Word around the street goes that Toto is turning 40 this year. There was no better way for celebrating this occasion than organizing a 40th anniversary tour. 40 Trips Around The Sun, started off at Jäähalli in Helsinki on 11 February 2018 and Tuonela Magazine had a chance to be part of the celebration, which would turn out to be an evening filled with a lot of classics. Check out the gallery here.
The concert started of a bit later than scheduled, but without further delays, Toto started of the event with a recently released unreleased track “Alone”. Maybe not the most known Toto song, but it served its purpose very well, followed by the ever famous “Hold The Line”, the messenger of what turned out to be a great evening.
After the third song of the evening, I made my way from the photo pit through the crowd and while wading my way through it, I notice that there still are many empty seats left. Even though Toto are legends, the a huge turnout stayed out. Nevertheless the crowd that did turn up for their idols, was really enthusiastic. People danced, sang and put their heart and soul into it. It was quite impressive to see the kind of mixed crowd that Toto had managed to bring together.
As the classics went by, Toto performed on point and amazingly. “Rosanna” was the end of the first part to the show. The show in genera was perhaps a bit monotonous and very modest. There were no special effects, no visuals, nothing. Just Toto and their music. The second part of the show was thus also very interesting, as they were doing an acoustic set where all of the musicians would tell their story related to the song that they picked out to perform. All stories were of course interesting and in a way a genius way to bring the show to a more personal level and in a way what is a better way to celebrate an anniversary than to share your dearest memories connected to your band? Some highlights in this particular part of the show for me were the live debut of “No Love” and “Mushanga”.
After the acoustic intermezzo, Toto treated us for even more songs and classics, the moment everyone had been looking forward to “Africa”, was a great moment to witness the great acoustics of Ice Hall. The band ended the show with “The Road Goes On”.
In general it was a great gig, although I would have enjoyed Toto also more on an intimate scale, with a larger connection to the audience, which was kind of left in the air, because of the enormous venue. The show aspect could have been a bit more interesting, by including some visuals, but in a way the simplicity of the show, showed their abilities as musicians even more and we come mostly for music, which is what we got and it was great.
Setlist
Alone
Miss Sun
Georgy Porgy
Human Nature (Michael Jackson cover)
Holyanna
No Love
Mushanga
Stop Loving You
Set 2
Girl Goodbye
Angela
Lion
Dune (Desert Theme)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles cover)
Stranger in Town
Make Believe
Africa
The Road Goes On (encore)
