Hot on the heels of Weezer topping the charts with a cover of Africa, classic rock band Toto came back with their own version of Weezer’s Hash Pipe which they performed for its final encore at Caesars Windsor on Thursday, August 23. It was the hardest pumping song of a night filled with Toto hits, progressive rock and the most talented set of musicians to ever hit the Colosseum stage.
It was a much different and much more detailed show than the band’s previous appearance in the 519 back in 2014. With more than two hours of music, Toto packed in a series of hits and rare cuts, as well as band member and fan favourites. It was truly a night Toto fans can call a defining moment.
In an interview with 519 Magazine a month before the show, keyboardist Steve Porcaro revealed that the band planned on performing its European set list, which was going to take more than two hours to perform. It’s a set list they enjoy playing because it allows them to stretch beyond the basic hits and showcase their skills a little by diving into album cuts.
The 22-song set list covered the band’s entire career with debut album tracks like Hold The Line and Georgy Porgy to rare songs like Dune (Desert Theme) from the movie soundtrack and a cover of Michael Jackson’s Human Nature which was written by Porcaro.
It was immediately apparent that every member of the band brought something unique to the show. From the multi-talented percussionist Lenny Castro (who pulled off one of the coolest percussion solos I’ve ever seen) to guitarist Steve Lukather, who still remains one of the best rock guitarists in history.
We were told that lead vocalist Joseph Williams (son of the famous composer John Williams) sang everything without any aids or auto tune assistance and that original keyboard player David Paich was absent due to “penis reduction surgery” – he was replaced with Xavier Talpin who was a member of Prince’s short-lived NPG Quartet, a jazz group that recorded an unreleased album in 2014. Talpin sounded as if he was a long-time member of the band even after only a couple of weeks of rehearsals.
Some of the cool rare songs included a cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Holyanna and a few of the more progressive rock tunes that would have been very fitting in a European show.
This show was more than Africa, Rosanna or Hold The Line. If that was the only reason you were there, you missed the whole point. This was a celebration of music with some of the best musicians in the world performing the music that moves them. It was one of the better moments in a Caesars 10th anniversary year filled with incredible headliners.
For more on Toto, visit the band online.
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