 Santana
 Live At The US Festival DVD
 Review by Gary Hill

Carlos Santana is without question a legendary performer. This was a concert that lived up to that level of musicianship. Recorded in 1982. Mr. Santana and his band tear through both newer and classic songs and really do it in style. Herbie Hancock even joins them onstage at one point. Both sound and video are very good. Sure, they aren’t up to modern standards, but they are still excellent. I do have a complaint, though. You can’t watch the whole concert straight through. There are commentary clips from Santana in between tracks along with title cards. While those clips are interesting, they interrupt the flow of the concert experience. I wish they gave an option to play it without them. There are also some short interview clips included as bonus features. I wish they had put the rest of the clips there. Of course, the annoying part of that is that you have play each clip one at a time. There is no option to run them consecutively without doing it manually. Still, all of that amounts to minor quibbles on something this strong.
This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2025 Volume 1. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2025.
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