Sydney May 2006
“For many people, their first taste of grappa is also their last. Even at its best the crystal-clear, high-alcohol brandy is an acquired taste…”
A tour diary of sorts for my 3 day jaunt to Sydney for the Toto show Sunday night May 21…
I flew into Sydney early afternoon on the Friday (the 19th).
Tonight Foreigner hit the stage before the Toto guys arrive Saturday afternoon.
The night before I got the e-mail address for Foreigner's tour manager Phil Carson and send him a message from the hotel.
An hour or so later I got a call from Phil inviting me down to the band's soundcheck for the show at the State Theater.
The venue is an intimate old-school theater setting, seating for about 2000 in a traditional Shakespearean type venue – three tiers, old as the hills and decked out in typical thespian attire.
Perhaps not the most predictable place for a full on rock show, but as I would learn, it really works.
Tonight's show struggled for ticket sales a little based on the high price of tickets – something I would learn the band were not happy with either. Tickets on the day were being sold for $30, which seemed to work, as the venue was about two thirds full by showtime.
I met up with Phil and was taken on a tour of the backstage area – a genuine rabbit warren. Eventually I found myself sitting front and center in the concert hall, with the reincarnated Foreigner before me on stage.
I believe they were belting out Double Vision and sounding loud with a capital L. Several half-songs were played and I knew tonight was going to be a great show when Mick Jones suggested the band do Urgent and 'take it from the solo'…some 5 minutes later the song was still rocking hard.
With all seemingly in place, soundcheck was completed and vocalist Kelly Hansen bounded down from the stage. I have known Kelly for a long while now, and have met him in person once before (in LA). The drawback of my location is that I don't often get the chance to hang out one on one with anyone I deal with!
Dokken's Jeff Pilson, the new bassist for Foreigner, was one of the very first people I got talking to when I first stated the site nearly 10 years ago. But we've never met face to face.
So Kelly says hi and drags me back to meet the rest of the guys – now gathering their stuff in the dressing room. Great to meet the guys – all are in good spirits and are happy to chat for a while. I have loved Foreigner since Agent Provocateur in 84, but of course this line-up has a few new faces.
Drummer Jason Bonham (Damnocracy, UFO, Bonham) is someone I have admired since his debut with Virginia Wolf and Kelly Hansen was of course the voice of Hurricane and more recently Unruly Child and Heaven & Earth. You won't find a nicer bloke totally free of LSD (Lead Singer Disease).
Jeff Pilson has – like the rest of the guys – really settled into the band perfectly and is as genuinely humble in person as I expected.
I have had no prior contact with Mick Jones at all and did not know what to expect, but found him to be very personable and very approachable and happy to chat about anything.
Thing wrap up pretty quickly here, but I find myself with a VIP pass for after tonight's show, which I was most appreciative of.
The show itself was sensational. Seldom have I witnessed a gig pass in such quick time – the band held the audience captivated for the best part of 2 hours with a loud and rocking show.
The set list was predictably filled with highlights from the band's distinguished catalogue, but it is the vigor which these songs were played which really impressed me.
Yes I have the recent live album, but in person it was so more powerful. Perhaps a DVD could be organized to showcase these guys to those not fortunate enough to see them live.
Kelly Hansen is an extremely engaging frontman and new boy Jeff Pilson is enormously energetic and all over the stage from stat to finish.
Besides being blown away by the whole show there are a few individual highlights to speak of.
The acoustic version of Say You Will is just brilliant. With all the guys featured up front on vocals (including drummer Jason), it has a real air of electricity.
The Kelly inspired crowd-driven sing-along during I Want To Know What Love Is works perfectly. The guys ventured into Led Zeppelin territory, mixing Whole Lotta Love into an extended Juke Box Hero and ripped through an extra Led Zeppelin track (Misty Mountain Hop) during encore, nearly tearing the roof off the place.
It has to be said that Mick Jones has not received enough credit for his guitar playing. Yes, he has some great songs to his name and a huge reputation, but I saw him shred tonight in a way a casual fan of the band would never expect. As Mick himself put it, 'I have come out of my shell a little!'
Having seen the band once previously in Canada in 1993, I can attest to that.
One last note – for whatever reason, the band added the quite brilliant Break It Up to the set list. Dirty White Boy followed that – great, great songs!
Just before Waiting For A Girl Like You Kelly stopped the band and invited a couple up on stage. Greg promopsed to his girlfriend Rose, who of course accepted and the guys watched the next track from the side of the stage. All adding to the occason for sure...
