ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 10, 1985
By Steve Newton
The Toto concert at the Queen E. last Monday (May 6) will have to go down in my personal record book as an all-time favourite. The group’s members are some of the most-wanted hired hands in rock, and after Monday’s concert I knew why.
Toto is made up of the three Porcaro brothers–Jeff (drums), Steve (keyboards), and Mike (bass)–guitarist/vocalist Steve Lukather, keyboardist/vocalist David Paich, and frontman/vocalist Fergie Frederiksen.
Together they’re an awesome unit. And a great light show and scintillating sound didn’t hurt any either.
Helping out the band were three additional players, including percussion ace Lenny Castro and multi-instrumentalist Scotty Page.
Opening the show were Vancouver’s own Idle Eyes–keyboardist John Webster, guitarist Glenn R. Smith, bassist Miles Foxx Hill, drummer Phil Robertson, and vocalist/leader Tad Campbell.
The group has been enjoying quite a bit of notoriety of late–gaining lots of Canada-wide airplay for their first single, “Tokyo Rose” and other tracks from their locally produced debut LP.
And though they went over well enough with the sold-out Queen E. crowd, their set illustrated the band’s minimal live experience. They seemed a little ill at ease up there. But now that they’ve got a hit album to tour behind, that shouldn’t take long to remedy.