Santana
w/ Counting Crows
The Kia Forum – Inglewood, CA
Wednesday, August 28th, 2024
Review/Pics: Manuel Gay
I was pretty much raised on Carlos Santana amongst a few other artists and for no valid reason I still had never seen him live. That was until the living legend stopped by The Forum in Inglewood, CA on August 28th. Santana has shaped music over the past five decades and has left a mark on every generation since the late-60’s. However old you are, chances are that you remember his performance at Woodstock in 1969, or maybe you got into his jazzier phase, or you grew up with the “Maria Maria” video clip playing non-stop on MTV. I had been told his performances never disappoint and needless to say I wasn’t disappointed either, He still got it!
However, I was up to a rough start that evening as the freshly inaugurated Intuit Dome next door was hosting a sold-out show which made the commute and parking situation ridiculous. I got lucky and managed to make it into the photo pit for the third song of opening act Counting Crows, which happened to be their main hit “Mr. Jones” after which we had to leave the pit.
I have to say I was mainly familiar with their debut album August And Everything After, so I wasn’t disappointed because it made for a third of the setlist. I noticed a good number of people dancing and singing their hearts out while rocking Counting Crows t-shirts. The band formed in San Francisco (just like Santana) put on a good show and did a good job at getting the crowd warmed up.
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A little after 9pm, the lights turned off while a video played on a big screen above the stage. From images of Woodstock to snippets of video clips, or previous live performances, the video was a nice and brief sum up of Santana’s career. While the video kept playing, musicians got on stage and a thunder of claps welcomed Carlos Santana.
The band opened strong with three songs straight from the mythic self-titled debut LP released in 1969: “Soul Sacrifice”, “Jingo” and “Evil Ways”. Every musician got their moment to shine under the spotlights and each solo intervention kept topping the previous one. “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va” were played next, and you could tell by everybody’s ecstatic faces that we were all thinking the same thing “Oh my god, this is amazing! What can he possibly play next?”. Carlos Santana played most of the show sitting on a stool, except for a few songs that he played standing up. The man might have aged, but his fingers don’t show any sign of slowing down and every solo was unbelievable.
Later, the musicians cleared the stage and left Benny Rietveld to play an incredible bass solo backed by Cindy Blackman Santana on the drums. The solo was literally a bass masterclass with slap, chords, every single trick in the book and even a snippet of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” which made me smile as I was listening to it as I was parking earlier that evening.
After a well-deserved standing ovation, the band came back to play a medley of covers that included The Zombies “She’s Not There”, War’s “Spill The Wine” and The Temptations “Papa Was A Rolling Stone”. The second half of the show was heavy on songs from the 1999 classic album Supernatural. The difficulty of playing these songs live is the absence of all the collaborators. Obviously Wyclef Jean, Everlast, Mana, Eric Clapton and others don’t follow him on tour to play their parts. But fortunately, enough his musicians all sing, play various instrument and rose to the occasion to fill in the blanks. Tommy Anthony (rhythm guitar) took care of the vocals on “Put Your Lights On” in lieu of Everlast.
Santana is more than a band, it’s a family affair. Indeed, Carlos’s wife sits behind the drums and his son Salvador is one of the two keyboardists on stage and got his occasion to shine with a beautiful solo that surprisingly included a snippet of Wiz Khalifa “See You Again”. He later left his instrument to rap on the last verse of “Maria Maria”. I don’t think anyone in the building managed to resist the urge to dance on “Corazon Espinado”. The band left the stage and came back for an encore that included an incredible drum solo by Mrs. Santana.
I am happy I finally got to see Santana live and cannot believe it took me so long to get there. I will definitely run back to see him next time I get a chance and can only encourage anyone else to do the same.
Related Links:
Santana
Counting Crows
