Carlos Santana's New Vegas Shows: Tickets July 11

The added September shows fall on the 16th, 17th, 19th, 20th, 23rd, 24th, 26th and 27th. The new November shows land on the 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 14th and 15th. Every one of them starts at 8 p.m. at House of Blues inside Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, the same intimate room Santana has played for 14 years running.

The residency itself is billed as An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live, and that title is doing real work. This is not an arena show or a Sphere scale production. House of Blues seats a fraction of what the big Strip venues hold, so even with sixteen new dates on the calendar, seats for a guitarist this famous do not sit unsold for long.

If you already missed the presales, do not panic, you did not miss much. Citi cardmembers had first crack back on May 12, the artist fan presale opened May 13, and the general Live Nation and Ticketmaster presale ran May 14. All three of those windows are long closed. What is left, and what everyone is really waiting on, is the general public on-sale this Saturday, July 11, at 10 a.m. Pacific.

Santana's earlier May dates at House of Blues, May 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23 and 24, have already been on sale for months, and locals point to those as proof this residency sells out fast. Treat that as your preview of how the September and November on-sale is likely to go.

A 14-year residency at the same Strip venue is rare air. Vegas turns over headliners constantly, and House of Blues has kept Santana on its stage since long before most of the current Strip residencies existed. That kind of run tells you something about demand that a press release cannot.

There is also a charitable angle worth knowing if you are deciding whether to go. A portion of ticket proceeds benefits the Milagro Foundation and the House of Blues Music Forward Foundation, so a night watching Black Magic Woman and Smooth also puts a few dollars toward youth arts and education programs.

House of Blues sits inside Mandalay Bay, at the quieter south end of the Strip, so pair a Santana night with a slower dinner and you skip most of the mid-Strip foot traffic on your walk back to the room.