Carlos Santana started out about half an hour late on Wednesday night at the Superpages.com Center but made up for lost time starting out with several songs from his Abraxas album including "Black Magic Woman," and "Se Acabo," and all the way to other more recent chart toppers "Smooth," and "Maria Maria."He played a little bit of everything - from snippets of Hendrix, the Stones and Sheila E. to a cover of "Funky Nassau" by one-hit-wonders The Beginning of the End.
Oh yeah, and there were of Santana classics, too. Lots of them. The guitar legend and his furious nine-man band jammed for two and a half hours straight.
The fact that this venue was not wall to wall people proves this ~ Carlos was not there to sell or promote anything. He has a new CD coming out in a few days and you never heard a word about it. In fact, what made this show so great was that he played so many old songs that you rarely hear him perform live.
Carlos is one of the greatest guitarists and musicians alive IMHO. I have seen him at least six times at various venues in Dallas, Austin, Germany and Mexico City and he never plays the same song the same way. It always feels and sounds like its the first time he's playing it and you are hearing it. He didn't put on a "show" or "perform" Wednesday night. He was just on stage playing with a bunch of guys and we got to sit there (stand, actually), to listen, watch and dance.
The coolest and most moving moment Wednesday night had to have been the clips showing Carlos performing over the years beginning with Woodstock all the way to carrying off all of the grammy awards. The clips were not in chronological order. It was just sort of thrown together like watching his home movies. All of that great music against the backdrop of those clips was POWERFUL. I teared up. Immortality hit me hard. We are blessed to have him on this earth. His music will outlive all of us.
There was a negative aspect to his concert that the group of us felt was not necessary. He took about 20 minutes out of his jam session to get political and to criticize President Bush and Condaleeza Rice. He continued on with his diatribe until some people up front booed him and he then replied "You just let me do my thing ok?" He continued on and finally decided to continue jamming.
All in all it was a pretty good concert but one which I would have enjoyed much more had it not been for Carlos Santana's political rant.
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Comments: 78
Esther, most entertainers have strong opinions politically--Carlos always has, and he's not unusual in taking an opportunity to say his piece. Your dime, his time. :-)
Feverish whining…:
Political rant shouldn't of happened....
Ester thanks for sharing this...danced the whole time!!LOL
I was taken aback by Carlos' demeanor the other night because he's always so happy and into love, joy and transcendental happiness for everyone. He usually talks about peace on Earth and loving each other and it makes for an even more special occasion to hear someone speak like that. The other night was definitely the exception to the times I have ever seen him perform live or on television. He just didn't seem like himself personality wise.
His music was beyond compare and that was truly what we were all there to hear. We had a wonderful time listening to him jam and listening to him play some of his oldies but goodies which got us all on our feet dancing.
For anyone who has never seen Santana live, I say Go and Go now before its too late to catch a legend live.
Hmmm...I wonder what land you are talking about? ;p
Sorry about earlier today. Haven't slept in a couple of days and still haven't crashed as I just got back from the Doc. Guess I'm gonna live...so I guess you have to put up with me a bit longer my friend.
Wonder what that perfume smells like? Exotic I would think or herby perhaps? Gonna have to ping you to find out as I am a scent junkie! ;)
Glad you enjoyed my post!
I bought a T-shirt but it has a state of Texas on the back and only lists the cities here in our state that he is performing in.
Yea, you know we want to escape the politics and then end up paying to hear more of it. Luckily it didn't get too ugly. haaa!
And Ceena dear...where have you been? I've been trying to call you since Friday and no answer and I've left messages but no word from you. Whats going on? All systems GO??
Awesome guy, nice vid!
Like I said before, he made up for lost time as he played straight for over two and a half hours and it was fantastic!
Glad to hear that you enjoyed Santana or enjoy him as much as I do and a lot of us do!
I would say google him or check for concerts in your area and see if he is coming there.
I hope he does.
Amazing that you haven't heard him before. He's been around since the '60s and its really hard to believe that you hadn't heard him or of him in all of these years unless you don't listen to rock and roll.
You've really got to catch him at least once hon as he is so good to listen to live! In case you want to hear him live I recommend his box set called (blue box) The Essential Santana. It is excellent.
Thanks for coming by!
Carlos Santana has always been outspoken but really has always been upbeat and positive. Wednesday night I didn't recognize him. He seemed to be angry and so different than any other time I had heard him play or speak. Now I wish I had recorded him speaking and the song that they sang which was pretty radical in my opinion.
Play their ####ing songs!
That irritates me like few things do. I can hear someone's political beliefs at a bar for free. Snatana's or anyone else's. I'm glad some people were bold and stood up to speak back to power and exercise their dissent. Celebrities don't speak for everyone.
It must have been great to hear the genre defining songs though. Happy to hear he's dusting them off. Seeing him come from the sidelines and take all those awards a few years back made me happy. A guitar legend being recognized! But I didn't care for the recent albums and their "just forget about it" singer du jour approach. It was extremely marketable just not my cup o tea.
I'm hoping for an instrumental album from him. :)
You're right ~ they don't speak for everyone because he certainly wasn't speaking for me the other night.
I haven't bought a new album of his since the song Smooth came out because I love Rob Thomas although I don't particularly like his band.
You would have been in Santana heaven the other night with the desire to have him produce an instrumental album. He did at least an hour of strictly jamming and that was darn cool!
He just released a new album yesterday but know nothing more about it than that because Carlos made no mention of it and the only reason I know is because a friend told me that the new cd would be released yesterday (Tuesday). So who knows what kind of recordings that includes.
Glad to see you're back! ;)
Celebs often forget why they are "celebrated." I can turn on cable news and get poli speak 24/7 or listen to my co workers.
That would have been so cool to have met those folks from Dallas! I would have loved that for sure. Your pequena monarcha! haaa! You are a trip and make me laugh you're so funny.
So you took the ol' guitar with ya on your trip huh? I suppose to serenade all of those senoritas and that number one senorita at your side...good plan my friend. Very good plan. Gotta give you props for being so romantic. ;)
Carlos Santana - Black Magic Women Live
Great video! Great choice.
You would do good to catch him when you move to New York. He likes to play Madison Square Garden.
<3 Krystal