Santana and Counting Crows Rock The Toyota Center

On Saturday, August 17th, American rock band from San Fransisco and Woodstock legend Santana put on a night to remember at the Toyota Center, with Counting Crows, another incredibly talented San Franciscan band, opening the night.

Counting Crows opened the night with one of their best hits, “Mr. Jones”  and the crowd loved every minute of this set, some even jumping to their feet as the set continued. The band took us down a road from the 90s as they played some other songs from their now classic debut album, August and Everything After including “Round Here” and  “Rain King“. During the set, lead singer Adam Duritz shared that he actually went to school at Elrod Elementary here in Houston when he was a kid, and how he “fucking hated it”.

The stadium was overflowing with anticipation for Santana as a video played on giant screens above the stage, showing people sliding through mud from Woodstock (1969). The crowd exploded as Santana came out onstage wearing an orange jumpsuit and iconic fedora hat. The band played several of their classic rock hits including “Evil Ways” and “Black Magic Woman” which got huge crowd reactions. Carlos Santana stayed seated for most of the performance due to chronic sciatic back pain but continued to shred the guitar.

I see a collective graduation of humanity away from being like donkeys and monkeys to sentient angelic beings.

Carlos Santana

There were several solos throughout the night from most of the band including bass player, Benny Rietveld, and percussionist Cindy Blackman Santana, wife of Carlos Santana. The setlist was a mix of the band’s greatest hits from their whole discography including the 1999 comeback album, Supernatural. Santana also sprinkled in some improvised guitar solos, including “Deep In The Heart Of Texas” and “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”

Ge your tickets for Santana’s tour now!