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Over For Now Yellow Cab The God Of Low Afraid Himself To Be Sacrifice I Just Wanna Touch You There Goes My Inspiration Set Me Free Keep It In Mind (That I Love You So) Libertine Cliché The One Sure Thing Watching The World Go By Love Alone / Eternal Love One World 
Review by SueW:
The venue itself was easy to find but inside I struggled to find the room where Kasim was playing. I could find the flea market and grill parts easily but not the music venue section. Thankfully I met someone who obviously saw me looking a bit lost and he directed me to the room. It was behind a pool table and there was just a small whiteboard with Kasim’s name on it.
It was a good sized room with a capacity of 128 but sadly Kasim didn’t get that number. However what the audience lacked in size it made up for in enthusiasm.
The opening act was Alan White (and friends). The friends consisted of a lady on vocals, a shy guy at the back on a sort of bongo drums and an amazing guitarist who sat at his table in the audience playing! Alan played a mixture of his own songs but Mr Sit Down was a really talented guitarist.
Kasim’s set lasted one hour and 20 minutes so was his shortest set yet of this tour.
At least this venue didn’t have red lighting but there were areas of the audience who were lit up better than Kasim. As I sat at the back I didn’t take many photos.
Kasim was introduced by Diana Parker from Folkommotion who arranged this gig. She explained that all the door takings went to the artists and that Folkommotion only get money from their merchandise.
Kasim said that this was his first solo gig in Kansas City and that he had been watching part of Alan White’s set from outside the door (Kasim later came in too to watch) and had seen the guitarist sitting down and playing and wondered originally if he played along to all the bands!
As usual Kasim started his set with Drivin’ Me Mad on his keyboards and tonight went straight into Over For Now. As there was no dressing room at this venue, not surprisingly Kasim’s voice wasn’t perfectly warmed up for these first two songs.
Kasim next explained that his next song was written for the guitar but as he was dragging his keyboards all over the country, he would be playing it on that! In fact if he hadn’t said anything, I doubt that anyone who didn’t know the song would realise that it wasn’t written for keyboards.
Kasim then switched to guitar to play The God Of Low – I really do like this softer version he’s playing on this tour (which I know I’ve written before!). It was then straight into Jason Faulkner’s beautiful Afraid Himself To Be. That voice suits Kasim’s voice so well (and I know I’ve written that loads of times over the years!).
Kasim explained how he’d started doing solo gigs back in 2001 and that in 2002 he had released a solo album and that he was going to play a song from that album – Sacrifice. Obviously lots of people had a copy of Quid Pro Quo as this song received a terrific round of applause afterwards.
Kasim then asked how many people here were Utopia fans and most people clapped. He then told us about his forthcoming CD and explained that us fans could get our photos on the cover of the CD and urged us to sign up to his mailing list for more details. Kasim then told us that there were going to be some special guests on his new CD including three very special guests. Coming so soon after him asking us if we were fans of Utopia and just before playing I Just Wanna Touch You, the buzz after the gig was that most people assumed that the three very special guests would be Todd, Roger and Willie!
Somebody then called out for Feet Don’t Fail Me Now so Kasim played the first verse and then went into There Goes My Inspiration. Kasim then switched to the keyboards and continued the Utopia section of his set by playing Set Me Free. Kasim next told us about playing in the band Sleepy Hollow before playing Keep It In Mind (That I Love You So).
I then thought Kasim did quite a brave thing as this crowd weren’t too large or too responsive (maybe because it was a weekday evening) but he still persevered with the audience participation part of Libertine. Although we rather limped though that song, Kasim received a large round of applause afterwards.
One of the things that Kasim is really good at is judging an audience so, as there were so many TR fans tonight, he opted to sing his Cliché which they obviously all loved.
Next Kasim spoke about the Todd Rundgren Johnson tour and about how easy he found the music (he said that he mainly played only three chords and that usually he has to really concentrate during Todd gigs). Kasim said that he was going to play two of his favourite songs which were The One Sure Thing and Watching The World Go By. Kasim explained that they were partly his favourites due to both having been written at great times in his life. Unfortunately Kasim broke a string during TOST so he switched to his other guitar after he had retuned it very quickly. Between the two songs Kasim spoke about his forthcoming solo gig in Akron on 5th September and that it will have the theme of beachwear (which hopefully won’t be as tacky as it sounds).
Kasim then returned to the keyboards to play Love Alone but without the Eternal Love part at the end. Kasim finally returned to his guitar, thanked us all for coming and played One World which everybody joined in with!
I really enjoyed this gig but I felt sorry for Kasim as he struggled to get much response from the audience. I don’t think it was all our fault but it didn’t help that the room was too large for that size crowd.
Roll on Indianapolis tomorrow!
The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
The address of the venue is 817 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO 64111 and Kasim will be playing the first gig in the 2010 Folkommotion series of concerts.
The gig starts at 8pm (doors open at 7pm) and tickets are just $15 (cash) on the door. This is an All Ages gig. The opening act is Alan White.
Folkommotion is described on its website as follows:
Pre-show page on KasimInfo.com: All Rights Reserved |