man, after reading the review above, I wish I'd hopped a plane to Bkk and been there. Flower power you'all.

And thanks to whomever posted that interview with John McLaughlin - inspiring, to say the least.

It was a great concert. Santana sounds as fresh as he did at woodstock. Still plays with the same intensity and emotion. Clapton has mellowed a lot. Miss his playing with cream, derek dominoes, etc.

Santana has a unique style/sound. Mason Ruffner is a decent guitarist but plays the basic blues stuff.

In a world of Lady Gaga's, oh God, please give us back michael hutchence, Jim Morrison, Luciano Pararotti, Freddy Mercury, Hendrix, Lennon. etc, Kurt

Awesome concert, it lasted close to three hours.

Worth every Baht of the price of the ticket.

Will diffinately want to see him and the band again on his next tour. Mucho gracius for coming to perform here in Thailand.

And thanks to whomever posted that interview with John McLaughlin - inspiring, to say the least.

What I'd give to see McLaughlin and Santana on stage together!

Santana is quoted as saying .... we were stoned out of our heads at Woodstock on LSD ..... then the producers came to us & said we had to go on earlier than planned. I pleaded with God & swore ... "If you will get me through this Lord I swear I will never use drugs again". So I dispute that he plays stoned.

The version I heard was a little different. It comes from the booklet supplied with the '88 double compilation album Viva Santana, so I guess it's reliable. It starts out with a short sketch of the band's early days in San Francisco. Drummer Michael Shrieve: "We weren't really hippies, more like street kids who played music." BTW, Michael Shrieve was the youngest performer at Woodstock, turning 20 just a few weeks before (born July 6 1949 in San Francisco). The rest of the booklet is an annotated song index. The album has two songs from Woodstock, Persuasion and Soul Sacrifice. Santana says (paraphrased):

We got there around lunch time and were scheduled to play in the evening. So I thought I'd drop some acid and by evening time I'd be fine. Just when I started to "come on" this guy comes up to us and says, "there's been a change in the lineup - you have to go on now; if you don't go on now, you don't go on at all" (keep in mind that at this time the band was unknown outside the Bay area, so they were in no position to object). I started to panic, and then prayed, "Oh Lord, please keep me in time, keep me in tune; keep me in time, keep me in tune".

So nothing there about promising not to use drugs again.

Just a footnote on that. In '89 Rolling Stone mag released a 20th anniversery Woodstock edition and Carlos was one of those interviewed. Commenting on the movie he says, "I didn't like the fisheye lens that made me look like a bug, but all in all, I'm very grateful. I could still be across the border in Tijuana, with no papers."