TOTO - THE WAY THE MUSIC SHOULD SOUND

 

A festival of amazing songs.

Performed by a gang of Swedish super musicians and a new born singer from an almost lost time period.

The concert with Bobby Kimball last night at Kulturbruket was even more than I could've dared to hope for.

 

Music is definitely amazing and all of a sudden you're transferred 30 years back in time.

To the end of the 70's and early 80's when a band from the American west coast was something of the biggest you could find in the world of music.

Toto released their debut album in 1978 as a first step to a solid career as stars and they got their final confirmation when the band cleaned the house at the Grammy awards with their Toto IV album in 1983.

 

NOT COMPLETELY STRAIGHT

After that the road hasn't been completely straight, singers have come and gone and their legendary drummer Jeff Porcaro died in a heart attack in 1992.

The band has played Sweden more than 40 times and after having been to more than a handful of these I feel that the band were better in their early days.

So the odds of getting to experience the old Toto feeling yesterday - as they sounded at their peak - was to say the least highly unexpected!.

And to do this at Kulturbruket in the small town of Mellerud (Sweden) was surreal.

 

IN GREAT COMPANY

That it's only the singer Bobby Kimball who were with Toto in the good old days 30 years ago doesn't matter.

Especially when he is singing just as great as he did back then.

And the hand picked Swedish musicians completely matches the younger version of Toto, the drummer Pontus Engborg impresses highly and honestly beats the crap of out the drums with a drive and attitude so the rest of the band has to work hard to keep up.

 

A LOVELY JOURNEY

They start off with "Girl Goodbye" and after that everything is a nice and lovely journey through Toto's early and more rocking career.

It feels like a club gig where songs like "Make Believe", "I'll Supply The Love" and of course "Africa" are included.

"Child's Anthem", "Georgy Porgy" and the obvious "Rosanna" are stand outs also on the way to the given encore with "Hold The Line".

 

By Patrik Otter

December 15th 2011