Santana - Supernatural Live
Performance 
Production
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Santana - Supernatural Live
Performance |
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I remember it like it was yesterday, because it was one of the highlights of my high school years. My older brother had decided it was time I had experienced my first concert. The year was 1982, I was sixteen years old, and the concert would be Santana. Back then, I had barely heard of Santana, only because my brother practically worshipped him, and I was not particularly a fan of that style of music. At sixteen years old, I was more into the likes of Aerosmith, Van Halen, and AC/DC. Well, that night, when the lights went down and Santana took the stage, I became born-again. The concert I saw was in support of Santana's Zebop album, which is still one of my favorites, although mostly panned by the critics. Since then, I have seen Santana in concert three more times including the tour in support of the Supernatural album. The twenty-plus million selling, multi-Grammy winning Supernatural album took Santana's popularity to a whole new level. Ever since Santana's phenomenal, acid-induced, show-stealing performance at Woodstock, back in 1969, when he was still a teenager, he has always maintained a cult following of guitar enthusiasts, and fans of his unique, percussion-heavy, Latin-flavored, guitar-rock style. Santana has had a few minor hit songs, and his albums have sold reasonably well, but his live concerts are where the magic happens. Santana fans used to be a sort of fraternity for those of us who "get it". A Santana concert has the atmosphere of a spiritual revival - you cannot help but get emotionally uplifted and want to dance with excitement. Nobody sits during a Santana concert. From the first note, until the final "goodnight" following the third encore, the entire crowd will be dancing in the aisles. The success of Supernatural has brought Santana more into the mainstream and has introduced his music to a new generation of fans. Santana deserves all of these newfound accolades, and I urge these new fans to check out his impressive back catalog of albums covering 35 years of superb rock, blues, jazz, and fusion music. The Supernatural Live DVD is a excellent extension of the Supernatural album. This concert, recorded in early 2000, at the Pasadena (California) Civil Auditorium, features the always impressive Santana band along with several of the popular musicians who collaborated on the album. About half of the songs performed are from the Supernatural album, and the other half are Santana standards or other artist's songs. There were a few notable exclusions from the album, most notably the Grammy award winning "El Farol", and "The Calling". There were also a couple of songs that should have been left out of this show. Sarah McLachlan playing her beautiful piano ballad "Angel" didn't particularly fit the mood of the show. Carlos only added some insignificant Spanish guitar to the mix. Lauren Hill, Cee-Lo and the dreadful "Do You Like The Way" made me hit the skip button faster than you can say "hip-hop sucks". That song and the no-talent Miss Hill should never have tarnished the album in the first place. But hey, all of the rap loving, no-taste, music critics out there think she is a genius. A genius at hip-hop maybe! Now isn't that a contradiction in terms. The big hit "Maria Maria" was almost ruined by the constant YEEAH's, AHA's, and YO YO YO's spouted out by The Product G&B between their actual singing, which is pretty good. Excuse my disdain for the rap crap polluting this otherwise good Santana music. Fortunately the rest of the performances were all fantastic. None of the big stars came to steal the show, but appeared to be getting off from jamming with Santana. Dave Mathews sang "Love Of My Life" beautifully, and Carlos added some gentle and melodic guitar. Everlast gave an earnest performance of "Put Your Lights On", and Rob Thomas nearly stole the show as he drove the audience wild with his energetic performance of "Smooth". The Santana band songs were all outstanding, as well. The concert opened with the dynamic, horn-driven jam "(Da Le) Yaleo", where Carlos immediately left no doubt that he is THE MAN on the six string. The four piece horn section featured in this concert were tremendous. Carlos has always worked with incredible musicians in the past, including Greg Rollie, Micheal Shreave, and Tom Coster to name a few, and this tour was no different. His percussion section, still the finest in rock and roll, features Raul Rekow on the congas, and Karl Perazzo on the timbales. They are an integral part of the famous Santana, Latin-rock sound. When I saw the Supernatural tour live, I remember thinking who in the hell is this incredible young bassist Carlos has got. Benny Rietveld is a dynamic bass player, who along with the fantastic Rodney Holmes on drums, anchors one of the finest rhythm sections in rock. Unfortunately the bass was a little low in the mix, and the cameras rarely focused on Rietveld, so you will not get a good sense of his energy and virtuosity. The show ended with the concert staples "Gypsy Queen" and "Oye Como Va". These were not the best versions I have ever heard, as they seemed to be missing some of their usual passion and fire. Get the Sacred Fire - Live In Mexico video to see Santana at their best playing these classics. I only have the VHS version of this video, but I will review it once I get the DVD. All of the guest musicians, except Lauren Hill, joined the band for an encore medley of "Make Somebody Happy" and "Right On Be Free". This was OK, but it made me miss the song's original vocalist Alex Lingertwood, who is my all-time favorite Santana singer. The production of this DVD was spectacular. The video quality was possibly the best I have seen for a DVD concert. Santana's stage shows are by far the most colorful you will ever see, and the brilliant colors were presented flawlessly. The picture was as clear and sharp as you can get. Sweeping, craned camera shots provided an excellent view of the entire stage, as well as masterful close-ups. On a few songs, Santana's guitar had a mini camera attached to the top, which provided a unique close-up view of his phenomenal fingerwork. DTS and Dolby 5.1 mixes were provided and they both sounded excellent. There were insignificant differences between the two mixes. On my system the center speaker was a little too dominant in the mixes, and as I mentioned previously the bass was mixed a little too low. The rear speakers were used affectively to project the percussion and horns, as well as the audience sounds. This DVD also includes the videos for "Smooth", "Maria Maria", "Put Your Lights On", and "Corazon Espinado". New Santana fans should be thoroughly satisfied with this concert, as the focus was primarily on the Supernatural songs, but longtime fans would be much more satisfied watching the Sacred Fire video, which is a truer representation of a the Santana concert experience. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - July 2004 |
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Running Time: 88 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - September 2000 |