Toto set to high octane for start of NZ tour

“I’m going to see Toto,” I told the kids – and after they realised I wasn’t talking about Tay Tay, I hummed the opening bars of 'Africa', one of the most evocative openings of any song ever sung. Everyone gets it in less than a dozen notes, a sublime masterpiece.

Beyond 'Africa', Toto’s back catalogue is pretty eclectic, and looking around a packed Spark Arena, so was the crowd. There were clearly diehard aficionados, but also plenty of younger fans and casuals, enjoying hits like 'Rosanna', 'Hold the Line' and 'Georgy Porgy'.

There are so many great songs, the American band could have just gone through the motions -but they’re not phoning it in, and there are no singalong backing tracks here.

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They were in town with their The Dogz of Oz tour – Toto is named after the dog in the Wizard of Oz. And Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

No fancy set or effects – music is the star here, and they are musicians’ musicians, clearly still revelling in their seemingly effortless craft.

Steve Lukather (vocals/guitar) is the only original member of the line-up left standing but long-time frontman Joseph Williams – and the rest of the seven-piece band – have rock gold pedigree.

Scattered among the set were strains of songs they played on as session musicians through the 70s and beyond. They have belted them out alongside the likes of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger and, yes, Taylor Swift.

Quite the surprise package was keyboard maestro and vocalist Dennis Atlas who, at the age of 27 had apparently only two days to learn the whole playlist before embarking on the tour.

He reminded me of a keyboard-playing version of Animal from the Muppets, with the rockstar hair of 1980s heavy metal bands and a great voice.

Everyone’s work rate was set to high octane, as they belted through the crowd-pleasers, the ballads, the long keyboard and synch wizardry, guitar and drum solos.

And it was a full two-hour set, a seated show which came alive most in its second half, with a special take on 'I Won't Hold You Back' and 'Angel Don’t Cry' breathing new energy into the packed crowd and forcing the torch lights out.

They had been well-warmed up by a mellow Christopher Cross, most famous for the Oscar-winning Arthur’s Theme ('Best That You Can Do') – on which some of yet-to-make-it Toto members had also been session musicians.

Now in his mid-70s, he quoted Keith Richards, saying, “I’m just happy to be anywhere,” - but it was a ruse because age seems to have had little effect on this artist’s energy, skills and voice.

Complete with grand piano and three backing singers, Cross was a revelation - not least for his considerable patience after a technical problem stopped him midflow. Thankfully, he had an ad hoc stand-up career to fall back on with a very passable joke while the problem was being fixed, as well as an audience start-up rendition of 'Tutira Mai Nga Iwi'.

Toto burst out of the traps with 'Carmen' after the interlude, and the breadth of Toto’s music was on full show, as well as the depth of the talent in their current seven members.

With fans playing air guitar and practising their drum moves, swaying and singing, hard rock, easy listening and funky R&B, it’s a Toto-tastic show.

Toto and Christopher Cross play Wellington’s TSB Arena tonight (24) and Christchurch’s Wolfbrook Arena on Saturday.