Tonight I saw Toto live, and it was the best show I’ve ever seen. Roger Waters was stirring and The Police were thrilling, but Toto were just out of this world. Great songcraft, amazing instrumental passages and the best fucking guitar solo I’ve ever seen or heard, live or not. It’d make a fan out of anyone.

Firstly, the restaurant, African Feeling, was fantastic — great food and friendly, accommodating service — but I’ll detail that another time.

Instead, let me talk about the show. Bobby Kimball’s voice is as strong as ever, Simon Phillips is an amazing drummer whose technique and abilities are extraordinary (though of course he’ll never truly replace Jeff Porcaro) and Greg Phillinganes is so exciting to watch, particularly because I still consider myself a pianist deep down.

But holy shit, Steve Lukather is just a dead-set fucking legend. His guitar chops are so far beyond the realm of mere mortals that it’s hard to comprehend what you’re actually witnessing. I mean, I can’t even begin to express it all in words.

They did, of course, play “Rosanna”, and the encore had to be “Africa”, but the show stopper (in terms of big hits) was “Hold the Line”. For a band that most people think of as being merely soft rock, these guys rocked harder than anyone would ever dream.

And then I met them after the show.

They were all wonderfully nice, spending good quality time with my friends and I, but Steve (”Luke”) in particular hung around for some real bonding. Yes, folks, I had some swigs from Steve’s beer. They’re all great guys.

If that’s not enough, I bumped into Tim Farriss from INXS as well.

Oh, and they gave me a guitar pick!!!

Photographic evidence coming soon…