I arrived at the hall about 45 minutes before doors opened officially, to a medium long queue. They did start to let us in early, though, because everybody was searched, which takes time. Everything was strictly on time, lights went out for special guest Christopher Cross at 7:30 pm. He played a set of 45 minutes that I will not comment on except to say that it was immensely boring for me, because it's not my kind of music at all.

An army of roadies changed the set then and at one minute to 9 o'clock Toto went on stage. It was such a contrast to Christopher Cross, so much energy! Even though only Steve Lukather is left of the original line-up, at least two of the musicians these days have played with the band for a long time, namely Joseph Williams (who was singer on "Fahrenheit" and "The Seventh One" and returned as lead vocalist in 2014) and Greg Phillinganes who plays keyboard and sings backing vocals and has on and off played with them for decades. Most of the other musicians have been long-term friends apart from Dennis Atlas, whom they aptly named a powerhouse, the second keyboarder and singer. He sings the very high parts that the young Bobby Kimball was so perfect at. In the keyboard solo parts Greg played a more jazzy piece, whereas Dennis is more the rock kind of guy (and could it be he knows his Bach and Beethoven?), experimenting with all the different sounds the keyboard has to offer.

Shannon Forrest on drums got to play a solo, too and last but not least John Pierce provided a solid backdrop with his bass playing.

Toto played only songs from the classic albums until "Mindfield", they performed the title track which hasn't been on their setlist since the Mindfield tour. Luke sang more than he usually does and with Greg, Dennis, and Warren Ham also on vocals, Joseph didn't perform too many songs on his own, which I thought was a shame. His performance on "White Sister" was stunning, though. Actually, there wasn't a single song that I did not like, the band always seems to have fun on stage and absolutely transmits that to the audience. They played for almost exactly two hours, closing with "Hold the Line" and "Africa" and then it was over without an encore. That was a bit sudden! The lights went on at once and the crew began to dismantle the stage.

It was a totally different experience from the countless Marillion concerts that I have been to, or recently, Riverside, where the music includes quite a bit of soul-searching and also sharing the musicians' emotion and personal experiences with the audience. A lot of Toto music is more about combining rock, pop, jazz and progrock to make stunning, complicated and at the same time accessible music and sharing that with the audience. Still, there are certainly songs that mean a lot to members of the band like "I will remember" for Steve Lukather. What all these musicians have in common though is that music is the focus, in contrast to a choreographed show like Madonna's or Beyonce's stage performances. Those seems to me more like a circus performance with the music added on top rather than a celebration of music itself. This is not criticism on my part, rather an observation. If people enjoy it - perfect! For my part, I want to concentrate on the music, though I sure enjoy a front man (or woman, or lots of them at a Toto concert) who can entertain and talk to the crowd. Loved it! So, if you like Toto, absolute go to a concert if you can, you'll be in for two hours that pass in a flash, you'll have fun and feel the energy between the band and the audience.
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