Santana Moves To Mandalay Bay

Santana moving from The Joint at the Hard Rock to House of Blues at Mandalay Bay wouldn’t really be something I’m normally interested in, but I am. As last year ended, Tiesto left his DJ residency at The Joint and moved to a more appropriate venue, XS at Wynn.

The Joint has a capacity of over 4,000 while House of Blues holds just over 1,000 and XS capacity is around 3,000. (UPDATE: I’m told XS has cap of 5,000+) The Joint is huge and was definitely too large for both artists. While a DJ, Tiesto, moving to a nightclub of a similar size and more appropriate venue for the music doesn’t say major failure, Santana moving to a tiny venue does seem like a failure.

House of Blues is a great place to see a rock show in Las Vegas but it’s much less than half the size of The Joint. House of Blues is being “reconfigured” (think made smaller) for Santana. Santana’s music doesn’t do much for me, but it doesn’t bother me. I just can’t imagine that tickets starting at $100 are going to sell very well. According to the press release Santana signed a two year deal but I don’t see this show lasting that long.

The press release touts the show as “An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live – Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow.” If you’re a fan of Carlos Santana, and in Vegas, I recommend you get tickets to earlier shows. I’d also check the return policy if you buy tickets beyond the beginning batch of shows.

Photo (above): bmoorevisuals.com