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Toto
The Loudoun Summer Music Festival is located on the grounds of the Belmont Country Club in Ashburn, VA and features concerts nearly every Sunday night throughout the summer. The concert stage anchors one end of a large open field, where the seating accommodations are for lawn dwellers only - first come first serve. The entire seating area is surrounded by rows of food and drink vendors, as well as various activities for kids. This is one very family friendly event, and I have never seen so many children and babies at a rock concert in my life. My, how things have changed since I first started going to concerts in the early 80's, when you were more likely to get passed a doobie or a bottle of Jack from some stranger than you were to see some kid in diapers stroll by. It was great to see Toto finally make it back to the United States. They are still as popular as ever over in Europe and Japan and have focused most of their touring in those areas. I had lost touch with Toto during the mid-80's, but in 1999 I stumbled across the new Mindfields and Livefields albums, which saw original lead vocalist Bobby Kimball rejoin the band, and I loved what I heard. These disks saw heavy rotation in my CD players, and peaked my interest in the band again. Being the concert video aficionado that I am, the 2003 Live In Amsterdam DVD was a godsend, and it made Toto one of my favorite bands again. When I saw Toto on the bill for the Loudoun Summer Music Fest this year, I grew a grin from ear to ear. I could finally cross these guys off of my "great bands I must see in concert" list - without having to fly to frigging Germany to do it. And I would finally get to witness live one of my favorite guitar slingers on the planet, Steve Lukather. Toto is currently in the middle of a world tour in support of their killer new album Falling In Between. This is not just one of the best albums they have put out in a while, it is one of their best albums ever. Just about every song is great. Toto took the stage at about 7:30 PM, just as the sweltering sun was finally making it's way behind the stage, and they came out swinging. Much to my delight, they kicked off the show with the title track from Falling In Between, an intense prog-rocker, and obvious nod to Dream Theater, which slapped the sun stroked crowd right upside the head. "King Of The World", another guitar heavy rocker from the new album, followed, and had the aging soccer moms in the crowd, who were probably expecting "99", looking a little bewildered by this heavy new stuff they were being bombarded with. I was loving it. The sound mix was not particularly good at first, and Bobby Kimball's vocals were a little shaky, but both improved significantly as the show progressed. I was disappointed to see that David Paich was absent from the lineup, but I later found out that he was taking some time off to attend to a sick family member. New band member Greg Phillinganes capably handled most of Paich's keyboard and vocal parts. After a brief trip back in time with "Pamela", they charged ahead with their final performance from Falling In Between, the epic "Bottom Of Your Soul", which paints a wonderfully atmospheric landscape, with its lush harmonies and African rhythms that will remind you of their earlier classic "Africa". "Caught In the Balance" followed and proved why it should never be left off any future Toto setlists. It was one of the highlights of the show. "Make Believe", a lesser known song from the Grammy award winning Toto IV album, began a string of older classics, which led right into a powerful performance of "Hold The Line", which brought the rest of the crowd to their feet. Yeah, everybody remembers that one. The middle part of the show featured a trio of acoustic numbers, highlighted by a beautiful rendition of "I'll Be Over You". Tour rhythm guitarist Tony Spinner was handed the lead vocals on "Stop Loving You" and he sounded excellent. Having four or five good vocalists in the band kind of explains why their harmony vocals have always sounded so amazing. "Rosanna" followed the acoustic set and began with a mellow, jazzy, almost gospel-like vibe, which added a fresh new spin to this classic. They followed with another Toto IV hit, the gorgeous ballad "I Won't Hold You Back", which Lukather proclaimed was "one for the ladies in the crowd". To close out the set, they reached back to the first album one more time for a rousing performance of "Girl Goodbye". After saying their thank you's and good night's, Lukather barely had time to grab a cold one before the band returned to the stage for a double encore of "Home Of The Brave", which he dedicated to "the brothers and sisters overseas", and a typically stunning performance of "Africa". This 90 minute performance was everything that I expected. Jaw-dropping musicianship, terrific songs, and the chance to see one of the greatest guitarists in the world up close and personal. Steve Lukather is still a down to Earth dude, who is always the first to humbly praise his many legendary guitarist friends, including Larry Carlton and Eddie Van Halen. Don't be so humble Steve. You are an all star in that same league. And I can personally attest to that now. Setlist |