Author: Jernej Vene
Venue: Palabam Arena, Mantua, Italy
Concert date: 31.03.2007
Attendance: 4000
Ticket price: 28.75 EUR
American rock band Toto released the album Falling in between last year, and they’ve been promoting it for a good year now. This year Toto celebrate thirty years in the business. Over their career they’ve racked up plenty of hits, and you surely know Africa and Rosanna. The latter won three Grammys, and so did the album Toto IV back in 1982.
Music connoisseurs from Slovenia never miss a Toto show if it’s anywhere within reasonable distance of our neck of the woods. This year’s April Fools’ Day was reserved for a trip to Mantua, a northern Italian city about thirty kilometers south of the better-known Verona. There were enough of us to fill a bus, and the Sunday adventure began. It was really more of a family outing than an adventure, since everything ran like clockwork (even the bus warmed up soon enough on a fairly drizzly morning). By mid-afternoon we were in Mantua, in a shopping suburb where the modern Palabam arena stands. Cars everywhere, their passengers having ducked out of the lousy weather to hit their Mecca of shopping. Well, it’s the same back home, ever since the Yanks taught us how to spend, right? Tick-tock, a double-decker tour bus pulled up and out stepped Leland Sklar (Toto’s bassist, currently filling in for the ailing Mike Porcaro) and Tony Spinner, the extra guitarist and vocalist, asking the security guys where they could park. True pros, they didn’t act the least bit starry, unlike those who’d love to be stars but have a long way to go and are usually pretty snooty. Toto have always been the real deal.
Picking up the press passes went off without a hitch, so Tadej, who headed up our concert coverage, and I quickly stepped into the hall and caught bassist Sklar by the sleeve, and he gladly answered a few questions. He said he accepted the invitation to jump into the band at short notice as soon as he heard the songs from Falling in between. It was a big challenge for him, and he learned the full-length concert set in five days!!! When we were left half speechless, he grinned cheerfully and said that’s just his job. We mentioned we’d already seen him in Vienna and Zagreb with Phil Collins, and he added that working with Mr. Collins is tremendous fun, just like with the Toto guys. Time was pressing him and we parted on friendly terms. The organizers sorted out everything we needed, but the local security wasn’t exactly on the ball, and for a while we thought we’d have to shoot the concert from the crowd. That got sorted out later too, and you can see the results in the photos.
Toto kicked off with two songs from the current album (the title track and King of the world), where we could feel the mastery of all the instrumentalists, especially in the intelligent dialogue between keyboards and guitar. Next came Pamela (from Seventh one), where singer Bobby Kimball’s mic died, and it happened again a few songs later. Fine, tech can be fixed, but a voice can’t, especially when the gentleman is getting on in years. Kimball wasn’t up to the task that night. He finds long, high passages harder and harder, he’s running out of breath, and at times he really looks like he’s struggling enormously because he wants to give it everything. In the back left corner of the stage he had some kind of voice remedies or soothers, or rather throat ones, and he went back to them after every strenuous vocal part.
The first single from the current album was Bottom of your soul, where Lukather used an acoustic guitar for the first time and breathed into the lovely, long song a tenderness only the greats can muster. Keyboardist Phillinganes and guitarist Spinner helped him out generously, enriching the sound with vocal harmonies. At the end of the song, while swapping guitars, Lukather barked at his tech; what it was about, luckily only the two of them know (guitarists are moody creatures when it comes to their instruments).Caught in the Balance (from Mindfields) delivered a nice sound and nice visuals (on two side screens and one central one), but sadly Kimball’s interpretation cast a dim light on the performance. After that, Don’t chain my heart (from Kingdom Of Desire) won us over with a reworked intro, where Lukather’s solo earned the praise, and in the middle section Lukather and Phillinganes traded musical accents.
The classic Hold the line was the first time the crowd was seriously rocked into rock-fueled enjoyment, and after it Lukather, who always keeps up the banter with the audience, announced the best-looking son of Don Vito Corleone, Tony Spinner, who took over lead vocals on Stop loving you, which opened the acoustic part of the show (Phillips played a smaller drum kit). Lukather delivered I’ll be over you with real feeling, and it was striking to hear the crowd joining in, especially the women, who sang along devotedly. Lukather thanked them with Molto grazie and asked people how many of them are musicians. Of course almost everyone raised a hand. When he asked how many people know music, almost nobody did. Italians and foreign languages, what can you do…
At the end of the acoustic part Greg Phillinganes won the audience over with a keyboard solo that started out dark and then sounded ever brighter. The dynamics of his contribution were truly striking. Rosanna followed, opening with a broken-up, jazzy vaudeville variation on the familiar theme, where the musicians showed what caliber they are. They underpinned the well-known melody with chords where at first you can’t tell whether they belong or not. After playing the first third of the song, they dropped into the familiar version of Rosanna after a one-second breather, just like at the shows on last year’s tour (Belgrade, Graz, etc.). Lukather and Phillinganes again traded lead lines, the former scratching his behind in between, they worked in the main theme of Birdland by jazz-rock giants Weather Report, and then masterfully brought the whole thing back into Rosanna. I’ll supply the love, Isolation and Gift of fatih fired up the crowd even more and carried them toward the peaks of the night.