I saw the show with a buddy of mine Jim, also from Tasmania who was also in Sydney for the Toto show.
We both went back after the show to see the guys and did the meet and greet thing with a few other pass holders before Jeff Pilson pulled us into the main dressing room.
I reckon we spent the best part of an hour hanging out there chatting with the guys, but for reasons I still can't explain, I forgot to take my camera!
Still, I did get my pass signed, so that now hangs proudly on the office wall.
Again, everyone was in a chatty mood and I did manage to get some gossip and info.
The band have a busy year ahead with a full American summer of dates and will at the end of that all gather to write material for a new studio album.
They have ideas already and it seems everyone involved has stuff to bring to the table. It could be one of the more inspired albums by an old-school band in quite some time.
The guys would like to get it released by this time next year so they can hit the road for another long trek of live dates and would like to return to Australia again soon.
Mick Jones promised to be available for a full feature interview on their return to the US, so I will get onto that shortly.
I also had the opportunity to talk to concert promoter Andrew McManus. He let me in on a few things he is working on for the latter part of the year – Aussie melodic rock fans are going to be very happy campers.
I also heard several interesting stories about the JD Fortune lead Inxs which I had better not repeat in this setting!
Saturday was pretty laid back until the Toto freight train hit town about 4pm. I was staying in the same hotel as the band and promoters, but missed the guy's arrival and check-in. The guys soon went their own ways so I would have to wait until Sunday to catch Bobby. I also haven't met any of the guys face to face, despite several years of talking and e-mailing Bobby and Luke.
I was introduced to Mike Porcaro in the lobby and learnt that Bobby and Greg and a few crew had headed out onto the harbour for an evening cruise. The perfect way to be introduced to Sydney.
A few minutes later Luke appeared from the elevator and things quickly moved to the hotel bar. Me, Luke and later promoters John (Riot Distributors) and Michael (Alliance Touring) and a couple of the local crew shared a few brews and generally had a good time.
Those that know me well know I rarely drink these days. Too many days wasted with seriously bad hangovers has taught me otherwise. But tonight – Luke and John are both bad influences and hard people to say no to.
It was at dinner at Darling Harbour that things got really nasty. Shots of grappa I believe it was – the kind of stuff you can run your lawn mower on.
Yikes….from a 2 beer guy to this….dinner was a lot of fun though. Luke is always the comedian and it was nice to get his take on a whole bunch of things off the record and away from work as it normally is.
Things were rounded off with one last shot – nail polish remover I believe – some green shit that really did my head in.
But that wasn't enough – we had to crawl back to the hotel bar again before retiring about 1am. Thanks to Luke for picking up the tab tonight. And it was BIG tab!
Sunday was show day. I got a little sleep and felt ok around noon…haha. Soundcheck was at 5, so I spent some time around the city before heading back to the hotel and meeting up with the rest of the guys and Bobby also.
We all piled up to the venue – The Metro – which looked like it would be a fine fit for the boys that night.
I arranged for a couple of mates to join me for the soundcheck – Richard and William are both Hobart mates and 25 year Toto fans.
Sat in on the band doing their thing and testing out a couple of songs from the set list…Cruel and King Of The World.
I introduced Bobby and Luke to my buds and everyone split for dinner.
As it turned out, I ended up sitting in with Luke and Bobby for dinner at the hotel, with John and his wife joining in after a while.
I went up to the venue after dinner with John and met up with the rest of the gang from Tassie up for the show and waited for things to happen!
The crowd present was very impressive – a full house at around 1200 people, plus some guest-list extras and a line-up out the front for any tickets that might have been released on the night.
A packed house with a crowd hungry for a band that had not seen Australian soil for 14 years. Given that Bobby was not part of that tour; this was his very first visit down under.
The band took to the stage to a thunderous applause at precisely 10pm.
I won't go through every track played as I simply don't have 3 days to talk about this!
What I will say is this – there surely isn't a finer group of musicians on the planet.
This line-up is simply so tight and know each other's moves inside out – they are tighter than a goldfish's ass at 50 fathoms.
There was not a note out of place all night – or not that I could tell….but not in a sterile 'CD playback' kind of way. This was a show where almost every track featured a little something extra or different and many songs had extra ad-libbed parts included, not to mention extended outro's, solos and additional fills.
It really was a band at their peak. Being an owner of Toto's previous live releases, I must say that none of them come remotely close to doing this band justice and I look forward to plans for this set list and tour to be captured and released.
