Click here for some great photos of this gig by Melinda Cain.

Review by SueW:
Goodness knows why Kasim left it over 4 years to return to The Abbey Pub in Chicago as he always gets such a good crowd here! Tonight people flew in for this show from Dallas, Florida, New York, Boston and Atlanta, and they were just the people that I spoke to! Everybody is so friendly here too and it was nice that people just walked to the sides of the stage to take photos without getting in anybody’s way and then walked back to their seats again with no hassle.

The opening act was a songwriting duo called Easy Tiger who were quite good. The singer had a voice that reminded me a lot of Ricky Byrd and his guitarist was obviously very talented.

Kasim came on stage at about 7.50pm and looked very smart in his flock jacket, white shirt and jeans. He introduced himself ("Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Kasim Sulton"!) and sat at the keyboards to play Set Me Free and Over For Now (which is when Doug Kennedy walked on stage). As we’d had dinner at the venue, we were one of the first allowed in so we chose to sit at the front. It meant that the sound wasn’t the best where we were (people said that it was excellent at the sound board) but we opted to see the whites of Kasim’s eyes!

Once Kasim moved across to his stool and his guitar, he started saying "Go Bears!" and said that if the show ever went quiet that he would call that out! I did realise that he probably wasn’t talking about the animals at Lincoln Park Zoo(!) but it was only afterwards that somebody explained that the Chicago Bears are in some sort of American Football Cup Final next weekend and it’s obviously a big deal in Chicago.

Somebody Loves You lead into Yellow Cab before someone asked Kasim how he was doing and he said that on a scale of 1 to 10, he was about a 9! Kasim then spoke about his solo tour and how he and Doug had already driven over 1,300 miles on his rental car. He then spoke fondly about Doug and jokingly how he takes advantage of him just because he can! Kasim also remarked that at the first show on the tour he basically just played his music and that as each gig goes on, he chats more and more on stage!

After I Don’t Mind At All, Kasim played the Utopia songs Libertine and There Goes My Inspiration. Both of those received an amazing round of applause as there were obviously loads of Utopia fans in the crowd. Todd Rundgren’s Cliché was next which the crowd loved too (some people even gave him a standing ovation!). This then lead into Kasim talking about The New Cars and how they played in Chicago twice. Kasim again said that he hoped to play in the band again in the future and then sang Drive which was beautiful.

Continuing with beautiful songs, Kasim and Doug then switched guitars to play Kasim’s own The One Sure Thing but before that there was some problem on stage so the sound guy Frank went up on stage to fix it which really made Kasim jump as he didn’t realise that he was behind him!

Kasim and Doug switched guitars again and Kasim spoke about how he’d had a busy 2006 but that he’d had about a month off which he spent working on his forthcoming album All Sides. He said that people will be able to pre-order it from Monday although the release date isn’t until 25th February. Kasim then played Are You Happy Now which is the first song on the second CD followed by Kasim’s spell-bounding Minutes Slipping Past. I really like the new songs Yellow Cab and Are You Happy Now but the more I hear Minutes Slipping Past (which is the only new song that Kasim has written on All Sides) the more I wish he’d devote much more time to his songwriting (or at least do it more when he’s on tour with other artists) as he is SO talented and his own songs are far more sensitive and beautifully crafted.

Kasim then went back across to the keyboards and (once again!) someone called out for Eternal Love! Kasim managed a few bars of the song (which he always says is all he knows!). However Kasim did promise that on his next solo tour he will sing that song, or maybe do a medley of Utopia songs! Kasim then told us about using the studios in Bearsville Records back in 1977 and played In The Name Of Love from those sessions. There was an abortive start to the song (as he did in Cleveland) as he wasn’t sure whether he was playing it in the right key for Doug to play. (Kasim joked in Cleveland that Doug can only play in the one key!) Kasim really does wallop those keys on the keyboard! There was a bottle of water on the top of keyboards and it was just as well that it had the cap on or it would have been sloshing all over the keys!

Doug then left the stage while Kasim sang Love Alone which was great to hear again. Loads of people stood up to applaud him after that song (especially one table of 3 or 4 guys in the front who were obviously big Utopia fans). Kasim was visibly touched by that which was sweet to see. Kasim also spoke about how many people he recognised in the audience and how they come out time after time to see him play in Chicago. (There was a really good sized crowd here tonight too, especially considering there was no publicity for this gig other than what was posted online.)

Kasim then told us that he was going to play a different song for the first time and that it was one of his favourite Utopia songs. As soon as he started playing the first few notes, I think we all recognised it as I Will Wait which was just brilliant to hear live! People even applauded him after the first chorus! Kasim said that he was worried about messing it up but I don’t think he did! It definitely deserves to stay in his set.

Doug Kennedy then walked back on stage and Kasim moved back to the centre and they played Sacrifice. Doug’s great lead guitar in the middle of that song also received a round of applause!

Kasim told us that he had one more song but instead of getting us to sing the “huh”’s in the song, we had to sing “Go Bears!” which was hilarious! Of course the song was One World. Loads of people clapped and sung all though and everybody sung the “Go Bears!” part loudly.

And then (all too soon for me!) Kasim left the stage. Of course it wasn’t long before he came back out to talk and pose for photos with anybody who wanted to meet him and time and time again I heard people saying about how nice he is!

Out of the 5 gigs he’s played this week, this one was easily my favourite.

Roll on Valparaiso tomorrow!

Pre-show page on KasimInfo.com:
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Kasim Sulton's Winter 2007 Tour