Fan Review from Glide Magazine

Lovin’ Los Lobos

I had the genuine pleasure this past holiday weekend of attending Umphrey’s McGee’s three-night run at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom. One of the cooler aspects of these shows was that UM handpicked three great bands to open each night of the run. The North Mississippi Allstars opened the show on the 29th, followed by Los Lobos on the 30th and Taj Mahal on New Year’s Eve. It was incredible to get a taste of all of those bands before Umphrey’s owned my face.

Of the three opening acts, the band I most enjoyed was East L.A.’s Los Lobos, a Mexican-American rock band that has been going strong for more 30 years.

I was mostly familiar with Los Lobos’ music, but I had never gotten a chance to experience them live. You can surely color me impressed now.

I expected a set filled with new tunes from the recently released The Town and The City, so I was very happy to see them mix and match songs from all the different time periods of their existence. Kiko is my favorite album, so I was particularly excited when they opened with Dream In Blue, a sweet rocker that got people up and dancing. I Walk Alone from 1990’s The Neighborhood showed a grittier side of Los Lobos, which was followed by the rollicking Evangeline.

Los Lobos showed many different looks as the set continued, never content to settle on any one style. One of the highlights of their set was a cover of Sublime’s Pawn Shop, a song that was immediately familiar to the crowd and got a nice response. They followed Pawn Shop with My Baby’s Gone from By The Light of the Moon, dedicating the funky number that was more happy in tone than somber to James Brown. My favorite original song of the night was Kiko and the Lavender Moon, a haunting number that hit on a number of emotions.

Towards the end of the set Los Lobos broke out a fine rendition of I Got Loaded, intertwining verses of Turn On Your Lovelight, which garnered a roar from the audience. At that point David Hidalgo welcomed UM’s Jake Cinninger to the stage, which got the crowd even more pumped up. The energy in the beautiful Aragon hit a peak as Los Lobos and Jake began Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away.

Jake and Hidalgo each took ripping solos before landing on the Grateful Dead’s Bertha, a song Los Lobos covered on 1991’s Deadicated. The band has the skills to be a prototypical jamband, as each and every member pushed Jake harder and harder as they tore their way through Bertha. I nearly thought the Aragon was going to explode as they teased the crowd with multiple crescendos. As the jam finished, everyone on stage had huge smiles, nearly as big as mine.

I couldn’t be more impressed with every aspect of Los Lobos’ music, performance and stage presence that evening. You can definitely count me in the next time these guys come through my town.