Location: Padua / Gran Teatro Geox / Italy
Date: June 22, 2013
It was June 2, 2013, around four in the afternoon, when a little band of Slovenian classic and melodic rock fans at the Hi Rock festival in Inzell, Germany, got the shocking news that the second day of the festival was completely canceled. Instead of catching Toto, Survivor, Rick Springfield and FM, we packed our bags and hit the road back home before the afternoon was even over. The reason the whole second-day program got scrapped was the catastrophic flooding in Bavaria, which stopped the performers from making it to the far south of Germany, where Inzell sits. Bummed out by our bitter luck, we quickly decided we’d still see the supergroup Toto live, since the other acts are practically impossible to catch (at least on continental European stages). One look at the schedule of the new European Toto tour and the decision was made: on Saturday, June 22, we were heading to Padua, Italy. Same five of us who’d been the best of company in Inzell!
Toto are a band who conjure up an unforgettable concert experience live. Their body of work is far broader than a couple of big radio hits that carried their name around the world in the early eighties. Toto level out the musical universe, blending rock, pop and jazz in a completely their own way, which is why they rightfully rank among the most respected names of their field and era. Even though a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since their creative and commercial peak, their shows are still well attended, and so Toto managed to draw a crowd of several thousand, mostly seasoned music connoisseurs, into the brand-new structure of the Gran Teatro Geox in Padua on a hot Saturday night. This tour, already their third European run in as many years, invited fans to celebrate the band’s 35th anniversary.
Toto kicked off the show a few minutes past 9:30 p.m. with a medley of On the Run and Goodbye Elenore, surprisingly working in even the Child’s Anthem motif from their debut, released way back in 1978. The 2013 lineup features original members Steve Lukather (guitar), David Paich (keyboards, vocals), Steve Porcaro (keyboards, vocals), later addition drummer Simon Phillips, and vocalist Joseph Williams, who replaced classic frontman Bobby Kimball when Toto reunited in 2010. Rounding out the band in Padua as touring members were bassist Nathan East, who’s still filling in for the gravely ill Mike Porcaro, plus backing vocalists Jenny Douglas-McRae and Mabvuto Carpenter. So Toto showed up with the same lineup as on last year’s tour, when RockLine caught them in Majano on July 31, 2012, and in Vienna on August 22, 2012.
Every single musician on that stage is a seasoned studio cat, and as such used to the sonic perfection that’s expected of Toto. Sadly, the sound at the very start of the show, on the left side of the stage where I was standing alone, wasn’t at its best. Lukather’s guitar was too quiet (especially the rhythm lines), but luckily the folks at the mixing desk soon found a gentler sonic balance. The enriched instrumental version of Hydra, with its complex rhythmic structure, was a reminder of why Michael Jackson himself, at the height of his fame, picked this band to help him record what later turned out to be the best-selling album of all time (“Thriller,” 1982).
Frontman Joseph Williams already worked with Toto on the albums “Fahrenheit” (1986) and “The Seventh One” (1988), so it’s no wonder tracks from that most melodic period of the band dig into the repertoire of their current tour too. On I’ll Be Over You and Pamela he had no trouble proving his vocal shape, which still serves him like in the golden days. His charisma doesn’t have all the qualities of the best rock frontmen, but Williams made up for it with a heartfelt vocal performance.
With a cunning mix of what they played, Toto also proved themselves masters of mood-shifting. After the burst of enthusiasm with Rosanna, they served up two songs with a deeper emotional charge, Wings of Time and Falling in Between, at the expense of less intense interplay between band and crowd, but with the tongues of music maniacs hanging down to the floor as they enjoyed the outstanding interplay of Steve Lukather and both keyboardists. Toto also adapt their arrangements with plenty of experience, love to drift away from the original version of a song, and thanks to their technical chops and grasp of musical fusion, they never get burned.
Keyboardist David Paich on the left side of the stage was in exceptionally good spirits this evening. The man who contributed the most to the band’s success creatively is, with his old-fashioned dress sense and rounded figure, a slightly comical sight today. In the second half of the show Paich got up from his stool several times, came to the edge of the stage, egged the crowd on to join in, and even wiggled his hips. At the first notes of Africa, loud ovations shook the foundations of the hall, and the performance, with Paich as lead vocalist, after a short bass solo by Nathan East also got a playful (though, let’s be honest, already worn-out) vocal game between the bassist and the audience. Both backing vocalists, who had the rear left part of the stage, were a vital building block of the richly filled-out sound the whole time, and just like last year, the sexy African-American singer Jenny Douglas-McRae stepped into the spotlight for the closing song of the main set, Hold the Line. With their alternating vocal performance, she and Williams amped up the dynamics and intensity of this ancient Toto hit even more. Toto wrapped up the show, which ran a solid two hours, with Home of the Brave, another crowd favorite from Williams’s original era.
It’s hard to put into words all the feelings that wash over you while listening to the kind of perfection Toto deliver time and again. I’m sure my superlatives will rub plenty of people the wrong way, but on the other hand, those who’ve experienced the Toto magic live know exactly what I’m writing about. Toto built their career on perfection and creative brilliance, and those were the guiding lights at Saturday’s show in Padua.
author: Urban Bolta
photos: Mitja Groznik
Setlist:
1. On the Run / Goodbye Elenore
2. Goin’ Home
3. Hydra
4. St. George and the Dragon
5. I’ll Be Over You
6. It’s a Feeling
7. Rosanna
8. Wings of Time
9. Falling in Between
10. I Won’t Hold You Back
11. Pamela
12. 99
13. White Sister
14. Better World
15. Africa
16. How Many Times
17. Stop Loving You
18. Hold the Line
— encore —
19. Home of the Brave
