Santana delivers blistering hot season opener at Meijer Gardens: ‘Nobody does it better’

The sold-out crowd of 1,900 arrived early, jostled for prime seats and boogied to “Oye Como Va” and “Smooth” as the guitarist and his top-notch 10-piece band launched the summer series. (Review, photos)

 

Steaming, in every sense of that word.

Or as expressed in Santana’s “Smooth”: “Man, it’s a hot one, like seven inches from the midday sun.”

It’s hard to imagine a better way to heat up the summer concert series at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park than with brilliant sunshine, temperatures approaching 90 degrees and the blistering-hot, Latin-laced strains of one of rock’s most respected emissaries.

Carlos Santana and his ultra-lively, ultra-tight 10-member crew of musicians launched the 2014 season at the outdoor amphitheater with all of the above and more, treating the sold-out crowd of 1,900 to the most exuberant – and certainly the loudest – opening show in the 12-year history of Meijer Gardens concerts.

From a music-delivery standpoint, the 2-hour-and-16-minute show was everything any Santana fan might have hoped to experience: a cavalcade of percussion-driven gems spotlighting an iconic guitarist who, at 66, remains at the top of his game, mixing new material like “La Flaca” and “Saideira” from his latest Latin album, “Corazon,” with concert standards such as “Foo Foo” and “Corazon espinado” and greatest-hits crowd-pleasers “Black Magic Woman,” “Oye Como Va,” “Maria Maria” and “Smooth.”

Indeed, I’ve never seen Santana play any better – or with more spirit – than he and his band did on Sunday night, the consummate bandleader playing his instrument with as much confidence and passion as he ever has, uncorking those unmistakable Santana guitar textures in song after song, and directing traffic/solos during extended jams.

RAINBOW POWER … AND SEARING GUITAR SOLOS

And, of course, few guitarists can hold out a single note more sweetly on guitar than the Grammy-showered Santana, as evidenced by his solo on “Jingo,” or create a feeling of joy, togetherness and barrier-erasing bliss.

“There’s black power, there’s white power, there’s gray power, and there’s rainbow power. I’m a rainbow power dude,” Santana gushed at one point amid the sun-splashed amphitheater.

Of course – with a rock legend in the house – the amphitheater was more overflowing than usual, with scary-long lines to get in, and just as scary-long lines for beer early on.

Consequently, some of those who paid a record-setting $150 per ticket got a little testy about finding – or sharing – lawn seats in the amphitheater, especially after waiting outside the gates for two hours or more in the searing sun. Indeed, some folks started lining up at noon for the opening show of the 30-concert series, which started nearly a half-hour late.

Others groused about the volume level, though with three world-class percussionists on stage – four if you count Santana’s drummer wife, Cindy Blackman, who came out midway through the show to “kick your ass,” as he put it – it’s understandable that an 11-piece rock band would crank its amps up to 11.

But once Santana popped the cork on his vibrant musical celebration – enhanced by the powerful vocals of charismatic singers Andy Vargas and Tony Lindsay – it’s tough to see how anyone could stay grumpy for long, especially during electrifying renditions of “Corazon espinado,” “Smooth,” “Soul Sacrifice” or “Boogie Woman.”

Indeed, there were more baby boomers standing throughout the venue to gyrate to the music midway through the concert than any Meijer Gardens show in recent memory.

“Look at the energy here. This is awesome,” fan Jim Miller of Grand Rapids told me, noting he first saw Santana perform live in 1974 and said it was worth paying $150 to see him again in the intimate setting of Meijer Gardens. “Nobody does it better.”

Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music