Carlos Santana - 6/30/10

With what has become an annual end-of-year tradition, I just sent a yearly text to my old friend B-Dog about the time we got to go backstage at a Santana concert.  Here is what I wrote this year:  “Another great year buddy.  Lots of good times, but still nothing will ever compare to the 2010 backstage party at Santana!  You know what they say…if you can remember a backstage Santana party then you weren’t there!”

 

Allow me to elaborate.  It was the night of June 30^th, 2010 when Carlos Santana was playing the opening night of his 2010 tour at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, MN.  Over the years I have seen Santana many times in various venues ranging from as small as the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco to as large as the outdoor Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee, but I have never been to a show of his that was that sparsely attended.  The Xcel Center is not as big as the Marcus Amphitheater, but at 18,000 seat capacity it is still pretty large and there was not even close to half that many people at the show.  I was not planning to go that night because tickets were expensive and I had seen him enough times, but about a month earlier they were running a one-day special selling lower-level tickets for $8!  Plus Steve Winwood was opening and I could not pass on that deal so I made a few phone calls to see who was all up for going, bought myself a ticket and made plans to go with B-Dog.

 

Our original seats were in the back corner of the lower level, but for the Steve Winwood opening set there were tons of empty seats so we moved over to the middle of the arena closer to the stage.  Steve put on a great show and I got to hear some of my favorites from his expansive musical history, including ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’ and ‘Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys’ before he closed with ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ and ‘Gimme Some Lovin’.  We had stopped our seat upgrading there thinking the seats would fill up for Santana.  But no there were still an unbelievable number of empty seats so for the Santana set we just waltzed right up to the section next to the stage, down to about the 10^th row and we had almost the entire row to ourselves for the rest of the night…it was awesome.

 

My friends Mitch Manson, Thor Ekblom, Ernie Haskell, Karl Rimer and Jenni Benton were all there, but I went with B-Dog and hung out with him for the night.  Mitch and Thor came together and they were a couple rows in front of us, but Thor was super drunk so Mitch came up to our seats a few times to get away from the mighty Thor.  It was a great show though and Carlos was on fire right from the opening song ‘(Da Le) Yaleo’ till he closed with the Chambers Brothers ‘Love, Peace and Happiness’ into ‘Freedom’.  I kind of felt the same way I do whenever I see one of the great icons of rock and roll…I had the feeling that I was seeing history and I had a few goose-bump moments.  That sense of nostalgia was especially strong when the backdrop screen would show images of a young Carlos Santana 40 years earlier in concert.  The current Carlos was onstage playing along with that 22 year old Carlos at Woodstock.  It was a fun show and to top it off B-Dog scored a pair of backstage passes during the show from two hot chicks he knew.  B-Dog is a downtown Minneapolis bartender and is well connected so I was not surprised, but I was ecstatic that I was going to get to party backstage with Carlos-freaking-Santana!  F*ck yeah!

 

I spent the remainder of the concert trying to think of what I would say to Carlos.  I figured I would play it cool, ask him about the upcoming album he had coming out, and I would name drop my friend Brandon Byers who knows Santana because he used to run his merchandise.  So after the show we waited down by the side of the stage for awhile...probably 15 of us with our passes.  Finally most of the arena had cleared out and the big-shot band-manager approached our group and gave us a speech about what to expect.  In addition to self-importance the guy was also obsessed with safety and he kept stressing for us to watch out for roadies loading out heavy equipment and to stick close to him and we would be okay.  Ok dude. 

So when he was finally done with his big speech he led us through a Spinal Tap-like maze of corridors and elevators and passageways until we eventually made it to a small conference room with a few empty tables and chairs.  The guy ushered us in, pointed to a huge floor-to-ceiling refrigerator with big glass doors and said:  "Come on in, relax, have a few drinks (points to the fridge), and the band will be here in a bit."  I greedily look over to the fridge ready to pounce on a nice cold beer, but all that was in there were 3 diet Cokes and a diet Pepsi.  What?  Is this a joke?  I had been to a few backstages in my life and this was nothing like I was used to.  No food, no real beverages, no nothing.  Ah well, at least we would get to meet Santana and his band.

 

We all stood there for about a half hour...staring at each other, making small talk, expectantly looking at the door whenever we heard a noise.  But nothing happened.  A couple of people came and went but no Santana or any band members.  It was starting to get embarrassing.  I told B-Dog we should just get the hell out of there, that I have to work in the morning.  But B-Dog stalled, and then decided to spark up a bowl...the whole place reeked like weed now.  People were leaving, including the two hot chicks who had slipped away unnoticed.  Finally one of the singers walked in.  We said hi and I talked World Cup soccer with him for a minute...bummer about Mexico's loss to Argentina, etc.  I offered him a toke from B-Dog’s pipe but he declined.  Then another singer walked in.  We said hi.  We offered him a toke.  No thanks.  Then some other dude came in who must have been with the band but I didn't recognize him.  He remarked that the sound onstage had sucked that night, further depressing us.

 

Then they quickly left and that was it.  B-Dog still didn't want to leave.  Dude, seriously.  We have been had…duped…made fools of.  Carlos Santana is never ever going to come into this room.  The two chicks that gave us our passes had long since left and were probably hanging out with Santana in the real backstage while we stand around like a couple of chumps in this horrible place.  Let’s just go before the manager guy comes back and throws us out.  I finally convinced him to leave, so then we went back to the bar down the street where we had met before the show.  We hooked up there with another friend who had gotten bored waiting for us and left the arena.  B-Dog ordered us all drinks and I eventually made it home around 1am not looking forward to the 5am wake-up for work.  It was still a great night though…we had perfect seats a few feet from the stage for $8 to see a couple of pioneers of 60’s rock and roll.  But:  worst...backstage...ever.