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Apr. 01, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Santana signs 2-year deal to perform at Hard Rock's new Joint

Music legend has standing gig at Hard Rock

By MIKE WEATHERFORD
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Carlos Santana performs in The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel on Dec. 30, 1999. The guitarist has signed a two-year deal to do 36 shows a year in The Joint. The first stint runs May 27-June 14. Santana is scheduled to return in September.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Carlos Santana is a cosmic spirit and musical marathon runner, and not the most obvious choice to be playing hits at the Hard Rock Hotel, especially with the highest ticket price in town for a semi-permanent show.

But the guitarist says he is going to put himself into a special mind-set to do "all the things I said I would never do" when "Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits" makes him the first repeat headliner in the Hard Rock Hotel's new concert hall.

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    • The San Francisco rock legend says he plans to "go there each night and play all those songs like it's the first day you ever played them and it's the last day you're ever going to play them. Like you're 17 and it's your first French kiss."

    Santana signed a two-year deal to do 36 shows a year in The Joint, which opens April 17. The first stint runs May 27-June 14; he is scheduled to return in September.

    Tickets for the first engagement go on sale today. Prices before taxes and service fees are $79, $89, $129, $155, $229 and $299.

    The top price is the most expensive to date for any Las Vegas show here for more than a one-night concert stop. But those 84 seats (out of about 3,000 for each show) at $299 each are in VIP suites; the $229 price is for 120 "VIP table seats" on the same third level.

    Santana suggests the money might keep on flowing to worthy causes. The guitarist played Andre Agassi's Grand Slam for Children benefit in 2007 and says everything else in life "pales in comparison (to) when you're doing something for children and you see their eyes change. ... I do this (residency) so I can do that. Being of service to humanity."

    The new concert hall is operated by AEG Live, which also runs the Colosseum at Caesars Palace and is using Elton John's "The Red Piano" shows there as a template for the type of 90-minute, heavily produced showcase the company would like to see in rotation at the Hard Rock.

    In a phone interview Tuesday, Santana acknowledged that it usually takes 90 minutes "just to get hot" onstage. "So we have to do like boxers. We have to get hot backstage before we go onstage."

    He said he will approach the residency "from the point of bringing a spiritual confidence, if you will."

    "I'm 61 years old. I understand that if you go see (a legacy performer), there's certain things you need to hear. We're respecting and abiding with that," he said.

    "I can use my imagination and go to a sound check in Fresno in 1969 and it's the first time we ever played 'Black Magic Woman,'" he said. "I can go there and stay there. I can tell you what it smells like, I can tell you where the sun is. I utilize my imagination to take me to that place where it's a first-time wonderment.

    "A sunset and a sunrise is never the same. Making love is never the same unless you're doing something wrong."

    However, Santana noted, "I did put in the contract that I need 20 minutes to half an hour in the middle of the set of going to (unknown) places. ... I need to have that in the set. I think that people can feel when you take a backwards flip into the unknown."

    Santana and a band that includes veteran drummer Dennis Chambers and keyboardist Chester Thompson will do four shows a week for three weeks per run.

    The visuals will be overseen by media production company Frank the Plumber, which is involved in Madonna's tour.

    Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.

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    Vor wrote on April 02, 2009 11:47 AM: JKor if you can't afford an $80 show ticket perhaps this 'tourist town' is out of your price range? These prices are pretty standard for a star of Santana's caliber.


    Johnny wrote on April 01, 2009 11:57 PM: People were stupid enough to pluck down $200 for Celine Dion, certainly aging musician Santana can draw similar crowds. Although lets not forget that Hard Rock is an "off-strip" casino. They will never compete due to location.


    GH wrote on April 01, 2009 12:40 PM: Take a look at http://hardrock.creeldigitaledition.com/issues/1/ and you can probably guess the ticket price areas.

    I'm guessing the $299 seats are the private skyboxes on the 2nd floor, the $229 seats are the seated tables on the sides of the 2nd floor, $79 probably the 3rd floor balcony, and the others prices on the main floor depending on closeness to the stage.


    Obummer wrote on April 01, 2009 12:03 PM: Another has been crock star resurrected from the dead.


    B Garlow wrote on April 01, 2009 11:54 AM: I believe that Chester Thompson is still a drummer.


    Justice wrote on April 01, 2009 11:43 AM: Hold me


    B Garlow wrote on April 01, 2009 11:38 AM: I believe that Chester Thompson is still a drummer.


    Mr Burns wrote on April 01, 2009 10:43 AM: Mr JKor:

    "The whining locals" as you so wittingly refer to the people who make this town possible are deserving of affordable entertainment too...unless, of course, you think that the incredible corporate/gaming greed which brought us to our knees today is AOK.
    In which case, good luck with that AIG career.


    JKor wrote on April 01, 2009 09:30 AM: I don't know if all these whining locals realize this is a tourist town... These shows ticket prices aren't designed for us.


    Mr Burns wrote on April 01, 2009 08:56 AM: Nice to see that the good folks of AEG (any relation to their cousins AIG?) are keeping the prices low.
    I mean with double digit unemployment, who could pass on 150 or 200 dollar tickets for this.
    Rock and roll is dead and it was the greedy MOFOS like these who killed it.
    Black Magic indeed.


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