Playlist

Carlos Santana was acting omnivorous Wednesday night at Superpages.Com Center. He tackled a little bit of everything - from snippets of Hendrix, the Stones and Sheila E. to a cover of "Funky Nassau" by one-hit-wonders The Beginning of the End.
Oh yeah, and there were of Santana classics, too. Lots of them. The guitar legend and his furious nine-man band jammed for two and a half hours straight and played everything from "Black Magic Woman" to "Smooth."
See Friday's print edition for a full review, or check online Thursday afternoon.

Jessica Simpson sold 65,000 copies of Do You Know during its first week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's good enough for a No. 1 entry on Billboard's country albums chart. On the pop list, Do You Know lands at No. 4. On that same pop albums chart, Metallica starts at No. 1 with Death Magnetic. It sold a whopping 490,000 copies during only three days in stores. Death Magnetic was released on a Friday instead of the usual Tuesday to accomodate a worldwide launch.

Photo: Jess jumps to the top (Sony BMG Nashville).

Here's your chance to be on TV...not to mention be seen in the company of Poison lead singer Bret Michaels. Camera men will be shooting footage for Mr. Michaels' VH1 reality dating show, Rock of Love, next Saturday night (Sept. 27) during his concert at Billy Bob's Texas. His performance also promotes his latest CD, Rock My World. The gig starts at 10:30 p.m. and tickets are $38 for reserved seating, $18 for general admission. Get them through Ticketmaster or the Billy Bob's website.

Photo: Bret the Love Man (Gus Ruelas).

All you blue-collar modern rock freaks that love you some Finger Eleven, Hinder (new album alert!) and Mississippi good ol' boys 3 Doors Down: you're going to have to wait a bit longer to see them perform in person thanks to a whole lot of nasty hot air.

Saturday's concert at Superpages.com Center has been postponed due to routing issues centered around damage from two recent Gulf Coast hurricanes: Ike in Houston last weekend and Gustav in Lafayette, La. just days before that. No word yet on a new date (or place, since Superpages.com Center may be shut down for the season by that time) for the Dallas show, but tickets for Saturday's performance will be honored on the new date.

Be sure to check out tomorrow's Saturday's edition of GuideLive: 3DD guitarist Chris Henderson has some apologetic words from the band about this.

(Photo: Chapman Baehler)

Carlos Santana is the headliner tonight at Superpages.com Center, but he's not the only Santana on the bill. His piano-playing twentysomething son Salvador opens the show. "Not many people are lucky enough to be onstage with your own son and watch him close his eyes and expand his wings,'' says proud papa Carlos. For more on the elder Santana, check out my interview with him that ran Monday.

"It's time for me to move on. I can't keep answering these questions. If you was charged with something and you were found innocent, then you can't be found guilty for being found innocent."
Wha....?

R. Kelly did little more than perform his famous Chi-Town Two Step around many of last night's pointed questions in his exclusive chat with BET: I got travel-sickness trying to follow his line of thinking, and here's a sampling of his 'responses'....

Toure: Let me ask you something real that millions of Americans are thinking about and wondering about you. Do you like teenage girls?

Kelly: When you say teenage, how old are we talking?

Toure: Girls who are teenagers.

Kelly: 19?
Toure: 19 and younger.

Kelly: I have some 19-year-old friends, but I don't like anybody illegal if that's what we're talking about, underage.

Toure: Uh-huh. Some people think that you like underage girls. What do you say to that?

If you're into Finnish metal (and oh, we know there so, so, sooo many of you), Tuesday provided a conundrum of depressing proportions.

Do you go the well aged, tried-and-true, borderline Euro-pop symphonic route and check out two of the most successful acts of that breed -- Nightwish and Sonata Arctica -- at the Palladium Ballroom? Or do you break out the earplugs and the eyeliner to push more extreme boundaries by attending speedy-flashy-angry upstarts Children of Bodom at House of Blues?

We did the latter. We were depressed anyway. But not before an American band that's more fascinating than any of them gave us hope.