"The Sound of Collective Consciousness Tour" arrives at the Reno Events Center this Friday, the musical highlight of the weekend's Street Vibrations celebration.

When tour headliner Carlos Santana talks about the concept he sounds every bit like a modern-day Emerson only with a different focus.

"Music is eternally relevant and forever young. We all are part of something bigger. And the music lasts. Bob Marley is more relevant today than anyone on MTV," he said.

Carlos and the Santana Band will perform classics from their 40-plus years, and spotlight songs from his latest album, "Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time," in which he pays tribute to that very "collective consciousness" that permeates and stimulates "musical creativity." The album also places Santana in musical history: he's now the only artist other than The Rolling Stones to chart at least one Top 10 album in each decade since the 1960s.

"I'm very happy with the album," Santana says. "I had a dream, for instance, that I was performing with India.Arie and Yo Yo Ma, and there we are on the album playing George Harrison's most beautiful song 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps.'"

Unusual collaboration is not uncommon with Santana. He started by working for Bill Graham in San Francisco in the 1960s and he would perform with whomever Graham chose, from the Grateful Dead to Miles Davis.

"I was playing my guitar one day in Panhandle Park and I looked up and there were Jerry Garcia and Mike Bloomfield cheering for me. It was validation and it was from my first heroes. You can never get enough validation."

Asked if there was anybody else out there with whom he'd like to team, Santana mentioned Johnny Mathis, Lady Gaga, Andrea Bocelli and Sting.

And he's not stopping. "It's not a bit of work. If you love what you do it's not working. It's a joy, an absolute joy."

The Collective Consciousness Tour will be opened here by Michael Franti and Spearhead, who just released "The Sound of Sunshine," the highest Billboard-charting release of their career (7:30 p.m.; $49.50, $69.50, $99.50; 888-299-1833).

The volume level in the Reno Events Center will be high but won't begin to compete with that on the streets. The Santana show is part of Street Vibrations, the weekend when thousands of motorcyclists roar into town to show off their machines wherever and whenever they choose. The festival may not sit well with a lot of Reno-Sparks residents but it sits very well with entertainment venues and local restaurants, not to mention with casino dealers who often praise the bikers as the best tippers of any area festival.

Other entertainment will include two hard rock glam bands of the 1980s and 1990s, Cinderella and Warrant, playing the Grande Exposition Hall at the Silver Legacy (8 p.m. Saturday; $40.50, $59.50; 800-687-8733 or silverlegacy.com).

Other Street Vibrations events: Fireworks over Reno at 8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays , sponsored by the Silver Legacy; America's Finest Custom Bike Builders Invitational, the masters showing off their creations Wednesday through Sunday in the Silver Baron Ballroom at the Silver Legacy; Southern rocker Jimmie Van Zant, carrying on the music of his late cousin Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd as well as playing some of his own, at the Atlantis on Thursday (8 p.m.; $20; registered Street Vibrations participants get in free; 800-723-6500).

Also,Custom Bike and Leather Display and Globe of Death Show, Wednesday through Sunday, sponsored by Circus Circus; free shows at Harrah's Plaza, noon to 10 p.m. – The Buddy Emmer Band, China Grove, Unauthorized Rolling Stones (Thursday), Cream of Clapton, Unauthorized Rolling Stones, China Grove (Friday), Buddy Emmer Band, Cream of Clapton, Skynnyn Lynnyrd (Saturday); and Hog Town Bar, an outdoor beer garden, Wednesday through Sunday on the Eldorado Events Plaza.

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