Features

Los Lobos: Not Fade Away

The group in 1990

According to Berlin, the Dead did a lot for Los Lobos when it offered those opening slots to the band in ‘88. At that point, Los Lobos was best known for its covers of “La Bamba” and “I Got Loaded,” which were both hits from movie soundtracks. Garcia not only lingered behind the amps, but also came out and played with the band on “Georgia Slop” and a few other songs. Hidalgo returned the favor by sitting in with the Dead on “West L.A. Fadeaway” and “Little Red Rooster.”

Since then, according to Hidalgo and Berlin, Los Lobos “half-assed” their way through “West L.A. Fadeaway” a few times until Rosas proposed that the band actually learn the song properly for Tin Can Trust.

The forgotten band member in all of this may be bassist Conrad Lozano who Hidalgo is quick to champion. “He isn’t just the bass player,” he says. “He’s the bass player. When he plays, it’s Conrad. When it’s right, there is nothing better. When I think of stuff and write, I have him in mind. I try and figure out what would be a good [bass line or rhythmic dynamic] thing for him.”

However, it’s the songwriting team of Hidalgo and Louie Pérez that sets the tone of the band. Pérez’s lyrics have weightiness to them as he draws upon populist, religious and cultural themes, often celebrating the lives of the downtrodden. The original drummer in the band, he’s switched to playing guitar in recent years and occasionally singing. Though he’s the group’s lead singer and lead guitarist, Hidalgo says the creative process is always a collaborative one.

“Louie and I try and come up with the ideas for the songs,” he says matter-of-factly. “If I’m writing, I can generally come up with some lyrics or some ideas, but Louie is really good at it. I trust that he’s going to come up with something that is fitting and great. We might talk about it [before he writes lyrics], we might not. It’s the same thing with Steve. We might work on something together and then I’ll come back the next day and go, ‘Yeah. Right on.’ The way it happens, it shouldn’t—but it does.” [Laughs.]

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Fifteen minutes after Hidalgo and Berlin leave the bar, the band walks out onstage—they’re, a little late, but the crowd doesn’t seem to mind. Consisting of mostly of retirees or vacationers with a smattering of younger locals mixed in, the crowd remains sitting for the first set, applauding politely but not giving the band much. Rosas handled the stage patter as the band switches instruments were switched off. The only references to the crowd demographic are a few comments about how the band hopes it wasn’t too loud. Some fans call out to members by name in between songs and even Cougar Estrada gets a shout out.

The band opens with Kiko’s upbeat “Dream in Blue,” and go on to touch on all parts of its catalog. A faithful version of “Will the Wolf Survive?” sends a ripple of recognition through the crowd early in the set. As Berlin and Hidalgo promised, the new songs sound great live. Rosas’ “Yo Canto,” a straightforward cumbia, is the first of the night. A few others pop up in the set as well, including “Tin Can Trust” and soon to be classic “On Main Street.” The band closes out the first set with the Bobby Freeman-penned ‘50s classic “Do You Wanna Dance,” which The Beach Boys had a hit with in the ‘60s.

Hidalgo says the band has learned to follow the audience more. “Sometimes we want to play things that we don’t get to play as often, but if the audience wants to go to a certain place, we’ll go with it,” he says. “Sometimes we throw in stuff that is out of the ordinary and if people are along for the ride, then we are going somewhere together.”

One high profile set that ran aground was Woodstock ‘99. “It was the one time we had to follow [a setlist],” Berlin recalls. “I thought, ‘No big deal. I’ll just write one up.’ I don’t know what I was thinking. We walked out onstage at 2:30 p.m. the next day and [setlist] was totally wrong. They had to do clearances [for television] or something. You could just tell that the festival was a mess and evil was brewing. We did it anyway, but it was just bad.”

The band takes that slowly brewing energy from the end of the first set at Fish Creek and builds on it during the second set. After repeated requests for the audience to dance, a few dozen people answer the call. Pérez jumps behind the drums for a few tunes, tackling another of Rosas’ Spanish gems as well as a slower waltz with Hidalgo on accordion. The band soon follows it with “La Bamba” at which point the majority of the crowd finally got to their feet.

From there, the band delivers a rocking version of “Not Fade Away” that sounded more like the Grateful Dead than Buddy Holly. Holding onto the Bo Diddley backbeat, the band segues into a loose version “Good Lovin.’” The band closes out the set with a screaming version of “Bertha,” a live classic that the band recorded for the Deadicated compilation.

The band doesn’t play an encore but does participate in a meet-and-greet in the lobby where members sign autographs and chat with fans. Within a few minutes, there is a line a few hundred feet long that begins at an empty table with five chairs.

When you hang out and bullshit and take some pictures, it creates a bond,” says Hidalgo later. “It’s nice to get to know the people and make it more personal. We erase the line where ‘we play for you.’ It’s like The Flaming Lips—the concert is like a birthday party where the band and the audience are one. That’s what you want. When you get close to that, it’s great.”