Las Vegas Weekly

April 1, 2009 · 8:34 AM

Santana tickets go on sale today for two-year stint at The Joint

By Robin Leach

Carlos Santana.

Photo: Kirvin Doak Communications

Legendary musical talent and guitarist Carlos Santana has signed on as the first resident rock ’n’ roll artist in Las Vegas, and tickets go on sale for the concerts today. Click HERE for our breaking news story we posted last night.

Carlos signed the two-year debut mega deal with AEG Live for The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel with an interesting contract proviso. He’ll play all his career-spanning classics, but he demanded and won the right to play a 30- to 40-minute block in the center of the show that will be different each night depending on how he’s feeling and what he wants to play.

Carlos stated late last night: “It is a great honor for us to be the first resident performer at the new Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Because I still live the principles of the 1960s, and because I’m a hippie at heart, ‘A Trip Through the Hits’ is designed to bring everyone in the audience together as one. I invite you to join our experience. We’ll mix up a little practical spirituality with a rebel-from-the-street vibe -- and with lots of incredible music. My wish is for it to be a night that will move you to dance, to cry, to laugh and to feel the totality and fullness of being alive.”

His deal at The Joint is a multi-year contract with AEG Live. Through 2010, The Joint will be the only venue west of the Mississippi where fans can see him perform, and it includes provisions for a longer run with options. The show will play homage to his most successful body of work to date: Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits debuts May 27 and is being designed exclusively for the new 4,000-seat Joint.

“Bringing Santana to The Joint at Hard Rock elevates the entertainment options in Las Vegas,” said John Meglen, president & co-CEO of AEG Live/Concerts West. “AEG Live set the standard for major residency shows in Vegas with Celine, Elton, Cher and Bette over at The Colosseum, and now we are setting the standard for rock ’n’ roll residencies with this new deal.”

Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits’ set list will include a nostalgic collection of touchstone tracks reaching back as far as the first charting single “Jingo” (1969) and first Top 10 hit “Evil Ways” (1970) up through the latest hit, “Into The Night.” There will be no set list of nightly hits, as Carlos wants to keep the rotation different at each concert.

Carlos, who warms up for as long as one hour backstage before shows, believes the mid-section of non-hits will add to the soul of the shows. “We will give fans and music lovers what they want to hear, but at the same time we can go off into unexplored territory and make it different every night,” he said. “That will add to the Las Vegas experience and will add emotion, soul and spirituality to a city that needs that for its entertainment.”

Two years ago, he and his group performed at the Andre Agassi charity event here, and he intends to use his run at The Joint to continue his goodwill work for charities in Las Vegas. The genius guitarist will be accompanied by his band members Chester Thompson (keyboards), Karl Perazzo (timbales), Benny Rietveld (bass), Dennis Chambers (drums), Raul Rekow (congas), Andy Vargas (vocals), Tony Lindsay (vocals), Tommy Anthony (rhythm guitar), Jeff Cressman (trombone) and Bill Ortiz (trumpet). Frank the Plumber, the pop genius stage and lighting design group that recently designed Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour set, will create the stage design and production.

Click HERE for Santana’s music and an interview.

“The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is thrilled to be the first to house a true rock resident show at our brand-new, state-of-the-art venue The Joint," said Randy Kwasniewski, president and COO of Morgans Hotel Group Las Vegas and Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. “We look forward to launching the new facility with quality concerts and Santana at the helm of our entertainment offerings.”

Best known for the group that bears his name, Carlos Santana has been reinventing the international musical landscape with the sonic charge of his guitar for nearly four decades. Over the course of his esteemed career, Santana has sold more than 90 million records and performed to more than 100 million people. He has won 11 Grammy Awards. In 2000, his 36th album Supernatural became the most honored album of all time, winning nine Grammys for a single project. In 1998, Santana was ushered into the Rock ’n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Santana will play approximately 36 shows per year at The Joint, with a show time of 9 p.m. Tickets for performances through September go on sale today for $79 to $299 and can be purchased at the Hard Rock Hotel box office, all Ticketmaster locations, online at www.ticketmaster.com or charge-by-phone at (800) 745-3000. For more information, go to www.supernaturalsantana.com.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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