March 21, 2016: The Original Santana! (or at least a resonable facsimile thereof.)

Las Vegas, NV
The House of Blues

It's been over 10 years since I last went to Las Vegas, and nearly that long since I've traveled further than Lake Tahoe (which for someone born and raised in the Bay Area is more or less the backyard) for a Journey-related show. Vegas is not my favorite destination and I've rarely spent more than about 24 hours in the city on any trip -- always for a concert. This time was no different, but it was for a very special concert. After over 40 years the "original" lineup of Santana was reuniting for a show to promote their new album Santana IV (due out April 15.)

I put original in quotes up there because, over the nearly 50 year history of the band, there have been many different lineups and I think most people would consider the original Santana lineup to be the version that played at Woodstock in 1969. That lineup was Carlos Santana, Gregg Rolie, Chepito Areas, Michael Carabello, Michael Shreve, and David Brown (courtesy liner notes to The Best of Santana.) That wasn't exactly the lineup of last night's show, but we got close enough with Gregg Rolie, Michael Carabello, Michael Shreve and Neal Schon joining Carlos and a couple of members from the current version of the band on stage for a 2 hour show that was filmed for TV and DVD.

Rewind a bit in time here before moving on to the show. Santana is one of those legendary San Francisco bands of the 1960s -- idolized along with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane that came out of the craziness of 1960s San Francisco. Having been only 10 months old when Woodstock took place, barring some highly irresponsible relatives bringing a very young child to the Fillmore, the chance of me ever seeing the original lineup of Santana wasn't ever going to be very likely. Amazingly, however, despite living my entire life in the San Francisco Bay Area, I had never seen ANY incarnation of Santana. I've seen Carlos make guest appearances at a couple of shows, but never the full on band. I realized this some time ago and made a mental note to try to get to a Santana show in the near future.

Now, I've seen Gregg Rolie numerous times and Michael Carabello has been in his band nearly every time I've seen him, and most of Gregg's set list is comprised of the well known Santana hits of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Over the last few years there had been rumblings about Neal Schon trying to get his former Santana compadres together to record a new album, then bits of stories that some recording had started, until finally, yes there was going to be a new album released this year.

Back in January, it was announced that there were going to be three shows featuring both Journey and Santana on the east coast with the big kick off show at Madison Square Garden. I've got to admit, as a Bay Area native, I was kind of pissed off. Two legendary San Francisco bands joining up for a big dual headlining show with Neal playing in BOTH bands and it's in New York City! A trip to New York was way too expensive to take, so I simmered a bit and figured they'd eventually do a show in San Francisco.  (September 4, 2016, AT&T Park! Woo!)

Then about two weeks ago, late on a Friday I see the announcement -- the "original" Santana performing in Las Vegas at the House of Blues! Tickets are only $30! THIRTY DOLLARS?!!! Oh heck yeah, I'm in. I knew I could find a cheap flight to Vegas and a one night hotel stay wouldn't break the bank, so I was all in. The tickets went on sale the next day and in the span of an hour I had my concert ticket, my flight and hotel all purchased before even having a chance to talk to my boss to let him know I'd be taking two days off from work for it. (Thankfully, I have a great boss!)

I flew in to Vegas yesterday morning and met up with Adriana, Hope, and Valerie P. -- none of whom I'd seen in several years and it was just great catching up with old friends. Jenn would be flying in a little bit later in the day. We split up for a bit after grabbing a bite to eat, but Adriana soon sent me a message that there would be a press conference outside the House of Blues at 3:00, so I went down to check it out. To be honest, it was probably the worlds shortest press conference. It was essentially a bunch of suits saying "yay us we have Santana in the house" and then each member of the band got up and spoke for about 30 seconds. Carlos maybe got a minute. Then poof, bang, it was over. The best information I got was that the show would be shown on AXS TV in June and then released on DVD and shown on PBS as part of their pledge drive in the fall. Carlos did give big praise to Neal for being the instigator of the project, so that was pretty cool.

So, now on to the show (finally they say!) The concert was General Admission, which is really not my favorite way to see a show any more, but I figured I could put up with it for one night. Jenn and I got in line to get in about 5:45 for the 6:30 opening of the doors. We got inside about an hour later and managed to get pretty close to the stage and then we had to stand and wait. The House of Blues was much smaller than I expected and they'd only sold the floor area -- the upper balcony section seemed to hold friends and family of the band and probably some other big wigs. While the crowd was waiting the PA played mostly age/era appropriate music and it was amusing to hear the crowd sing along from time to time to Bob Dylan and Them. The crowd looked somewhat younger than I expected, but it was definitely a middle aged and over crowd.

[Note: I'm going to pause here for a moment to mention I'm a "greatest hits" type of fan of Santana, so I did not write down a set list and as yet I've been unable to locate one for last night's show. I have found some for recent shows with the current lineup which should help some as I continue.]

Blurry iPhone pic of Gregg Rolie

The show started right on time at 8:00 when Carlos and most of the band stepped out on stage. They opened up with "Soul Sacrifice" and then went into "Evil Ways" [edited after seeing video!] before taking a pause for Carlos to introduce the band. He first introduced the guys from the current line up before introducing Michael Shreve, Michael Carabello and Gregg Rolie. Standing in the wings (and easily spotted from my position) was Neal Schon. Carlos repeated what he had said earlier at the press conference that it was Neal who was the engine driving the reunion. When Neal came on stage he had the biggest smile I've ever seen, and honestly, he smiled pretty much non stop through out the show. He really was having a great time (despite a few issues I'll mention later.) I'm pretty sure the next song was "Jingo" (again, I know the song, just not the order) and it was so much fun to watch Neal and Carlos play together. It was a bit strange to see Neal as the secondary guitarist, but they really played well together.

Carlos and Neal

The show covered a lot of the hits of the early Santana years along with some new songs, though Carlos only introduced one of them. I had a pretty good spot close to the stage and a decent view of everyone but Gregg who was at the far right as you face the stage. To see him I had to bob around a few heads, but it wasn't too bad. He too looked like he was having a great time. A lot of the show felt a lot like a big jam session as songs were extended and I thought "this jamming stuff is what Neal really misses and wants to do." Neal took a couple of solos along the way which was cool. Still, a personal highlight for me was hearing Carlos play "Europa" -- it's absolutely one of my favorite tunes. Neal actually stepped off stage for that song, returning right afterwards.

Now, the show didn't go 100% smoothly. There was some kind of problem with Neal's guitar cable and the tech had to come out several times to fix and/or replace it. I don't know how they're going to cover that up in the video, but I'm guessing they'll find a way. (I wouldn't be surprised if there had been a run through of the show with the cameras running just for this possibility. Don't know that for a fact though.) A similar thing happened with the keyboard player at one point also, but not as often as it did with Neal.

Ron Isley, Neal, Gregg

The main set closed out with "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" and "Oye Como Va". The band then came out for an encore with guest Ronald Isley (of the Isley Brothers) who Carlos called "more important to [him] than the Statue of Liberty, more important than the Golden Gate." He also went on for a bit about the song "Twist and Shout" which led me to believe that's what they would be singing, but no, it was something else (sorry folks, not sure what it was called.) Ronald Isley sang for two songs before the band closed out the show with one last tune (which I have completely forgotten at this point.)

The show ended around 10:15 and Jenn and I chatted for a few minutes with Adriana, Hope, and Valerie before calling it a night. We both had morning flights back home (and poor Jenn actually had to go in to work this morning!) so we needed to get to bed. It was a quick turn around trip to Vegas, but I'm so glad I went. It was a great show and it was so good to see some old friends that I haven't seen in a while. I do miss some of my crazy travels.