"Kasim and Jesse are so intuitive and the support it brings to the sound is astounding."

"What a letdown. The sound system was brutal with Todd's melodic riffs piercing my ears rather than gently pleasing my senses with guitar artistry."

"Todd's voice was practically perfect and his guitar playing was superb. They missed a few parts but that goes with the territory of playing difficult prog rock. Nothing that really detracted from the show. I think they really worked out the kinks since show one."

"The overall Vocal Ensemble is as good as Ive ever heard."

"The evening evolved into a boring odyssey of a never ending string of "prog rock" spacey tunes that frequently seemed sloppy and anything but enjoyable. I had played some of Todd's hits for my wife before the show. We sat there, at one of the most intimate and amazing venues anywhere, waiting patiently for even one of the tunes that we came to hear. BUT, no, not even a taste of A Dream Goes On Forever, Can't We Just Be Friends, Hello It's Me, Open My Eyes, I Saw The Light, Cool Jerk Rock and Roll Pussy ...not one HIT from Todd's past. "

"The music that was played at the Ft Pierce (and subsequent) shows is incredibly difficult, with key changes and time changes galore. One slip by one member, and that ship sinks. But this band was incredibly tight considering that they haven't played consistently together in decades. This kind of music breeds improvisation, reminding me a great deal of Zappa's work, but much more accessible. Todd's vocals were spotless and backing vocals were superb...Kasim is SO important to the sound, and consistently hits the mark."

Other websites:
TRConnection has reviews and photos of this gig here.

The band:
On stage with Todd, the band consisted of Kasim Sulton (background vocals and keyboards), Jesse Gress (background vocals), Kevin Ellman (drums), John Siegler (bass) and Ralph Schuckett (keyboards).

The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
Tonight Kasim Sulton plays the second gig of the 12-gig Todd Rundgren's Utopia Tour. The gig tonight is at the Sunrise Theater in Ft. Pierce, FL.

Click here to view the venue website (it automatically plays music so be warned!). The theater is located at 117 South Second Street Fort Pierce, FL 34950. The theater seats 1,200.

Tickets for the gig (from this link) cost $41.50 and $51.50. Last night there were 204 seats remaining and the best seats available were in the 15th Row.

The Sunrise Theater opened on 1st August 1923. It was open as a performing arts center for 60 years until it closed in September 1983 due to the decline of the downtown area and a refusal to convert to multi-screen operation. In 1988 Main Street Fort Pierce was established which realized it needed a performing arts center so Main Street Fort Pierce began an effort to save the historic theatre. In 1997 the Sunrise Theatre was purchased by the St. Lucie Preservation Association, Inc. and today the theater is completely renovated and is being used once again as a cultural center.

The gig is listed as starting at 7pm.

Orginaly Kasim was to have only sing background vocals on this tour but on Tuesday night it was posted online that Moogy was not doing so well so will only be at his local shows which may mean that Kasim will play some keyboards too on the tour. The first gig of the tour was last night and, as I post this, it is too early to hear whether or not that happened.