Santana

Despite the heat wave, the Molson Center was quite the cool place to be last night for Santana’s two and a half hour concert. There is nothing like Carlos Santana live, whether some believe his style has become predictable and less spiritual than in the past, there is no denying that Santana and his 10 piece band are still worth the price of admission. Time has been kind to Santana; the 55 year old guitar virtuoso rocked the Molson Center in front of 7,500 adoring fans. Fans young and old have always appreciated Santana’s annual summer visits to Montreal and last night was no exception. Santana played an assortment of newer songs from his upcoming album “Shaman” (out Oct.22) and from his previous multi platinum album “Supernatural”. The newer songs included Smooth, Aye Aye Aye, Foo Foo, Maria Maria and Lighters filled the air as the band played Put Your Lights o­n. Then startled fans watched as Carlos summoned Martina Navratilova o­n stage and presented her with a bouquet of flowers. Announcing, ” I’ve really admired and adored her beauty, excellence, grace and dignity for a long time.” We were then treated to a few instrumental songs highlighted by Carlos performing his usual dazzling leads. All of his musicians performed solos and each was appreciated with standing ovations. Now it was time for a medley of his old stuff and that got just about everyone up from their seats to dance and listen to Carlos wailing away. The golden oldies included Jingo, Oya Como Va and Black Magic Woman. Except for a few power hungry security guards hampering fans from trying to dance, it was quite a perfect evening.