It’s hard to beat Toto on the live stage.
The group is just filled with so many fantastic musicians — led, of course, by all-time-great guitarist Steve Lukather — and they find such powerful synergy together. They are best known, of course, for a small handful of expertly crafted pop-rock singles, but their concerts — like their full-length studio records — are painted from an exciting mix of prog, soul, pop, blues and jazz sounds.
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Put that together and you certainly have an outfit that qualifies as one of the best live bands in all of classic rock right now. As that list continues to shrink, I’d say Toto deserves to be in the Top 5. (In case you were wondering, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is still No. 1.)
Toto once again delivered the goods in concert on Saturday night (Aug. 15), delighting a crowd of some 7,500 at the 22,000-capacity Shoreline Amphitheater with a 100-plus-minute set that drew from eight of the band’s 14 studio albums. (Sadly, the group did not draw anything from the 1984 “Dune” film soundtrack, which just one spin will, for sure, change the perspective of anyone who thinks of Toto as merely a radio-friendly pop-rock act.)
Yet, before we’d get to Toto we first had the pleasure of going through the two acts — fellow yacht rock favorite Christopher Cross and edgy early-’80s power-pop purveyors The Romantics — who combined with the headliner to form one of the finest tripleheaders of the summer concert season. (The trek also was scheduled to stop at Toyota Amphitheatre in Wheatland on Sunday, Aug. 16.)
“Mountain View, California — This is your Saturday night wakeup call,” said Romantics lead singer Wally Palmar as people were still taking their seats at right around the advertised 6:45 p.m. start time. “You’ve got a great night ahead of you.”
Palmar would certainly do his part to make that prediction come true as he led his Detroit-born act through a quick-paced 40-minute set. The quintet kicked things off with “Rock You Up” and “Do Me Any Way You Wanna” — a pair of tracks off the band’s sole Top 20 offering, 1983’s “In Heat” — and then continued with “When I Look in Your Eyes” from its 1980 eponymous debut.
As expected, the highlights were the two calling-card singles “Talking In Your Sleep” and “What I Like About You” — the latter of which has aged far better than the former — which combined to end the set.
Next up was Cross, who made history by becoming the first artist to win all four of the general field Grammys — Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist — in 1981. (He’d hold that record all to himself until Billie Eilish finally tied for the honor in 2020.)
Cross’ voice has weathered the years quite well and, to a remarkable extent, he still sounded like he did when he was cranking out the soft pop hits 40-plus years ago as he opened the set with “All Right” and “Never Be the Same.”
Unfortunately, the sound system problems that began during the Romantics set (and would actually continue during Toto’s performance) hit their height of annoyance while Cross was on the stage. The sound just completely cut out — twice — while Cross was in mid-song, forcing him to stop the show and then try to figure out what to do next.
“Not really sure what to do. I guess we could go see a movie,” the 75-year-old Texan suggested in his regular deadpan humor style. “I don’t want you to miss one note of my amazing performance.”
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Yet, instead of going to taking the 7,500 fans to go see “Super Troopers 3” at the Cinemark right up Shoreline Boulevard, Cross and his 7-piece backing band were able to finish up the set and deliver pristine versions of “I Really Don’t Know Anymore,” “Sailing,” Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” and other crowd favorites.
The Romantics and Cross nicely set the table for Toto, which came in and immediately took the evening to a whole other level with its headlining set. The seven-piece group raced right out of the gate with one of the biggest highlights of the show — a fast-paced “Goodbye Elenore” from Toto’s third album, 1981’s “Turn Back,” which gave Lukather his first of (approximately) 423,515 times to shine on guitar during the night.
The SoCal outfit then completely knocked it out of the park with a head-turning take on the Grammy-winning single “Rosanna,” which took a took a radio-friendly pop-rock single that most of these fans have heard a zillion times and turned it into an exciting, new jammed-out colossus that would impress even Phish.
The good times (and astounding musicianship) just kept right on rolling as Toto turned to the title track of its sophomore outing, 1979’s “Hyrdra,” and cranked up the prog/art rock several notches. It’s a tune like this that really makes a Toto show, allowing this band of aces — guitarist-vocalist Lukather, vocalist Joseph Williams, multi-instrumentalist Warren Ham, drummer Keith Carlock, bassist John Pierce, keyboardist-vocalist Dennis Atlas and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte — to really flex its collective muscle.
It’s probably unavoidable — and, actually, highly desirable — that Toto concerts often feel like “The Steve Lukather Show.” That’s just what happens when you have one of the greatest guitarists on the planet in your band. And he certainly swung his axe with mighty precision and impressive power time and time again during this show.
Yet, the other members also get plenty of opportunities to wow the crowd — Williams sounded strong each time he rocked the mic; Carlock was a powerhouse on the drums; Thistlethwayte and Atlas were an impeccable duo on the keys; Pierce locked down the grooves with such funky precision; and Ham, as Lukather point out, maintained his role as the band’s “Swiss Army knife.”
Atlas, in particular, impressed with a dizzying prog-heavy solo on keys midway through the show.
“He came over to my house and stole all my ELP and Gentle Giant records.” Steve joked at the conclusion of Atlas’ solo.
The band zoomed towards the finish line with a rip-roaring “Hold the Line” before closing up shop with the omnipresent “Africa.”
Toto setlist:
1. “Goodbye Elenore”
2. “Rosanna”
3. “Hydra”
4. “Georgy Porgy”
5. “I Won’t Hold You Back”
6. “Endless”
7. “Kingdom of Desire”
8. Keyboard solo
9. “Pamela”
10. “I’ll Be Over You”
11. “I’ll Supply the Love”
12. “Taint Your World”
13. “Hold the Line”
14. “Africa”
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