The music coming off that stage simply defies any kind of review – it was to my ears some of the most glorious and sweet sounds that I have ever witnessed live.
Making it even better is a set list comprised of some of my very favourite Toto tunes and I think this set of songs is better than anything the band have toured behind ever.
I have live shows from almost every major tour the band has done and this set list is, I think, the very best representation of Toto the ROCK band.
This set rocks from start to almost finish – with a few ballads thrown in to give punters a break and the chance for a sing-along!
To comment on a few aspects of the show – the sound was amazing – crisp, even and balanced throughout. Loud without damaging your ears and always perfectly balanced to give all the guys their own chance to be heard.
The Falling In Between material really fit into the show well. It is nice to see the band – and infact any band – playing so many new tracks within a set, truly promoting the new record to fans present.
As the band had had so many vocalists over the years, I like the way Bobby Kimball – the original and best singer the band has had – moves on and off the stage. Lukather fronts the band, but Bobby is every bit as important and I really like the adjustment the guys have made to have Bobby sing some of the Isolation and Seventh One tracks. Pamela sounded great and the double hit of Isolation and Endless were just awesome – made even better by the higher harmonies supplied by second guitarist Tony Spinner and keyboardist Greg Phillanganes.
Hold The Line went over a treat – the crowd went nuts for this.
To highlight the class and the musical intelligence of these guys, Rosanna has been given a facelift – coming out of an acoustic medley, the track is given a Reggae slant and just when the crowd is beginning to think what the…?, the band start over, crashing through the song in full blown original pomp and ceremony. Magnificent!
The band introductions are hilarious, the vibe is one of a great fun show and the jokes between the guys continue all through the evening.
Last note – the way the band close the show – a second encore featuring Africa is sensational. As the song reaches its climax, one by one the guys stop playing and leave the stage, leaving in the end only Simon Phillips closing out the drum beat.
The guys all return to the stage for a curtain call, to a unanimously fanatical response.
What a show.
The best gig I have seen in years and one of the very very best I have EVER seen.
After the show we all hung about for the meet and greet. Everyone was pretty knackered by then, but a little extra fun was had by all just going over the show and what had just transpired.
Following that – what night would be complete without one last round at the bar?
Well, Sunday night 2am, nothing much was open…but there was one bar…that's all you need I guess!
So it was us lot, Luke and Bobby, promoters John and Mike and some of the crew packed into some sleazy bar with atrocious dance music blaring….but that did improve a little when some funny bugger programmed the video jukebox to play the two dance/rap tunes that have sampled Toto songs in recent times…too funny.
At some point another funny bugger pulls out some shots, but I'm smart enough to have just one this time. Still tasted like crap.
Luke is convinced he needs to get Bobby drunk, but it seems he has too far a head start to be able to actually carry out his own plan!
It is sometime later at this venue that I say goodbye to the guys as I have to get up for my flight home in 2 hours. Great…
Lots of love all round and promises that the guys will return soon – sooner than the 14 years it took last time I hope!
The flight home was not long enough….only 90 minutes from Sydney – I could have used 4 or 5 hours for sleep. But no sooner than it began, my long weekend is over.
A couple of special notes to conclude with…
This band is one comprised of some of the nicest guys ever….ultra classy. From the band to the road crew and to management, everyone and the band are genuinely happy to be doing what they are doing and it shows.
A big thanks to the guys for showing me the hospitality they did over the weekend.
Secondly – the local guys – these guys put their asses on the line. Toto is not a band that comes cheaply, although I know for a fact the guys made sure this could happen just so they could play Australia again.
But, there are still a lot of costs involved – 14 guys on tour and 2500 kgs of freight is no easy task to organize and I am proud to say the guys did it.
Huge credit to Riot Distributors & Alliance Touring for putting this together and making it work so well.
Talking to the band and to management, all were unanimous in their praise for the tour and how well it had run and all made mention of how every little detail was catered for and then more.
So for only their 3rd tour and easily their biggest taken on – well done guys.
I heard of a few anal fans complaining to management about organization prior to the guys arriving, but 2 packed shows and a very happy band would prove otherwise.
In summary – what a magnificent weekend! See both Foreigner and Toto if they are anywhere near you – two great shows that show the young guns how it is really done.
Venue for Toto
Soundcheck Pics:
The Gig Itself:
Farewell.
Greg comes out and films the crowd.
Me and Bobby.
John (Riot), Luke & Bobby
Me and Luke (several drinks later...)