HIDALGO – One note was all it took. The crowd was on its feet as soon as Carlos Santana touched his guitar Tuesday night at Dodge Arena.
Rio Grande Valley music fans have seen big-ticket acts take this stage before – Enrique Iglesias and Chris Brown played Dodge this year alone — but Tuesday they were in the presence of a guitar god. It was worship time in Hidalgo. Fans bowed at the stage and reached for the air throughout Santana's tight two-hour-plus set.
There's a reason Santana's fan base has only grown for the past twenty years: The man can play, but he's also a team player. Almost every driving electric guitar solo had its keyboard, horn or percussion counterpart Tuesday night. Santana is the man, but this was also a showcase for his talented ten-piece band. Featuring three percussionists and two headline-worthy vocalists, Tony Lindsay and Andy Vargas, the band moved effortlessly from bouncy blues rock to psychedelic jams to fiery Latin rock anthems like "Maria Maria" and "Oye Como Va."
The crowd, and the band it seemed, favored the percussion-heavy Latin cuts, and Santana provided enough freestyle axe work to keep the more familiar tracks exciting.
Clothed in a white shirt and pants, giant shades and a straw fedora, the 61-year-old rock icon took a moment to deliver a spoken message of peace, love and spirituality. "I bring the spiritual virus," he said in hopes of passing on his personal buzz to the fans.
Pleasing the crowd at every turn, Santana mixed newer tracks with classic back catalog cuts, including "No One to Depend On" and an extended version of "Black Magic Woman."
Santana's talented son, Salvador Santana, opened the show fronting his lively genre-mash-up outfit, Salvador Santana Band. The next generation of Santana offered an inspired mix of blues, rock, Latin jazz and hip-hop. The set was a fine precursor to the unforgettable main attraction.
