Santana- Live in Australia in the 70's

Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for sound quality
Review: Santana - Down Under: Live At Hordern Pavillion, Sydney, October 1979 (Marathon Rock Tour). On a technical note, the sound is DD 5.1 and sounds fantastic, video quality = 7/10. The performances are brilliant, including Carmine Appice in a guest spot on Evil Ways. This DVD is available in Region 4 (Australia), has a much better cover, comes with a miniature collectible tour booklet (which even features support act Eddie Money) and will be much cheaper than the above price for Americans to buy as the Aussie dollar is weak in comparison. Amazon should look into providing this version as usually they do provide the best releases.


Rating:
Summary: Santana rules!!!
Review: Well - I just received this DVD the other day..and was very excited to check it out. This is Santana recorded live in 1977 on the Marathon tour. First off...let me say this...I love Santana, and I don't think there is a better live performer out there today, or in even in years past,... so getting a chance to see an early performace by him is a treat. Now - my review...The sound on this DVD is good (nothing special), and the song selection is excellent. I only wish it was the entire concert and not just 50 minutes of Carlos (why do they do that??). Not sure why they only have part of this concert....but I'll take what I can get. I think if your looking for a good full show of Carlos...you may want to check out Sacred Fire...which is newer and has more of the newer songs (pre Supernatural)...but is still very good. Perhaps one day they will release some great mid 70's DVD concert of Carlos...the full show!! Here are a few things to be aware of on this DVD....first off...the concert footage is old..as in 1977 they had no idea this was going to be sold in 2004. I can live with that, and I can live with the poor lighting on the stage...why...because it's Carlos. Also - one song that they list on the box is "Persuasion"..which is not correct..it is "Europa" ( somebody who put this DVD together is not a true fan to make this mistake)...so I was a little disappointed at that. Also - one of the features on the DVD is a list of all of the Santana CD's....but I found it was missing several CD's from his collection (too many to note)...so this is not a definitive overview of all of his work...there is much more out there. True Santana fans will know immediately.

So, if your looking for your Santana fix, this is OK. I paid $15 bucks for it a week ago, but as I write this review it has gone up to $24!!!! - so...it's really for the hardcore fans only. A casual fan is better to buy Sacred Fire. I'm just hoping that somebody has an archive of live concert footage from him that they can release sometime down the road. It's a shame that such a tremendous talent like Carlos has so few selections (DVD's) to choose from. Somebody hear my plea!!!!