Ok this isn't exactly a 60's concert story but its still worth telling. Around 1975
Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin were touring together. I saw them at the Santa
Monica Civic Auditorium. The audience was divided between 2/3 Hispanics who were
there just to see Santana and 1/3 hippie types who were there to see McLaughlin. And
while the Mclaughlin fans were also fans of Santana, the Santana fans didn't know or
care about McLaughlin. They would cheer wildly whenever Santana played a song but
they'd sit on their hands when it was McLaughlin's turn. You could see that Santana
was visibly embarrassed by the biased reactions. McLaughlin, on the other hand was
visibly angry. And he poured his anger into his solos playing some truly amazing
stuff but the crowd continued to sit on their hands. Then they played a tune where
the two of them traded solos in a guitar showdown. Back and forth they went with
Santana getting all the reaction while McLaughlin got more and more pissed off and just
burning on his guitar until at one point when it was Santana's turn to play 4 bars
Carlos just laughed, threw his hands up and shook his head as if to say "I can't top
that". He took off his guitar and started clapping. Finally the crowd joined him and
gave McLaughlin the cheers he deserved. Out of all the concerts I've attended that was
the most unforgettable moment.

by Jazmaan