Those that only know of him as "Toto's guitarist", don't even know the half of what this guy is all about.
You'd be hard pressed to tally up the number of hit records he's played on as a session guitarist from the 70s forward.

On Wednesday night (10/21) the party began (his 52nd b'day) with Luke's son's band SlideAway who played a competent Rock set.




Steve's set included songs from his solo album...



...*Ever Changing Times (2008) but purposely excluded any Toto hits.

* Abe Laborial Jr., Leland Sklar, Steve Porcaro, Greg Mathieson, Bill Champlin, Lenny Castro, etc.


Setlist courtesy of www.fullmetalrock.com:

1. Crooked Road/Twist
2. Ever Changing Times
3. How Many Zeros
4. **Stab In The Back
5. Buzzed
6. Key/Drum Duet
7. Song For Jeff
8. Never Walk Alone (w/David Paich)
9. Talk To Ya Later (played guitar on the recording by The Tubes)
10.Blues
11.Party In Simon's Pants
12.Hero With 1000 Eyes
13.Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pink Floyd cover)

** "I have one tune that is a shameless tribute to Steely Dan, Stab in the back. I LOVE them and never got to play on one of their records. I always wanted to but so far I haven't, SO I wrote my own Steely-like tune which I will dedicate to Donald and Walter on the liner notes. It's NOT a rip-off but you can tell right away what I have been listening to, hahaha."


Lukather's Band:
Steve Weingart - keyboards
Carlitos Del Puerto - bass, vocals
Eric Valentine - drums, vocals





Special guest and former Toto bandmate...





...David Paich sat in for a few tunes on a vintage Hammond A-100.


The Gear...





...overseen by new guitar tech - Terry Drake.


Saw Mickey Dolenz (The Monkees) going in and got to have a conversation with guitarist/producer Jay Graydon.


B'day greetings from...



...Edward James Olmos


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A few potent Steve Lukather quotes (when aren't they "potent") from a 6/2008 interview during the rehearsals for his Ever Changing Times Tour about the end of Toto and his new solo career.

Reggie: You've almost completed two weeks of Tour rehearsals. You have some new faces & some familiar faces in your new band. How has it gone so far?

Luke: "I'm having a great time. We're just down to details now. Everybody knows the stuff. We're just kinda tweaking the vocal stuff now. It's all real there's nothing going on anywhere there other than what's up on stage. It's kinda like a 70's band mentality as far as that goes. This band could show up and play on rented gear anywhere around the world and be able to do it! It's kinda low tech as opposed to where I come from. The Toto deal was really high tech. A lot of people, a lot of $hit like drum loops and you had to stay with the click. I didn't want to do that this time. I wanted to do it old school. It's a little rawer but at the same time it's #uckin' real! That's what's REALLY important to me!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Reggie: With the announcement about Toto a lot has been said about it ending. But I think of it as the start of something new and exciting instead of something ending. What are your thoughts?

Luke: "Most people have been really cool about it. This is all news. It's been in the newspapers. I'm getting calls. It's traveled all over the World. Mark & Brian (Nationally syndicated Radio Hosts from Los Angeles Radio station KLOS) called me. Some guy called up KLOS crying about Toto. It's like, man where was all the love when we were together (laughing)? But then there's always the $hitty remarks like 'I thought they were done in the 80's!' or 'who cares?' Or some of the fans are mad at me because they think I broke up the band or something like that when I was just the first one to come out with it. Yes there were some issues. But there will ALWAYS be issues when you have a corporation like that, that long. But there's no personal problems with the members or the guys, I have nothing but love for the cats. This is not a malicious,hateful break up. It's really important for people to understand that. I just felt that it had run it's course. What's next? I'm going to be replaced and they're going to send out a fake Toto?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Reggie: Is there anything else you wanted to add?

Luke: "The set list will come out soon enough. With the internet it will be all over the place by the first night. Things are going to ebb and flow. I got this set list together. I wanna get the band real tight with this. I may pull this and add this as time goes on. Since we only had a couple of weeks rehearsal. We started a brand new band from scratch. I wanted to get a very specific thing. We made a change. Tony (Spinner) wasn't available for the tour. We agreed to part as pals and it all worked out for the best man."

"Ricky Z. was a friend of Carlitos. He already knew half the $hit. It's fulfilling that slot. I have a lot of guitar parts and I need that high voice. I'm not using samples or any of that other modern day 'Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain, bull$hit.' It is what it is, you know? A lot of people come to expect the real slick double vocals that EVERYBODY on the 'ucking planet does now, including people you would never expect. I know where the bodies are buried for that $hit! Believe me! All the production people and crew guys go from one tour to the next. And everybody knows everybody.But O.K. people cheat sometimes. I don't want to cheat. This is it. If I make a mistake or I sing a little bit out of tune, that's how it is. It's LIVE music!

http://www.stevelukather....aspx?id=56

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Thanks for talkin' $hit when $hit needed to be talked.
(Can't wait until his book comes out)


Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431
[Edited 11/10/09 11:00am]

...




I bet that was great gig!

I'll check out the solo joint--- I gotta hear that Stab In The Back tune! Hard to believe he didn't make at least one of the SD tracks yet....






...
[Edited 11/10/09 9:58am]

monster musician.....

thanks for posting, must have been incredible to see him such a loose setting.

David Paich, as well as Lukather, and Steve Porcaro (all Toto folks), played and worked with, and wrote for, The Jacksons, and Michael Jackson in the late 70's and early 80's. They're all over the Victory album, as well as Thriller, and other stuff.

this post brought back alot of good memories of "toto" ... good to hear that Steve is alive and very well ... big fan now thanks ... will have to look that up ...

paligap said:

Fun show. I was surprised that he didn't have more guest players though.



Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

ernestsewell said:

I purposely avoided bringing that up for fear of this thread being sucked into the MJ Black Hole.


Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431