Santana fills up CMAC during the heart of summer, A+

Above: Carlos Santana Performs at CMAC on Saturday, August 15

Long traffic lines and intense summer heat were no match for Santana this past weekend @ CMAC. The legendary guitar player awed the sold out crowd infront of him, showing how lucky everyone was in attendance to be able to view such a legend in concert.
Busting down a two hour set, Santana graced the stage around 8PM this past Saturday at CMAC. It was hot, a usual mid to late summer day for Upstate NY. However, the sky was clear and despite the heat it was a great evening for a concert. The crowd was extremely excited to see the legendary guitar player come to Upstate NY after a previous sold out show at the Turning Stone Casino earlier during the year. Santana seemed to feel out the area well as he opened up with a Woodstock intro, sending the fans back in time.
It was simply wonderful to be able to see someone like Santana do what he does best live in concert. He can play guitar like no other. Even though most of the concert was in Spanish, it was awe strikingly powerful just the same.
Although most of the crowd were past there forties and fifties, there were many first time Santana goers in the attendance. "This is my first time seeing him," proclaimed concert goer Ashley Lowe from Rochester, NY. "But I've been listening to him for 30 years."
It was a welcome surprise to see Carlos bring out his son and his son's group during his set. They performed for a good three or four songs, showing everyone that talent indeed runs in the family. Although the rap influence was high during Salvador Santana's part of the concert, it was an interesting mix to the concert over all.
Up front, Santana had two younger gentlemen singing for him and pumping up the crowd.
They did decent jobs singing 'Black Magic Woman' and 'Smooth' as well, letting the crowd sing along with them.
Santana was by far CMAC's best concert of the year so far. Despite it being mostly an older crowd, they were still some energetic dancers out on the scene. The concert was well worth the trip to be able to claim to see one of the Rolling Stone Magazine's best guitar players of all time in person and in concert at a beautiful venue here in Upstate NY.

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Setlist Santana @ CMAC, Saturday August 15, 2015:

Woodstock Intro

1) Soul Sacrifice

2) Saideria (Skank cover)

3) Love Makes the World go Round (Deon Jackson cover)

4) Freedom in Your Mind

5) Maria Maria

6) Foo Foo

7) Tequila (Champs cover)

8) Europa 

9) Summer's Day (Salvador Santana entrance)

10) Rise up

11) Fantasy Reality (Salvador Santana exit)

12) Corazon espinado 

13) Jin Go Lo Ba

14) Blue Train

15) Chill Out 

16) Smooth

Encore:

17) Black Magic Woman

18) Oye Coma Va

19) Toussant L'Overture

All Photo Credit to Rachel Van Slyke!