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Santana Rocks Las Vegas Show With Original Band Just Like It Was Woodstock [Videos]

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 00:54 PST, Mar 23, 2016

Santana gave a concert at the Las Vegas House of Blues Monday night and the show was sold out, as the stage was filled with the original members of Santana from back in the Woodstock era. They had not shared a stage for the last 43 years.

As reported by Best Classic Bands, you can’t keep the older musicians down, as Carlos Santana, now 68, was up on stage at House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, doing guitar and vocals on Monday night. With Santana were members of the original band who haven’t been publicly seen playing together since 1973.

Those veteran band members included Gregg Rolie, 68, on keyboard and lead vocals, Neal Schon, 62, on guitar and vocals, Michael Carabello, 68, on percussion and Michael Schrieve, 66 on the drums.

Have a look at the original band members back in the day in the tweet included below.

Of the veteran group, only Schon was not on the stage during the 1969 Woodstock event, a performance that pushed the band into super-stardom. Schon reportedly only joined the band afterwards at the age of 15 for the final Santana III album, after which Schon and Rolie split from Santana and started the band Journey.

According to KHOU.com, just one hour into the Santana concert, legendary guitarist and vocalist Carlos Santana teased his fans with a smile, saying, “If you have any mescaline or LSD, this is a good time to take it.”

While the audience roared in approval, apparently they didn’t need any hallucinogens to enjoy the historic show, which will result in a 16-song album, Santana IV, due out on April 15.

The veteran band members were joined in the studio for the new album by current Santana members Karl Perazzo (percussion) and Benny Rietveld (bass), with original Isley Brothers vocalist Ronald Isley guesting on two cuts.

At the show, the classic Santana group played everything from “Soul Sacrifice” to the Woodstock classic “Evil Ways.”

You can see the original version of the instrumental and drum classic “Soul Sacrifice” taken at Woodstock in 1969 in the video below. At that time, Shrieve was a mere 20-years-old. Well, let’s face it, everyone was much younger back then.

After playing “Evil Ways,” Carlos Santana introduced Schon, giving him credit for the whole idea of the Santana reunion, saying, “Here’s the person responsible for the madness, the orchestra-tor of this insanity, my younger brother and an incredible guitar player.”

Enjoy Monday night’s Santana performance of “Evil Ways” in the video included below.

The reunited Santana went on to play songs from the new, upcoming album, as well as other classics, including “Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen” and “Oye Como Va.” Those classics had everyone, young and old, rocking to the beat.

Reportedly, after that, legendary musician Ronald Isley was onstage for the two rousing songs, “Love Makes the World Go Round” and Freedom in Your Mind.”

For those fans who enjoy Santana, along with that other classic band, Journey, Best Classic Bands has released the dates of their joint tour in 2016 as follows.

Santana and Journey 2016 Dates:
April 13 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
April 15 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun
April 16 – Allentown, PA – PPL Center
Sept 04 – San Francisco, CA – AT&T Park

Santana House of Blues 2016 Dates:
May 18, 20-22, 25, 27-29
Sept 14, 16-18, 21, 23-25
Nov 2, 4-6, 9, 11-13

Santana North American 2016 Dates: April 5-23
Santana U.K., European 2016 Dates: July 3-30

[Photo by Frank Micelotta/Getty Images]

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