Toto, Christopher Cross, Men At Work supply the love at Star Lake

On one of the summer’s hottest evenings, three musical acts came together to heat up the Pavilion at Star Lake even more.

Men at Work, Christopher Cross and Toto all lit up the stage with great music. All three had hits in the late 1970s or early 1980s, and all three are still radio staples to this day. Basically, this is the equivalent of the Spin Doctors/Gin Blossoms/Blues Traveler tour that came through town recently.

This show had something else in common with that one: the love and admiration that the three acts showed for each other.

If one thing could’ve changed about this show, the energy momentum would’ve been best served by Christopher Cross playing first instead of Men at Work. While both put on terrific sets, Cross’s mellow songs would’ve been a great appetizer to increasingly harder rock from Men at Work and Toto.

Did they all play the hits? Yes. Do they all still have it? For the most part, also yes.

Men at Work — an Australian band whose only remaining founding member is lead singer and guitarist Colin Hay — achieved two Billboard No. 1 hits in 1982 with “Down Under” and “Who Can It Be Now?” Combining radio rock with a slew of unusual instruments, the band still excels live. Through their eight-song set, they kept the popular songs for the second half.

“Overkill,” which was a 1983 hit, is a rare song from that time period about anxiety that showed off Colin Hay’s unique wail and saxophonist Rachel Mazer’s own wailing abilities. Before playing “Who Can It Be Now?” Hay paused to joke with the crowd.

“I was checking out at the supermarket the other day and ‘Who Can It Be Now?’ came on and I told the checkout girl, I said, ‘I wrote this song,’” he said. The crowd cheered appreciatively for the percussive ode to paranoia and shyness.

The lasting classic “Down Under” started with a distorted guitar and its distinctive flute trill. In addition to playing the song faithfully to its recorded version, the top-notch band added lots of extra touches and improvisations. They ended the set with the conversational “Be Good Johnny,” with its staccato chorus and the crowd singing along.

Christopher Cross can also claim a pair of Billboard No. 1 hits (and a No. 2 hit) — and one of them even won an Oscar for Best Original Song. While he didn’t pump up the crowd quite to the level of the other two acts, the more-than-40-year music veteran put on a smooth spectacle of a show.

Surrounded by a saxophonist, percussionist, pianist, keyboard player, a trio of backup singers and even more musicians, the 74-year-old Cross crooned with practiced showmanship. And can he still perform his hits?

“Sailing” came in the middle of his nine-song set, kicked off with a beautiful piano intro. With so many complex parts, the tune felt almost orchestral. This soft rock classic finds the sweet spot of Cross’s vocal range, and he was still able to sing it powerfully. He dedicated “Arthur’s Theme (The Best You Can Do),” the Oscar-winning tune, to the recently deceased musical legend Burt Bacharach, who co-wrote the song.

“I consider him the best songwriter of my generation,” Cross said of Bacharach.

The song featured a stirring sax solo and Cross’s voice matched its timbre well. He might struggle a tiny bit in his higher register, but Cross has maintained his performance ability impressively.

He played the heartfelt and stripped-down “Think of Laura,” in memory of those we’ve lost, and the gentle tune “The Light is On” featured an electronic wind synthesizer that gave the whole song an ethereal feel.

Cross wrapped up with “Ride Like The Wind,” his most percussive hit. The crowd stood to sing along with the backup singers on all of the “ba-da-da-da”s in the chorus.

Toto also filled up the stage — with both musicians and new age sounds of their own. Kicking off with the instrumental portion of “Child’s Anthem,” the Los Angeles-based band took their places onstage (for many of them, those places would be abandoned, a lot).

Fun fact about Toto: singer and guitarist Joseph Williams is the son of legendary composer John Williams. Another fun fact: every person currently in this band can sing.

They got the crowd on their feet early with Billboard No. 2 hit “Rosanna,” which they expanded with a keyboard breakdown straight out of New Orleans that enhanced an already timeless jam.

Toto has a faithful following from a 45-year-long career. They took the fandom’s request to play the title track from the 1999 album “Mindfields” on this tour for the first time, and it was worth the wait.

“We are one of those rare bands, we all really, really dig each other,” Williams said. “We have dinner together on our days off, we play chess and backgammon together.”

There was a lovely synchronization, an easy musical rapport, between the band’s many members. They gave new member Dennis Atlas time to shine vocally with “Angel Don’t Cry,” and he absolutely killed it. They leaned in to sing on the same mic, they made funny little gestures toward each other during solos, they played back-to-back and hip-to-hip with each other, and they all roamed the stage having a terrific time together.

And can they still play the hits? They can still play anything, from the sentimental and pulled-back “I’ll Be Over You” — which got all of the phone flashlights in the pavilion shining — to the soaring rockfest “Home of the Brave,” to the funky “Georgy Porgy.” But there were some moments of genuine concert magic at the end of the show.

The audience roared to its feet as the keyboard notes to begin the 1978 Billboard No. 5 hit “Hold The Line” rang out. Williams showed off all of his vocal tricks while the guitars blared behind him.

I can appreciate a band that isn’t coy about what people are there to see. Toto knows you’re there to hear “Africa,” their often-covered and much-loved 1982 No. 1 hit. They saved it for last, and they brought everyone from both other acts onstage to sing along — with the entire audience joining in, of course.

Grinning and belting it out, all of the musicians sang along. Toto played their songs with expanded solos, but “Africa” was a nearly radio-perfect rendition with a lot of added joy sprinkled in.

Even on one of the hottest evenings of the year, I got goosebumps.