Las Vegas Weekly

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During Carlos Santana’s two-year run at the Joint, that venue served as a small arena, seating more than 3,000 fans. The House of Blues will feel more like a big club for his new residency, which began Wednesday night.

That’s the chief atmospheric distinction for the guitar god as he embarks on a total of 80 shows this year and in 2013. The seating capacity at House of Blues has been reduced from about 1,800 to 1,236, with cocktail tables placed on the music hall’s floor for a show titled An Intimate Evening With Santana: Greatest Hits Live—Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. Thirty-one dates are set for this year, with nine additional shows to be announced as those shows fill. A new LED screen and sound-and-lighting package have also been set up inside the venue.

As for the music, Santana promises his customary artistic improvisation while interspersing the classic tunes his fans bought tickets to hear. He also plans for unannounced guest artists to join him onstage. As he said when the residence was formally announced in March, “What makes it a different experience is that it’s new and fresh each night. We’re going to have an intro, we’re going to have an ending, but in the middle, we will always invoke the unknown.”