Multi-instrumentalist Ham ably hit the high notes on Toto’s “Africa” and “Rosanna,” both of which featured the fleet-fingered Lukather as the nominal lead singer. Stuart, who was a member of Paul McCartney’s band from 1988 to 1994, had the strongest voice of anyone in this edition of the All-Starrs. On several songs - including “Boys” and “I Wanna Be Your Man” - he sang while he drummed, just as he did all those years ago in the 1960s with The Beatles. Starr alternated between enthusiastically singing at the front of the stage and delivering rock-solid drumming from a riser farther back. The concert opened with a spunky version of the 1957 Carl Perkins’ rockabilly gem, “Matchbox,” and concluded with a mashup of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” and the Plastic Ono Band’s “Give Peace a Chance.” The lineup was completed by former David Lee Roth drum dynamo Greg Bissonette and former Toto and Kansas utility player Warren Ham, a quadruple-threat on saxophone, percussion, harmonica and vocals. Levity aside, Starr and his six band mates didn’t kid around when it came to the music.Īs in previous years, their repertoire mixed chestnuts from The Beatles’ songbook and Starr’s solo career with hits by the All-Starrs, whose other members include Edgar Winter and Men At Work’s Colin Hay.

Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, now in his second decade with Starr, introduced “Hold the Line” as: “A song from when I was 20 years old - in 1927.” Explaining why his until recently full head of black hair is now white, Lukather told the audience: “At 65, you just say ‘F- it!’ “ “Do you remember 1976? What was it like?” Average White Band co-founder Hamish Stuart, 73, asked the audience as he led the All-Starrs - minus Starr - into a percolating version of AWB’s mid-1970s hit, “Cut the Cake.”

The passing of time also inspired quips at Pechanga from some of the members of his All-Starr Band, the 15th iteration of the group he has led since its inception in 1989.

But the majority appeared to be graying baby-boomers who grew up in the 1960s when The Beatles were irrevocably transforming music and pop culture - and Starr was the most famous young rock drummer on the planet. There were some Millennials and Gen Z-ers in the audience, including a young woman in front of me who danced joyously during much of the concert. (Charlie Neuman/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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