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Toto

40 Tours Around The Sun BluRay

Review by Gary Hill

This new Blu-Ray release captures a show from Toto's 40th anniversary tour. Now that they have decided to hang it up as a band, this is even more poignant. It should be noted that I reviewed the CD version of this last issue, so this review is not going to touch on the music all that much, but rather on this particular release and the concert as a whole.

One thing that annoyed me a bit is that fact that the stage is so often lit in blue light that it gets a bit off-putting. I know, that seems like a small quibble, but it actually got in the way of my enjoyment of the show at times. Now, I'm not saying that the whole tour was lit that way. A lot of photographers complain about red stage lights, so I have to wonder if they scaled back the red because of the video cameras and it left a stage that was often far too blue, but either way, I found it a distraction. Mind you, it's worse with the first few songs, with the lighting getting a bit more balanced later in the concert.

There is a cool, more intimate (I'm not sure how intimate you can get with a massive crowd like the one at this show) acoustic set mid-track that is among the best parts of the show. That's also the point in the show where the lighting seems to improve greatly.

The entire band put in stellar performances. The set list is quite good, too, really showcasing a lot of sounds and periods from the history of the act. The video and audio are both quite good, too. There is one bonus feature, a short film that uses interview segments to tell the story of Toto. All in all, I recommend this video. It's not perfect, but the performance is close to perfection.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2020  Volume 1. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2020.

You'll find concert pics of this artist in the Music Street Journal members area.
 
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