Location: Ljubljana / Hala Tivoli / Slovenia
Date: Thursday, July 2, 2015
Slovenia was handed a special honor: American rock giants Toto played Ljubljana’s Hala Tivoli for the very first time, which delighted plenty of music gourmets, who on average have to wait at least a year, if not longer, for similar top-tier rock events on our soil. Toto are currently in the middle of an ambitious European tour presenting their latest studio album »Toto XIV« (2015), which has deservedly earned plenty of praise. It was a nearly nine-year wait, but it was richly rewarded, since »Toto XIV« stands level with their best work, so there was no hesitation about letting the new songs join the long-time favorites in the live set, led by the ‘household’ evergreens »Africa«, »Rosanna« and »Hold the Line«, which even many people who otherwise know nothing about Toto can recognize.
After guitar virtuoso and occasional lead singer Steve Lukather called off his early retirement, which made him the chief architect of their ‘resurrection from the dead’ in 2010, Toto have truly become an even bigger phenomenon than they were in the days of their biggest hits. The years just can’t seem to get to them, neither in the studio nor on stage, while singer Joseph Williams, son of famed film composer John Williams, sings as well since his return as he did in his younger days, so they really couldn’t have picked a better lead vocalist right now. The rest of the ‘steel’ Toto foursome is made up of keyboardist/singer David Paich and keyboardist/singer Steve Porcaro. After the far too early deaths of Jeff and Mike, Steve is the last of the Porcaro brothers, who were a major part of the big success story of Toto in the eighties.
The current nine-piece live lineup has been bolstered on bass, as an old acquaintance has returned: original bassist David Hungate, whom Lukather had long missed and wanted to lure back into the band. Many in the crowd also got their first chance to see new live drummer Shannon Forrest ‘in action’. It seems he’s no longer just a temporary stand-in for Keith Carlock, who replaced longtime member and British drumming grandmaster Simon Phillips before the recording of »Toto XIV«. Backing vocal duties were once again handled by the male-female duo of Mabvuto Carpenter and Jenny Douglas-Foote, who was also pushed a bit more into the spotlight a few times. After a really long time, the ‘indestructible’ percussionist Lenny Castro returned to the live lineup too, having accompanied Toto on stage already during the era of their biggest successes.
As their support act, exclusively for the Ljubljana show, Toto picked our beloved vocal ensemble Perpetuum Jazzile, who won worldwide attention and praise from David Paich with their special arrangement of Toto’s biggest hit »Africa«. The group, made up of female and male vocalists, didn’t disappoint its fans this time either, proving why its work has drawn so much attention in recent years. Perpetuum Jazzile first joined Toto on stage in 2012 at a show in Majano near Udine, where they performed the aforementioned evergreen together, and this time they were handed that special honor again toward the end of the night.
After Perpetuum Jazzile’s successful set, the big moment arrived, one the audience, which turned out in truly commendable numbers in the middle of the Tivoli hall that evening, had been awaiting rather impatiently. Toto opened their show with an excellent choice, the epic, hard-hitting banger »Running Out of Time«, the first song from the new album, which quickly heated up the atmosphere in the hall, followed by the unforgettable »Toto« (1978) classic »I’ll Supply the Love«, another masterpiece with a similar atmospheric charge and energy. Of the new material, the performances of »Burn«, »Great Expectations«, »Holy War« and »Orphan« came off very well, standing fully on par with the many long-time favorites that night.
Among the Toto classics, it was nice to hear the »Isolation« (1984) standard »Stranger in Town« again, originally sung by the late former singer Fergie Frederiksen with help from the song’s author David Paich. One of the rare bigger surprises was the performance of »Takin’ It Back«, one of only three Toto songs with Steve Porcaro on lead vocals. As expected, the Ljubljana crowd ‘exploded’ the most during the best-known hits from the golden era, led by »I Won’t Hold You Back«, »Hold the Line«, »Pamela« and »Rosanna«. Toto closed the main part of the show with the latter, but they were quickly back for the obligatory encore, in which they first played a somewhat surprising fusion of »On the Run« and »Goodbye Elenore«, and then came the big peak of the night, when members of Perpetuum Jazzile joined the band in the background for »Africa«. They carried out their backing vocal mission in superb fashion, while Paich and Williams traded the lead vocal lines, so the triumph was mutual and complete.
This time, luckily, Paich didn’t introduce Perpetuum Jazzile as a Croatian group, as happened to him in 2012 at the show in Majano, Italy, although his ‘dober večer’ to the crowd, maybe because of David’s Croatian roots and maybe not, sounded more like ‘dobro veče’. Besides frontman Williams, Paich is generally the biggest stage entertainer and ‘character’ among the regular band members, happily swapping his extravagant top hat for a workman’s cap whenever the more spirited songs come around. Lukather, in his traditional Hawaiian shirt with mystical motifs, was in great spirits throughout, and he especially wowed with a guitar solo during the »Fahrenheit« (1986) ballad »Without Your Love«. And that was far from his only splendid solo moment, one that charmed all fans of guitar grandmasters of Steve’s caliber.
The only slightly less interesting performance of the night was the cover of The Jimi Hendrix Experience classic »Little Wing«, since Toto have a huge amount of excellent original material that deserves more attention and which didn’t make it onto the ‘agenda’ this time. On the other hand, it was very nice that before that cover the band members remembered their late companions Jeff and Mike Porcaro and Fergie, as well as their old friend, the recently deceased Yes member and bass innovator Chris Squire. Toto will soon head out on a joint American tour with Yes, so Chris’s premature death hit them all the harder. As a fun fact, in 1992 Steve Porcaro was a member of Squire’s short-lived band The Chris Squire Experiment.
Toto’s debut show in Ljubljana was a success in every respect, and any fan of top-shelf musical expression, whether rock, pop or jazz, who missed this one-of-a-kind concert event can really kick themselves, because it’s a big question when the California rock legends will next turn up on our home turf. The band members were in top live form and gave it everything they had, which was expected, but every single Toto concert is a unique and distinctive experience, especially when it happens on home soil. The successful on-stage get-together with Perpetuum Jazzile during »Africa« was one such distinctive, rarely repeatable treat.
The sound was unusually good by Tivoli standards, so this time it gets truly sincere congratulations. The crowd, which deserves praise for its generally good response and included no shortage of visitors from abroad, could maybe have been at least a little louder when the best-known hits weren’t on, but even so, their reaction exceeded all expectations. Those were of course pretty low going in, since any lover of good music who thinks about how often gigs like this happen here and the apathy that usually greets them has long since stopped being an optimist. Luckily, after one-of-a-kind concert nights like this, brimming with positive energy, this time courtesy of a Toto in great spirits, you simply forget about such unpleasantries for a while.
words: Peter Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Running Out of Time
2. I’ll Supply the Love
3. Burn
4. Stranger in Town
5. I Won’t Hold You Back
6. Hold the Line
7. Takin’ It Back
8. Never Enough
9. Pamela
10. Great Expectations
11. Without Your Love
12. Little Wing (The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover)
13. Holy War
14. The Road Goes On
15. Orphan
16. Rosanna
—encore—
17. On the Run / Goodbye Elenore
18. Africa