Kingdom of desire was the cue for Lukather’s solo spot. Since he was already thoroughly sweaty, it was no trouble to press a pick onto his forehead, where it stayed for a good few dozen seconds, just as he was starting a quiet, jazz-leaning solo. Of course the bit of plastic soon found a new home in the crowd. Sklar and Phillips helped Luke out, and Steve showed in a short but effective turn that he’s still among the best guitarists in the world. His tone control is unbelievable, he has a magnificent feel for when and how to play any given note, he almost unconsciously slips into an elevated state and coaxes ever new harmonic combinations out of the guitar. Lukather, Phillinganes and Sklar then played a short but rather complicated melody and kept repeating it during the drum solo. Simon played along with them at first, then put on his own show. He’s a drummer with a refined feel, not a single hit is superfluous, but what impressed me most was that the other three didn’t fall out of the groove of their part for even a moment. Musically speaking, these are the hardest things, where you can see who really knows their stuff. And Toto know.
Steve Lukather is a master of entertainment, sometimes his jokes go a little over the line, and Mantua got to see them play even on April 1st, so Steve prepared accordingly. He introduced the band members: Greg Phillinganes was musical director for Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, and of course Lukather delivered the whole intro in Michael Jackson’s voice. The laughter just wouldn’t stop! Of the legend Lee Sklar, Lukather said they’ve known each other for thirty years and that he’s glad to have him on board. We wished Mike Porcaro, the regular bassist, a speedy recovery from afar, and Luke remembered Mike’s brother Jeff. More than fourteen years have passed since his death, but Luke thinks of him every day. He paused and started wiping his eyes with his sleeve… He surely wouldn’t be fooling around about stuff like that, April Fools’ or not. He soon pulled himself together…. They sawed through Taint your world and Gypsy train, in between toyed with Dean Martin’s hit That’s amore in the voice of Marlon Brando (Don Corleone) and used it to introduce singer Kimball, and Luke introduced Simon Phillips as the prettiest member of the Spice girls, which was also visible on the big screen, where Simon’s head was mounted on Victoria Beckham’s body. Lukather’s head, meanwhile, was (hairless) implanted on the little body of a rather chubby baby in the company of a wrinkly little dog that looked just like him. Since Luke was facing the audience, of course he couldn’t see what was happening on the screen. The lighting guy teased him even more by pulling the image off the screen every time Luke turned around to look. On the fourth try he finally managed it and grinned like a Cheshire cat.
Africa closed the concert, and since the brilliant keyboardist David Paich is no longer with them, it was sung and played by Greg Phillinganes. Toward the end of the song they left the stage one by one, with Phillips last. For the encore they played a fast Drag him to the roof (from Tambu), where Greg and Luke shone once again. There were no amps on stage, and the overall sound was decent, maybe there was just a bit too much echo at the back of the hall, but let’s not nitpick.
What remains is the brilliant vocal (Kimball aside) and instrumental interpretation that many wouldn’t reach even in their dreams. They prove it again and again. So, a concert I struggle to find enough positive ratings and reactions for. The old music cats haven’t run out of ideas yet; in a chat after the show Lukather announced his solo album for the end of 2007, and they’re slowly working on new original songs. Early Monday morning arrived in no time, thanks also to a pleasant ride back to the homeland, for which I thank Concert Freak.
Jernej Vene
Setlist
01. Falling In Between
02. King Of The World
03. Pamela
04. Bottom Of Your Soul
05. Caught In The Balance
06. Don’t Chain My Heart
07. Hold The Line
—————
acoustic set
08. Stop Loving You
09. I’ll Be Over You
10. Cruel
11. Solo Greg Phillinganes
12. Rosanna
—————
medley
13. I’ll Supply The Love
14. Isolation
15. Gift Of Faith
16. Kingdom Of Desire
17. Solo Steve Lukather
18. Solo Simon Phillips
19. Taint Your World
20. Band introduction
21. Gypsy Train
22. Africa
23. Drag Him To The Roof
Steve Lukather – guitar, vocals
Bobby Kimball – vocals, tambourine
Simon Phillips – drums
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass
Tony Spinner – guitar, vocals
Photo Gallery
