Los Lobos
Artpark, Lewiston, NY
August 29, 2006
By Kevin J. Hosey
In front of a gorgeous setting (the Niagara Gorge and an amazing blue and orange sunset) and a crowd of thousands of loud, dancing fans, Los Lobos played one of the most powerful and enjoyable concerts I have witnessed in years. The band proved that it is one of the most vital and talented musical groups playing in the U.S. rock and roll and popular music communities, and did so in a very American fashion, blending many styles and influences, the main ones being American rock and roll, Mexican/Hispanic rock and roll and other styles of music and a good amount of rhythm and blues.
Those of us attending knew from the start it was going to be a fine show when Los Lobos, with little formal introduction, came on stage and opened with the driving R&B/rock and roll of “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes,” which featured wild solos from David Hidalgo. The band quickly followed this with another muscular rocker, “Good Morning, Aztlan,” from the CD of the same name. After a piece with some real nice acoustic guitar from Hidalgo and flute from Steve Berlin, the band then covered Ritchie Valens’ “Come On, Let’s Go,” sung by Hidalgo, who battled through a guitar malfunction which led to a roadie changing guitars while Hidalgo sang, causing him to barely miss a few bars of picking; guitarist/vocalist Cesar Rosas stood off to stage right and watched with a wide smile on his face. As well as dancing up a storm, the crowd joined in singing the refrain.
Cesar Rosas (that hottie-val) with guitar
David Hidalgo and Steve Berlin
Los Lobos played several songs from its new “The Town and the City” CD, including the next tune, “The Town,” which featured very moody, ringing guitar and thick bass that crescendoed to a wall of sound while Hidalgo sang a song of survival. Val’s face smiled from ear to ear as the band launched into its next song, her favorite Los Lobos tune, “Angel Dance;” the band played a particularly punchy version, with Hidalgo’s solo crunchy, noisy and soaring. Before Rosas sang the next song, he implored the audience members still in their seats to get moving: “Come on, put on your dancing shoes,” before momentarily taking off his guitar and picking up maracas. Anyone still unable to move had to start when hearing Berlin’s saxophone. The band played a slightly slower song from “The Town and the City” that was so new that Hidalgo had to have the lyrics taped to his microphone stand. The band revved up pretty fast with its next number, “Evangeline,” which got a roar from the crowd, then went back to the new CD for the gorgeous “Chuco’s Cumbia” sung by Rosas, which featured some trippy, echoey electric guitar from Hidalgo.
This song produced one of the dumbest/most annoying events of the concert. When Rosas introduced the song, he noted that the song’s lyrics were in Spanish. “That’s all right,” a guy behind us shouted. That’s all right? THAT’S ALL RIGHT? Look, asshole; first, if you hadn’t noticed, there are, um, quite a few Hispanic, Latino and Mexican American members of the band, current and former, and Los Lobos has recorded a lot of songs sung in Spanish. Do you think anyone is bothered or needs to have to say something like your dumbass, insulting interjection? Second, do you in any way think Los Lobos has to clear what it does with you and needs your approval?
Following another new song, a rootsy rocker, the crowd against loudly welcomed another Los Lobos classic, “Don’t Worry Baby,” with people screaming as Rosas sang/shouted the title line. Val even put her camera down, got up and danced as much as her legs would allow her to on the next song, “Maria Christina,” led by Hidalgo’s accordion. Rosas then dedicated a cover of Fats Domino’s “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel” to the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the destruction it wrought on New Orleans and its struggle for survival; Hidalgo’s accordion and Berlin’s saxophone blended into an amazing sound. Several more accordion-led songs (one sounding like nothing less than accordion reggae with rock guitar) gave way to “Last Night I Got Loaded,” to which possibly every one of the thousands of people there danced to, segueing into a cover of “Not Fade Away,” which the crowd eventually took over the vocals for; this segued directly into a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Bertha,” (to which Val noted, “Uh, oh; here come the Deadheads), which ended the set at 19 songs
After what seemed like 10 minutes of raucous cheering, Los Lobos returned for an encore; Hidalgo asked, “Who do you want to hear, Neil Young or the Allman Brothers?” The band then laid into a thunderous, raw and accurate version of “Cinnamon Girl” that brought down the house and ended a joyous show.
As good as Los Lobos was, the opener, Trevor Hall, was as out of place and puzzling as the opener, and at times was really quite awful. Hall sang and played acoustic guitar while Chris Steele played drums/percussion. Many of the songs were bouncy, ordinary and sometimes even close to OK at first, but the slid into dreaded Dave Matthew Band (note: Val disagrees with me on the Dave Matthews opinion, she being a fan of the band) territory. But things did not sound good to either of us early, after Hall finished his second song, a mediocre at best Beck Lite ditty, Val turned to me and said, “One more song done,” and she also noted Hall’s unfortunate physical similarity to Shaggy of Scooby-Do fame. Things just got worse and more musically icky, and we were relieved when his set ended, but for some horrifying reason, several people around us and elsewhere up front (we were in the third row) continued to applaud at the end until Hall played one more song: “Make it end” was all Val could say.
During Hall’s set, we were subjected to a woman in her early 50s or so, wearing some kind of purple with gold lining bikini top that covered her breasts just barely enough for a family setting (it didn’t help that her breasts almost reached her knees) and some kind of matching, flowing skirt, who appeared to have imbibed something. Her disjointed walking was highlighted when she lurched into the fence at the front of the stage during Hall’s set while trying to dance. She left during his encore and did not return for Los Lobos’ set.

Final note: despite repeated attempts to reach Los Lobos and its publicity people, Val was unable to obtain a press or photographer's pass, and instead of using her digital SLR camera, had to use her smaller digital camera. She was and is not happy about this.
Hidalgo with guitar (being eaten by microphone)