With the closing of the Avalon looming, promoter Latin Rock Inc. is rolling out the first in a series of shows featuring Latin-inspired rock ’n’ roll. They’re calling the series, “the Last Days of the Avalon,” in honor of the venue’s impending closure.

Before you get too sad, get ready to dance, especially if you love Latin music. Headlining the first show on 4/20 will be El Chicano, legends in the East LA Latin rock movement in the 70s. Think of Carlos Santana’s Latin flavored acid rock of the early 70s and then tip it a little more toward the Latin, rather than the acid rock, and you get a sense of what El Chicano is all about.

El Chicano rode through most of the 70s on MCA, churning out Latin-soul-rock originals and covers. They Latin-ized “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles and “Light my Fire” by the Doors to surprisingly amazing results. Their rendition of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” scored El Chicano a hit single in 1971 and other hits include “Viva Tirado” and their funky original, “Tell her she’s Lovely.”

One of their songs that should have been a Latino anthem was “Don’t put me down (if I’m Brown)” from their 1971 album, “Revolution.” It could have been the Latino sing-along equivalent to “Say it Loud (I’m black and I’m proud).” Maybe, it’s not too late.

Also performing on the bill is Salvador Santana, Carlos’s son, the salsa sounds of Blanca and Soul/R & B group Showtyme.

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. The show starts at 8pm.

There’s a certain symmetry to the alpha and omega of Santa Clara’s Avalon Nightclub. Mike Beard, who has booked hundreds of shows there though his Man Down Productions, remembers when Avalon owner Mike Jafari first transformed what used to be the DJ-dance spot Backbeat into a live music venue back in 2003.

As a Santa Clara native and a hard-rock fan, Beard knew that Y&T lead singer Dave Maniketti lived not far from the club, and decided one day just to walk over to his house.

“Dave was out there gardening or whatever,” he remembers. “You’re not really supposed to do that, but I did. I didn’t care, because at that point Y&T was really doing nothing, Dave had this band called Maniketti. I said ‘Hey, Dave, my name’s Mike Beard. I grew up in this area, played little league down the street. There’s a club here that’s doing live music now, called the Avalon. Why don’t you call over and check it out?'”

Beard didn’t think much of it at the time.

“But a couple days later, [Maniketti’s] wife, Jill, called the club and chewed Mike Jafari’s ass about me coming over to the house. But they started talking, and they played a show there,” he says. After a long, close relationship between the band and the club, which includes a benefit held for Y&T bassist Phil Kennemore before he passed away in 2011, Beard says “They’re cool about it now.”

Fittingly, perhaps, Y&T will play the last-ever show at the Avalon, on the day the club is set to close, June 30.

“It’s kind of come full circle,” says Beard.

There’s some symmetry, too, to the “Last Days of Avalon’ show this Friday at the Santa Clara club. Headlining will be El Chicano, the L.A. group known for hits like “Tell Her She’s Lovely’ and “Viva Tirado’ in the 1970s. A documentary about the band, In The Eye of the Storm, was filmed at the Avalon in 2009.

“Obviously, people are going to make assumptions based on who my father is,” says Salvador Santana. To put it another way, they’re not expecting the son of Latin-rock superstar Carlos Santana to be collaborating with Del the Funky Homosapien, GZA from Wu-Tang Clan, or Mellow Man Ace, younger brother of Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog.

But that’s because they don’t know how hip-hop shaped Salvador Santana’s world.

“I was a high school kid bumping Wu-Tang. I grew up listening to Cypress Hill,” says Santana.

Those are the influences that shaped his own music, a party-ready mix of rock grooves, rap beats and electro overlay. The 28-year-old Santana—who plays Friday’s “Last Days of Avalon” show with El Chicano, saluting the Santa Clara club as it plans to close its doors June 30—has definitely found his own way.

“My father wanted me to learn drums at a very young age. I started playing at 2 or 3,” he says. “You have to have what we call ‘pocket’—a sense of rhythm, a sense of tempo.”

Around five or six he was encouraged to pick up a guitar, but he naturally gravitated to piano.

“The piano just made sense to me. It’s like an orchestra at my fingertips,” he says.