Carlos Santana has played shows around the world and watched as crowds went wild for his music.
And what he was seeing from his hometown fans late in the show on Tuesday night (Aug. 27) at Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View didn’t impress him at all.
“It feels like we are at the old people’s home,” the legendary Bay Area guitarist remarked about the less-than-rambunctious response from the crowd.
Was he joking? Hmm. Does Carlos Santana ever joke? He always comes across as serious and sincere in just about every situation. And this was certainly no exception. The 77-year-old Woodstock great actually seemed miffed at the lack of energy from the some 17,000 fans in attendance during the homestretch of his Santana band’s nearly two-hour set.
It wasn’t like anyone was seen snoozing to, say, “Corazón espinado,” of course, but there were many fans who choose to remain in their seats as the dance party lost steam in hour two. Santana also remained seated for long portions of the show, mind you, which probably had something to do with a back issue that has caused him to cancel some upcoming shows.
Santana is hardly blameless in this outcome, though, as he frontloaded the setlist with most of best-known classic rock radio hits — including “Evil Ways,” “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye cómo va” — and then moved on to other material. The latter was still enjoyable, but many fans probably had heard all the songs that were on their wish lists within the first third of the set. That’s a pacing problem — not a crowd problem.
Otherwise, the show proved to be yet another master class in Latin rock by one of the greatest guitarists ever born and his sensational backing band, which includes Andy Vargas and Ray Greene on vocals, Benny Rietveld on bass, Karl Perazzo and Paoli Mejías on percussion, Tommy Anthony on guitar and vocals, David K. Mathews on keys and Cindy Blackman Santana on drums.
Any chance to see Cindy Blackman Santana should be capitalized on, whether she’s sitting on the drum throne in her husband Carlos’ band or leading her own outfit. She’s one of the best drummers on the planet and was a joy to behold as she fueled the band through such numbers as “Everybody’s Everything” (which led into a great duo spotlight for the drummer and bassist Rietveld) and the band’s fabulous cover of Babatunde Olatunji’s “Jin-go-lo-ba.”
The group welcomed back a couple of old friends — keyboardist Chester Thompson and vocalist Tony Lindsay — late in the set. Both of those talents were in the band during the comeback years, after 1999’s “Supernatural” brought Santana back to the top of the album charts for the first time since 1971’s “Santana III,” and it was great to see them back onstage with their former boss.
Despite the lull in crowd energy late in the set, and the band leader’s arguably over-reaction to it, the group managed to end the main set on a high note with “Maria Maria” and “Foo Foo,” then quickly returned for an encore highlighted by Blackman Santana’s incredible drum work.
The Counting Crows were also on this all-Bay Area bill and did a fantastic job with a set that stretched just over an hour and included 14 songs. Unlike with Santana, the Crows’ set — and the crowd’s reaction to it — just kept getting better and better as the night progressed.
They came out the gates with a pretty straight-forward “Hard Candy” and proceeded to deliver takes on “Mr. Jones,” “Omaha,” Colorblind” and other fan favorites that nicely balanced what we remember from the records with some additional thrills and frills.
In a nice nod to the setting, the Crows turned to another group of hometown heroes — the Grateful Dead, who remain forever connected with Shoreline — for a cover of “Friend of the Devil” that sat about halfway between the Dead’s fast-paced original recording and its more dirge-like version performed in concert.
Yet, amazingly, that wasn’t the best cover of the set. That would come once lead singer Adam Duritz sat down on the piano and surprised the crowd with a gorgeous, restrained and heartfelt version of possibly Taylor Swift’s most beautiful composition — “The 1.”
I hadn’t seen the Crows in years — although I use to see them quite often back in their commercial heyday of the ’90s and early ‘2000s. And this performance definitely put them back on my radar in a big way. Already looking forward to my next Counting Crows show. Thankfully, it seems I won’t have to wait that long.
“Thank you for tonight — and every night over the years,” Duritz said to the crowd at the end of the set. “And — don’t worry — we will be back.”
