Pic Playback: Carlos Santana’s “1001 Rainbows” Tour At The MGM National Harbor
Carlos Santana is one of those musical icons who can stand to go by just one name, as his career spans over five decades, his art goes far beyond generational, cultural and geographical boundaries. The Rock and Roll Hame of Fame guitarist made his return to the DMV area with a concert at the MGM National Harbor on July 26.
The tour intro played almost like a musical séance with the beat of the congas and drums calling on the powers of the music gods, while footage of his groundbreaking performance at Woodstock played on the video screen. What a perfect segue this would be into the show opening numbers “Soul Sacrifice,” “Ji-Go-Lo-Ba,” “Evil Ways,” “Black Magic Woman,” and “Gypsy Queen.” This made for one of the most magical show openings I have seen in a long time.
Playing songs with such history is no easy feat, and Santana has enlisted some of the best musicians on the planet. His band was anchored by Cindy Blackman Santana on drums, Benny Rietveld on bass, David K. Matthews on keys, Karl Perazzo and Paoli Mejias on percussion, Tommy Anthony on guitar, and Andy Vargas & Ray Greene holding it down on the vocals.
With a catalog as massive as Santana’s is, he still found time to deviate from his own music and pay tribute to a few of his musical peer by performing cover songs “Spill The Wine” (WAR Cover), “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” (The Temptations cover), “She’s Not There” (The Zombies cover), and “Are You Ready” (The Chambers Brothers cover).
With all of that being played, you know that he couldn’t go out without performing his two biggest hits to date. Hailing from his best selling album “Supernatural“, the closing songs of the night were the #1 hits “Maria Maria” and “Smooth.”
Do yourself a favor and check out this music maestro while he’s still touring.
