has a large gay population and lots of the people who left appeared to fit that demographic.

The New Cars again played for about an hour and 20 minutes and this was the best concert of the tour for them too. I think Kasim said something about them lifting their performance for this concert and that looked to easily be the case!

There were a couple of "events" during the concert though. For the first two bars or so of the first song, the sound wasn't switched on over the PA system (but that was soon rectified) and Todd messed up the first few lines of I Saw The Light...one of his own songs! He also threw his guitar at his tech as he took it off and it crashed to the ground (it was still plugged in) with a large clash. When Kasim threw the tambourine back to the tech during Bang The`Drum (he's been throwing it higher and higher), tonight it hit Prairie's drumkit!

All the band except Kasim were in black and white again (Kasim was wearing his long red jacket coat, white shirt and black trousers) and Todd started off the set in a long white dinner jacket looking garment.

When they started singing All Mixed Up I deliberately looked at the video screens and, as I expected, the camera crew didn't realise that Kasim was going to sing lead. The strange thing was that it took them until about the second verse before they realised that it was Kasim who was singing and put the camera on him! Kasim's voice sounded really good tonight and, as usual, he emphasises certain phrases in that song so well. During Drive I saw a few people holding up lighters and a couple held cell phones with lit displays which was quite moving.

The sound was far better tonight, at least where I was sitting. Or maybe it's because I know the lyrics better but certainly I can pick out Todd's vocals far better than at the beginning of the tour.

Lots of Todd fans after the show remarked about how well he's playing guitar on this tour. He always plays well but possibly it's because Elliot Easton (who is another great guitarist) is on stage that he really lifts his performance at each concert.

Kasim is easily the most charismatic musician on stage as he constantly makes eye contact with fans from the stage and during Good Times Roll he'll choose one person and get them to sing the title with him. He opted for someone less than 60 years old tonight after what happened in Las Vegas last night!!

Review by JimmyB:
I did the whole VIP thing and it was great.. the meet and greet was friendly.. Kasim was a real down to earth guy, and everyone was joking around.. I was really nervous because I brought a couple of albums that I had and I wasn't sure how the band would feel about it, but the whole band autographed them ..very professional , on the debut album I was able to get all the band members to sign even though not all the original band members weren't performing that evening.. the panorama album was really nice, they all signed in the dark blue squares of the checkerboard design, I also had a Todd album called Utopia, Kasim played with Todd on this album, so Todd and Kasim signed that one.. the guys were really surprised that those albums were still around.. the party for the preshow was top notch also.. the same company that did the fan club pre show party for Areosmith, also did the work for The New Cars.. all were excellent.. Amanda and Britney did a great job...

The meet and greet lasted about a half hour or so, but before the greetings, Amanda took everyone inside the house for the sound check, that lasted about a half hour, then we proceeded to the green room area for the meet and greet, all the band members sat at a table and everyone passed by and said hi and shook hands and exchanged names and the best part was the memorbilia that all the guys autograghed, I had brought some albums and the band was excited to sign them, some people had thier laminants autographed.. after that was completed everyone came back around in line and had their photos taken with the band.. Kasim was joking around along with Todd, Elliot, Greg and Prairie.. after that everyone moved upstairs and outside to a really nice setup of food and drink.. Elliot's daughter sang kareoke with Amanda, and Amanda also took pictures of everybody, wich are on the cars site in the public section, . what a great day the weather was perfect the food and drink very plentiful.

Also the ticket deal I did was I purchased mine during the presale and I was able to get front row..how lucky can you be, right in front of Kasim all night... my girlfriend Maribel was able to catch a pick from Kasim.. Kasim looked like he really enjoyed himeself.. there were alot of hot women in front of Kasim, so that should be incentive enough.. ha ha Kasim was tossing picks all over.. it was great.. plus the band sounded great all the songs were really memorable... I took quite a few pics of the show also.. so I have some great memories.... oh ya Kasim was asking Maribel what her nickname was, how funny.. she said it was Bell and Kasim smiled.. everyone made the fans feel comfortable at the greeting.

That evening the band played way beyond my expectations.. very tight and where I was sitting I could see the energy and effort the band was putting out.. sweat everywhere and just playing their hearts out.. I took my girlfriend for her birthday, because she always would turn up the radio whenever The Cars came on. and of course I grew up listening to Todd and The Cars. the cost was worth it to me.. I did the same with Aerosmith, no meet and greet, but a great preshow party and great seats, I'd do it again.....

Kasim Sulton:
Click here to read Kasim's opinion about this concert. He includes the comments "We pulled it off with flying colors. We had a great show and couldn't have asked for a more appreciative crowd. Come see us play. The shows keep getting better."

Comments about this gig posted on messageboards and mailing lists include:

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This a is a great photo of Kasim backstage by Anna Mull.

There's a bad review of the concert on OCRegister.com (it bearly mentions Kasim). This page also contains the following photo and caption:

The New Cars Road Rage Tour