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

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.

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.