Tonight was a great night to sit back, relax and listen to one of the word’s most prophetic and spiritual song writer/musicians. I can never see or listen to Carlos Santana enough. His guitar is simply mesmerizing and his music has such a great latin percussion packed vibe that you can’t help but move…Ryan was even tapping his feet, which for him at any show means he is really enjoying it. Most of the audience (50+ age group) were out of their seats and doing what could only be described as “hippie dancing” with arms flailing eyes closed looking to the sky and swaying from side to side. What a sight to see so many folks reliving their younger days (including me, without the flaying arms).

They played tons of classic Santana including Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen followed by Oye Como Va, Evil Ways. They also played Hope You’re Feeling Better, Maria Maria, Batuka / No One to Depend On and Smooth. They even played a great cover the Champs song Tequila and a birthday salute to Jerry Garcia. One of my all time favorite songs is Europa (Earth’s Cry, Heaven’s Smile) which is a bit of an obscure song, but he does seem to play it at all the shows I have see over the years. It is a long and powerful instrumental which is one of those songs which makes you feel like closing your eyes and just floating away through space.

What another great show by Santana…I hope he never stops touring.

Another show at the Joint in Las Vegas this weekend, this time solo. A little lonely not having Toni or one of the kids joining me, but neither of the bands were top of their must see lists, however for me having both Boston and Cheap Trick on the same bill is a double header flash-back 70’s experience.

Boston and Cheap Trick co-headline (at least I feel they did) putting on a couple of absolutely awesome shows. Cheap Trick came on right on time at 8:00 and played an incredible set including the big hits such as Surrender, I Want You to Want Me, Ain’t That a Shame and Surrender, but they also played some somewhat rare songs like Big Eyes and Need Your Love and then my all time favorite California Man. This is probably the fourth time I have seen Cheap Trick over the years, starting with a huge festival in LA where they headlined with Journey back in 1980. Most recently, we had seen them open up for Areosmith in 2012. They always put on a great show, and this time I was sitting up in front of the stage (not the side with Rick Nielsen, but bassist Tom Petersson’s side) and was able to get a real up close experience actually having Rick Nielsen toss one of his guitar picks at me which was super special until he proceeded to throw a whole handful in the audience a few songs later…but mine was personally tossed at me :).

Boston came on about 9:15 or so, opening up Rock & Roll Band going into Smokin’ and then Feelin’ Satisfied…Great opening with awesome songs from their first two albums. I have never seen Boston before and was a little apprehensive and didn’t know what to expect with a new lead singer due to their original lead singer Brad Delp‘s untimely death in 2007. Boston has been one of my favorite bands since their debut album in 1976,. This album being the very first cassette tape I ever purchased…I still have that cassette and actually still occasionally play it on my retro car cassette stereo during those sunny summer days when I want to escape back to simple times. My apprehension was not realized when they started playing and sounded absolutely great. Tom Scholz of course played all those old iconic guitar and organ sounds which defined Boston. The band was great, with the lead singer being very close to Brad Delp‘s sound, but with a little modern twist. The only part of the show I wasn’t entirely sold on was when they had Siobhan Magnus from season nine of American Idol come out and sign to Walk On. She has a great voice and tore it up, but come-on, singing a Boston song? They played until a little after 11:00, which ended up being over a two hour set including a the song Party as their encore.

It was a great double bill and now I have seen Boston and can mark them off my list of must see bands.

Back at the White River Amphitheater after spending all day at the Van’s Warped Tour the day before…this time to see some good old 70’s and 80’s classic arena rock and the songs Toni and I know the words to.

The show started with a warm-up band who seemed a little heavy for the crowd which were filling the stands, although not for us of course. They were called Kobra and the Lotus, a Canadian band fronted by a female lead singer who could really belt out the vocals. They were very heavy and played one of the most original versions of Barracuda by Heart that I have ever heard, putting an extremely heavy metal spin on it, which worked surprisingly well. Nicki really liked them and went to go meet them after their set. (see a few picture of them below)

Def Leppard came on first, and performed in some real bright sunny weather, after a torrential downpour had just cleared…typical for this time of year in Seattle. They started out with phenomenal finish to the classic Who song Won’t Get Fooled Again which was playing in the background before the show and then immediately broken into one of their great older hits Let it Go. As always, they put on an absolutely great show playing songs spanning their career with a few very nice acoustic pieces, one of which was Bringin’ on the Heartbreak which they transitioned to electric mid-way through…awesome!. They closed the show with a two song encore of Rock of Ages and Photograph. Great to see these guys live again – one of Toni’s all time favorite bands for sure.

KISS came on a little after 9:30pm, and as usual, put on their typical, magnificently pyrotechnic, electrifying stage show complete with Gene spitting fire, Paul flying through the air to a small stage in the center of the amphitheater during the song Love Gun, Eric and his drum set raising up into the air on a scissor stage and all along with fireworks, fire bombs and air cannons going off all around the stage…they never cease to amaze me on the amount of excitement they can pack into an hour and a half. This show was a bit different as I think they played a lot of songs which they don’t typically (or at least not when I have seen them in the past) play like War Machine, Christine Sixteen and Hide Your Heart. Then of course they played the classic favorites Let Me Go Rock N’ Roll, I Love it Loud, Shout it Out Loud and Black Diamond. They finished the night with Detroit Rock City and with an enormous display of confetti cannons, fireworks and raised stages while performing Rock and Roll All Nite.

It was a great end of the weekend show although I think the previous day at Warped, Ryan and Nicki got pretty wiped out as they didn’t stand up much during the show, but they enjoyed the music.

Shots of Kobra and the Lotus