Santana – Live at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston Ontario – April 20th, 2016
“If your last December came
What would you do?
Will anybody remember
To remember you?
Did you stand tall?
Or did you fall?
Did you give your all?
Did you ever find a reason
Why you had to die?
Or did you just plan on leaving
Without wondering why?” – excerpt from ‘The Last December’ – Prince
Santana was the legendary musician that everyone was there to see. But another legendary musician was on everyone’s mind; Santana’s too. Earlier that day Prince Rogers Nelson, know around the world as Prince was found dead at his home. Every radio station was playing his music or talking about him while I drove to the arena. People waiting to get into the arena were talking about Prince. And thankfully Santana wanted to talk about him too. After a rousing intro set Carlos welcomed the audience and started speaking about the loss we were all feeling in the death of a great musician and encouraged us to remember Prince not with sadness but to remember and sing with joy. And with that he launched into a jubilant version of “Maria Maria”
Only a few songs later Santana asked for a lyric sheet and recited the verses posted above from Prince’s “The Last December”. With the band bathed in purple lights they played the song in it’s entirety which brought the crowd to their feet. And a few songs after, bassist Benny Rietveld played a solo rendition of “Purple Rain” and the crowd were on their feet again. Prince was a highly respected and admired musician and on this night the band was clearly paying tribute to him in order to process the loss they were feeling too. Fitting that Prince picked up Santana IV when he visited Minneapolis’ music shop Electric Fetus only a few days earlier on Record Store Day.
Santana fans that were there to enjoy his music had a great night. With a set highlighting his mainstream hits (Maria Maria, Smooth, Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman), deep cuts and inspired covers (The Zombie’s ‘She’s Not There’, Marvin Gaye’s ‘Right On’ and a great jam on John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’). Santana is obviously revered for this tremendous guitar playing but is a generous musician who gives all of the band time to shine (Not only is one of his singers a great singer but also a tremendous trombone player – not a combo you often come across).
On a night that started with sadness, Santana stuck to his word and remembered Prince by singing with joy. A tremendous impromptu memorial and a great night of Santana and his music.
We give this show a 1999 out of 6.