Toto – Live in Amsterdam

 

Picture: B     Sound: B+     Extras: C     Concert: B-

 

 

The career of L.A. based music group Toto has been nothing short of uneven.  The band hit is big right from the start with a hot selling debut back in 1978, which was later followed by a few successes here and there, especially with the release of Toto IV in 1982, which launched such hits as Africa and Rosanna (which was written fro the actress Rosanna Arquette, a girlfriend to group member Steve Lukather).  It seemed like everything was going great and then something happened…Toto plummeted like the Hindenberg in a hurricane.  The question was, why?  Well, to answer that question is rooted deep within many other questions.

 

The easiest answer comes from the fact that most groups, especially the ones that hit it big quick, manage to never come back to reality and therefore take too much from their initial success and cannot top it.  The other thing going on at that same time was the revolution occurring within the music field during the mid 1980’s.  People starting turning to a more pop-oriented core, namely musicians like Michael Jackson, became popular.  Other groups throughout the 80’s were essentially one-hit-wonders anyway.  Toto released a few other albums during the 80’s and even through part of the 90’s, but never captured the success that they had during their prime. 

 

Celebrating the 25-year existence of the band comes this DVD from Eagle Vision capturing the band in fresh form.  This concert was taken in Amsterdam and was shot on High Definition cameras.  The footage looks quite good, nearly if not equal to the HD footage for The Pretenders Loose in L.A. DVD, which is reviewed on this site.  The audio options allow for playback in Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, and DTS 5.1.  The two Dolby options are average, but the DTS mix pushes the music through the best with the most natural sound mix and brings forth more of the vocals.  There is also better bass management and fidelity associated with the DTS mix, which always outperforms Dolby Digital.  Thankfully Eagle Vision typically gives the option of DTS for their music releases. 

 

Track Listing

 

Girl Goodbye, Goodbye Elenore, Child’s Anthem, I’ll Supply the Love (medley)

Gift With a Golden Gun

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Bodhisattva

Africa

Waiting For Your Love, Georgy Porgy, Lion, Hydra, English-Eyes, Till The End (medley)

I Won’t Hold You Back

Rosanna

Afraid of Love

Hold the Line

Next to You

Home of the Brave

White Sister

 

It is hard to say after watching this concert whether or not Toto was a group that probably should have made it bigger than they did, or if it’s better that they only became as big as they did.  While their material certainly has some talent behind it and they present it well, how many times can we hear songs like Africa without going insane?  Their material is written quite well, strong vocals, and supportive melodies, but their momentum never hits that high.  25-years as a group they certainly have chemistry, but their musical limitations are clearly seen here.  Fans of Toto will enjoy this journey, but doing cover songs and medleys show that their catalog of songs is quite few.  There is also an ‘on tour’ extra that takes us with the band, but ends up being material that seems thrown together just to put on the DVD for some comfort.  Maybe there is some truth to the group being named Toto (as in Dorothy’s dog), they followed main acts through a successful time and had some significance, but once it was all over, nobody really remembers the dog, just the name Toto.

 

 

-   Nate Goss