Originally Posted by: andrewjreidim actually going to a santana concert in maryland on the 6th i have 3rd row center stage tickets :) and your right ive heard the song "into the night" it isn't very good. Some of the guitar parts if you listen to them are pretty good but the song as a whole kinda sucks. hopefully he wont play it at the concert.

For your sake, I hope he's not stoned. When I saw him last, he barely played, and let the rhythm section just kinda take over. Then, in his encore, when the lead player from LLB came out to jam to a Tex-Mex kinda southern rock thing, Santana just couldn't keep up. Santana literally just started to bang on his guitar. I couldn't believe it. I was thinking, WTF! Is he stoned? Lost his mind?

Still, I love his tone, and even when he's backing a pop singer, I still get off on that distinctive sound of his. He's still rehashing his old licks, and it's rare that I hear him play anything new...but his tone...so sweet.

I have on cassete a live concert by Santana from about 30 yrs ago- he went off on something like a 20 min solo that was simply amazing. Every note was spot-on with what was going on in the background, and he interwove melodies from things like something from the movie Mary Poppins...My Favorite Things, I think it was. He was just being playful. Sadly, I've never seen him do anything like that live. The concert I saw him at prior to the last was about 15 yrs. ago, and he just played everything straight right off his albums. I got so fed up, I walked out. But then, as I was leaving, I was hearing amazing licks, and the concert was ramped up, so I stuck around and watched from outside the fence (this was an outdoor concert.) It wasn't Santana blowing the roof off, it was Skunk Baxter from the Doobie Bros. that was blowing the roof off! Baxter was out-Santanaing Santana! I was both blown away and saddened. I don't know if Santana is on drugs or not, but over the yrs, I feel like I've watched the decline of a legend.

I'm happy for him for his commercial success because I don't think he ever got his due as a guitarist. He was how old at Woodstock? 21, 22? I understand he got something like $30 million on the record sales of the Smooth album. All the power to him. But I think it will be a long time before I shell out any money to see him live again. Hope your experience is better. How about you post a review of the concert?