| Toto and Starship at Morongo Casino |
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Saturday, August 29, 2009 Morongo Casino Resort Outdoor Concert Pavilion Cabazon, California Story by Lisa Robyn Lawrence Photos by Catherine Jardine To see more Cathy Jardine photos of Toto and Starship, click here.  Talk about the WOW Factor in entertainment! A HUGE surprise at Morongo Casino in Cabazon near Palm Springs, California, Saturday, Aug. 29, was the opening act for Foreigner — none other than, Starship, starring Mickey Thomas. Adding to the excitement buzz was a guest appearance from Toto’s lead vocalist, Bobby Kimball. Starship took the stage with a loud flourish and got the crowd rockin’ with their opening song “Layin’ It on the Line.” The next songs, “No Way Out” and “Jane,” were followed by one of their very big hits, “Sarah.”
Thomas, one of the early Jefferson Starship band members, was joined by band members Darrell Verdusco on drums, Phil Bennett on keyboards and background vocals. Jeff Adams on bass and background vocals, Mark Abrahamian on guitar, and the lovely Stephanie Calvert on vocals.  This band rocked the house. Abrahamian did things on guitar, especially during one big solo in “Blame It On the Night,” which was indescribably delicious. Abrahamian fingers flew on the neck of the guitar, then he strummed way up on the neck frets, then he slid both hands down the base of the guitar neck to the soundboard area and pumped out some outrageously great sounds, quite amazing. Thomas and the band were in fantastic form and warmed the audience up within seconds. Calvert sang the Grace Slick part in the Jefferson Airplane song “White Rabbit (Go Ask Alice),” the audience thundered its appreciation.Thomas then announced that they had a surprise guest, Kimball, the lead singer from Toto, was going to join them on stage. The audience went berserk with appreciation.  They went into a set of Starship and Toto songs including the hit song “Africa.” Picture Kimball performing a set of Toto hits with the Starship gang, and you have rock ‘n’ rollers in screaming, dancing heaven.Thank you, Starship, Thomas and Bobby Kimball for getting us all pumped up with your great tunes and high caliber of music and entertainment. This was just the opening act and what a night it was. Thank you to the entertainment staff at Morongo Casino Resort for bringing us such high quality “surprise” entertainment as an opening act, pure genius! To see more Cathy Jardine photos of Toto and Starship, click here. For more about Starship starring Mickey Thomas, click here. For more about Bobby Kimball, click here. Don’t miss some of the biggest names in entertainment coming to Morongo. For more information, click here. |
