Live: Santana returns to Indy with rescheduled show

After his collapse on stage in Mich., guitar legend Carlos Santana returned to Noblesville, Ind. for his postponed show, which was due to the collapse. Fans seemed to be just fine with the wait and packed the venue and lawn, despite a threat of storms coming. Santana and his ensemble, led by his wife and drummer, Cindy set the vibe for the evening by opening with the rhythmic favorite “Soul Sacrifice.” Keeping his energy up and fans out of their seats, Santana effortlessly flipped through the cover of Babatonde Oratungi\’s “Jin-go-lo-ba,” taking time between his pieces to help on the maracas, while Ray Green took control of the singing. After upping the tempo with fan-favorite “Evil Ways” and mixing it into “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Coma Va,” Santana then slowed it down to have a bit of fun, singing “Happy Birthday” to one of his roadies, Mike, with the help of the crowd. As the show went on, the guitar legend played a new song “Move.” Santana and company closed out the main set with another top 40 smash, “Maria,Maria” and “Foo Foo” and, after the band left the stage, the only one left was his wife, Cindy, who proceeded to play an incredible drum solo for quite a long time and the fans were with it the entire time. Santana returned to the stage and talked a bit to the crowd, praising his wife and how it takes dedication, determination, discipline and most importantly diet, for which he joked, “without diet, doing it would make you pass the fuck out,” poking fun at the reason he had to reschedule. He then played four more songs for the encore which included the fan favorite, “Smooth.” For anyone seeing Santana live, or had always been a bucket list item, loved the show and was amazed to see just how great he is at bending and manipulating the strings to get that amazing Latin sound out of the guitar. Santana never seemed bigger on stage than anyone else in his band and shared that stage with every member, interacting with all of them; he was there to bring people together and help them enjoy life. In a moment talking to the crowd, Santana stated “politics don’t matter, we are so divided in this world, except for right here and right now. We are all one, experiencing something that brings us joy, and he couldn’t be more correct. -Brian Cranfill