Santana

As with most concerts I attend, I manage my epectations as often times the event gets cancelled or postponed, or the tickets are just too expensive or sold out! Whatever the case I have a greater appreciation for the opportunity to see a live artist once it happens.

As my wife travels a great deal for her work, I often get the opportunity to tag along on some of these trips; and during the Fall of 2023 was another one of these trips, a Conference in Las Vegas, NV. As we planned our trip, it was in the back of my mind that I would like to catch some live music, however not knowing my wife's schdule ahead of time I didn't want to pre-purchase tickets only to find out that the date and time conflicted with our schedules.

So upon arriving in Las Vegas I started to look into who was playing while I was here; as this was also leading up the Formula 1 - Las Vegas Grand Prix, there were fewer musical performances scheduled and a number of the hotels and venues were at capacity leading up to race day. I could pick from Rod Stewart, Keith Urban and of course Wayne Newton, but never did I think that I would score a ticket for Carlos Santa along with his band Santana, but I did.

The concert was held at the legendary House of Blues, in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino; and happend to be the last night during this leg of is Vegas Residency. With a capacity of only 2,000 this was going to be a very intimate show.

Of course once the band took the stage they wasted no time in breaking into classics like Oye Como Va, and Black Magic Women and even a few covers like Evil Ways and Love, Peace & Happiness. With about ten members in the band, the stage was alive with guitars, tamborines, maraca's, keyboards and three drummers (incuding the bongos). With the vocals being shared between Andy Vargas, Ray Greene and of course Carlos. As the night went on we heard a lively rendition of Maria, Maria and he finished the night off with Smooth, the collaboration he did with Rob Thomas back in 1999 off the Supernatural album.

With a packed venue the band had the crowd on thier feet singing along in no time. But one of the coolest things about this concert was that Carlos' son Salvador Santana was his keyboardist and his wife Cindy Blackman Santana was one of the drummers.

Salvador even helped out with vocals on Put Your Lights On (the Everlast collaboration), and brought his own unique keyboard sound to the show. With a sucessful solo career on his own, it was pretty cool to see Salvador collaborate with his father at this show. No two shows ever seem to be the same, so you never know what you might see.

And Cindy Blackman is hands down one of the best drummers I have every seen; the whole time she was full of energy and absolutely smashed the drum kit. And I know what you may be thinking, I have heard of her before! Yes she was the iconic drummer from the Lenny Kravitz video for Are You Gonna Go My Way, from 1993, too cool!

Well that certainly knocks off an artist from the bucket list, with no expectations of seeing a live show while in Vegas, to watching a ten time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Woodstock performer, what a great experience this was.

So next time you are in the mood for some live music, you never know who might be playing in your area, grab those tickets and enjoy the show! So thank you for following along on another one of our adventures and who knows, maybe some day I will see you in the audience!

Brian Moore is an independent travel blogger, who lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife and three daughters. Thank you for following us as we share Moore Adventures.