Santana IV – Live at the House of Blues Las Vegas

In March 2016, a few weeks before the release of the Santana IV album, the classic lineup of Santana played a reunion show at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. The show featured songs from the new album as well as songs from their first three albums.  Now that show is being released on DVD and BluRay.  For this review we’ve looked at the DVD/2CD version.

Santana are one of those legendary acts with a very long and well deserved career with a very distinctive sound featuring a blend of rock, jazz, blues, Latin and African music.  With this show they’ve stuck to the early material (plus the new album), giving the set an early 70s feel.  For the show, the lineup was Carlos Santana, Neal Schon, Gregg Rolie, Michael Shrieve, Michael Carabello, Karl Perazzo, Benny Rietveld, and special guest Ronald Isley.

Wow, what can I say other than this is sheer musical perfection.  A collection of top class musicians who are loving every second of it as they play some amazing music together.  At a time when most bands consider a 90 minute set to be enough, it’s great to see a band like Santana playing for well over two hours. It’s one of those DVD’s where anyone who hasn’t experienced Santana live who watches the DVD will soon be wanting to go to a Santana concert as it really does showcase the band’s talent.

This is a great release – the fact it’s a DVD/2CD is perfect as when you’ve got a couple of hours to spare you can watch the DVD and get the full live experience, but when you can’t sit in front of the TV you can still enjoy the CDs.

A fantastic live release from a true legend of music.

“Santana IV – Live at the House of Blues Las Vegas” is out now from Eagle ROck Entertainment.

Track listing:

DVD:

1. Soul sacrifice
2. Jingo
3. Evil ways
4. Everybody’s everything
5. Shake it
6. Anywhere you want to go
7. Medley: Choo choo / All aboard
8. Samba Pa Ti
9. Medley: Batuka / No one to depend on
10. Leave me alone
11. Suefio
12. Caminando
13. Medley: Blues magic / Echizo
14. Come as you are
15. Yambu
16. Medley: Black magic woman / Gypsy queen / Third stone from the sun
17. Medley: Love makes the world go round / Shout / Them changes (featuring Ronald Isley)
18. Freedom in your mind
19. Toussaint L’Overture

CD1:

1. Soul sacrifice
2. Jingo
3. Evil ways
4. Everybody’s everything
5. Shake it
6. Anywhere you want to go
7. Choo choo
8. All aboard
9. Samba Pa Ti
10. Batuka
11. No one to depend on
12. Leave me alone
13. Suenos

CD2:

1. Caminando
2. Blues magic
3. Echizo
4. Come as you are
5. Yambu
6. Black magic woman / Gypsy queen
7. Oye Comova
8. Ronald Isley intro
9. Love makes the world go round
10. Freedom in your mind
11. Toussaint L’Overture