- Taylor Mauch
- Do ya think this is sexy?
There are two reasons I went to see Rod Stewart at Allstate Arena on Saturday. The first is that between 1967 and 1973 Stewart’s output rivaled any major pop artist of the last 50 years, including: two acid-blues albums with the earliest incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group; four albums with the Faces, the famous, shambling folk-blues-rock band he was in with Ron Wood, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones; and four more solo albums that were basically Faces albums released under Stewart’s name—one of those albums, 1971’s Every Picture Tells a Story, is just about perfect.
Santana’s set was 90 minutes long, which means it was at least an hour too long. While he played everything from “Evil Ways” to a not-bad rendition of John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” most of the show consisted of generic noodling and filler that didn’t need to be there. Like Santana’s black short-sleeved button-up shirt and black pants, the set was too loose. Personally, my favorite part of the whole performance was when Santana brought out his wife to do an impressive drum solo. My least favorite part was when they encored with “Smooth,” because no one needs to hear that song ever again.
Guy behind me: You wanna go outside?!
