Black magic men

CONCERTREVIEW

Perhaps we should make this an annual rite: Carlos Santana in Bangkok, unleashing black magic men and women with his voodoo thunderbolts, eliciting a mass worship to his rhythmic hellfire while the man himself, as projected on the screens in psychedelic alterations, assumes the multi-limbed avatars of developing-world deities. Ganesh? Jah? Ohm? Quetzalcoatl?

It's scripted that the show on Wednesday night opened with the image of the universe. But what's that one "verse" in the "uni"verse? Is it "god" or "guitar god?" Maybe simpler: "music". Make it a duo-verse: "live music".

The last time Santana was here was Mar 1, 2011, and that set was pretty similar to the one two nights ago. Same old, same old? Maybe, but his fans _ they packed Impact Arena _ could never get enough of Black Magic Woman in a melodic coitus with Oye Como Va, and understandably so.

This is Santana's fifth visit to the capital in 20 years (I saw four of them) and the musical intensity has never flagged from the now 65-year-old guitarist and the band that shares his name.

The night was a frenzy of jam numbers, screeching solos, sonic merriment, tribal drumbeats and post-Supernatural hits that got the spectators, who needed little cajoling, on their nimble feet.

At times the music gets a little too predictable. But the great redemptive power is that Santana is such a sincere, high-spirited, and hard-working lot that truly believes in their magic, and that's something we've felt in every gig. Live music, they assure us, lives.

So here comes the bonus. What's exceptional, or curious, about this particular Santana performance was the presence of the Thai rock band Carabao as the opening act. This seems like a natural pairing, if somewhat ambitious on the Thai part, as Carabao's's frontman Add (see side story) admits himself that their third-world brand of sam cha rhythm born after the turbulent political decades of the 1970s has its DNA in Santana's Latin riffs _ the tropical sweat of streetwise music. Though to dispel lingering doubt, the usually whisky-lubricated sam cha, or "three cha", is nowhere near the sensual elegance of the Central Ameircan cha-cha-cha, as was amply evident that night.

I thought Carabao would play just a few songs to rev up the crowd. But they went on for more than 50 minutes, singing a catalogue of their hits and almost overstaying their welcome. Now I'm a long-time fan; I once paid 50 baht for a ticket to see them in a neighbourhood pub, back in the 1990s, and I have watched their rise from working-class heroes to white-collar peddlers of nostalgia with admiration and interest.

On Wednesday night, I thought Add Carabao was kidding when he announced he'd play a 20-song medley of sam cha _ just like I thought he was kidding when he said he'd launch the energy drink that's now making him a fortune _ but no, it was a pretty long overture, and while I always like hearing them live, my ears were half-exhausted when they left the stage for Carlos.

Everybody was expecting a jam. And finally it came when Santana invited three Carabao frontmen _ Add, Lek and Thierry _ for a "share" session. It was quite memorable. They played Bob Marley's Exodus, with Add meekly stepping to the microphone to sing that one verse, "Exodus! Movement of Jah people!". Excited and bemused by Carlos's generosity, Add finally said to the cheering crowd: "I don't know what to sing, I've never sung his song before, but I'm having a great time!" Well, so did we.

Carabao's guitarist Lek had a few rounds of high-octave duel with Carlos _ that's how guitarists of the world have a conversation. But in all, it was interesting to see the three Carabaos looking like proud and bewildered schoolboys in the presence of a kind headmaster, checking their homework.

The running joke among friends before the gig (even Add made that joke!) was that if a brawl broke out while Carabao were playing _ which sometimes happens _ the show would be cancelled and we wouldn't get to see Santana. But seeing Add and Lek looking quite tame in the aura of Carlos, we wonder if this is really the Thai band known to have sparked hot-blooded fights.

It's fitting that after Carabao left the stage and Santana moved on, he ended the show with the perennial hit Smooth. Exhilarating, fire-breathing, non-stop primal screeching _ it's everything and yet what Santana has proved again is that, most of all, he's the smoothest operator still content to operate. It's music, and thus no brawl.

Share this article

0

0

• Republishing permission


• Print this

About the author

Writer: Kong Rithdee
Position: Deputy Life Editor

Bangkok Post online classifieds

Try buying selling goods and properties 24/7 in our classifieds which has high purchasing power local expatriate audience from within Thailand and around the world.

Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2013/03/08/black-magic-men/