Los Lobos at 50: Cal-Mex rock vets celebrate a storied history that stretches to Minnesota

The same original members from 1973 return to town humbly marking their remarkable longevity.

By Chris Riemenschneider Star Tribune

June 21, 2024 — 1:15pm

Kind of like how they famously billed themselves as "just another band from East L.A." early on — as if tons of groups went from playing Mexican restaurants to joining the Los Angeles punk and roots-rock scene to landing a No. 1 hit — Los Lobos are not making too big of a deal of their 50th anniversary this year.

"We've never been much to draw too much attention to ourselves," said Louie Pérez, lyricist and multi-instrumentalist in the Grammy-winning band.

"Fifty years is a big deal, but we're kind of doing what we always do: going around the country to our favorite places and doing what we do best on stage in front of a bunch of people. That's still a celebration for us, whatever year it is."

Minnesota fans get to join that celebration again Monday, when Los Lobos return to town for an outdoor show at St. Louis Park's city-run venue the ROC, aka Recreation Outdoor Center, an ice rink doubling as a canopied concert space.

Pérez and the other three co-founding members of the group will be in tow for the show, along with longtime producer/multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin.

That's maybe the top reason for them to celebrate: Even in their 50th year, Los Lobos are still an all-original band. No doubt that will be a theme of a documentary being made on the band for release next year by "20 Feet From Stardom" filmmaker Doug Blush.

Talking by phone earlier this week before a show with Little Feat in Indianapolis, Pérez didn't know what to make of the latest in a long string of venues the band has played in the Twin Cities. But he was happy about two facets of the concert: It's being promoted by the group's longtime local partner, Sue McLean & Associates, and it's a summer gig.

"I always say we learned our lesson real quick on our very first tour: Don't put a record out in the fall, because you'll end up in Minneapolis in the winter," he offered with a laugh. "We have so much history in Minneapolis, starting with that."

Here's more of what Pérez had to say about the incomparable history of Los Lobos.

On returning to First Avenue their last two times in town, after a 26-year hiatus: "It's still one of my favorite places to go. I fondly remember our first time there playing the 7th St. Entry with some unknown local band opening for us, and it turned out to be Soul Asylum. We came back and then did a show with the Blasters the first time [in the Mainroom].

"It's just one of those rooms that has got that vibe, that historical vibe, like playing the Fillmore Auditorium. You get the sense of so much history in that place. It's just a nice sounding room, too."

Remembering their many visits to the Music in the Zoo series: "Those shows were great. It was usually hot and humid, and there would be bugs the size of Volkswagens. But it was just a real cool place to play — the perfect size of outdoor amphitheater, because it still feels intimate.

On late concert pioneer Sue McLean, who promoted those zoo gigs and many others: "It was pretty rare to have a woman promoter in those days, but that's just part of why she stood out. She was a woman who took care of business but also still had that thing women are better at that made you feel comfortable and cared about. The only male counterpart I can think of would be Bill Graham, because he really cared about the artists, too."

On the early days of the group performing traditional Mexican music around East L.A.: "We were rock 'n' roll kids first, and then we discovered traditional Mexican music later. We got completely smitten by it, because it was challenging. But we did it mostly to make money to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. We played colleges' cultural-center type gigs, but there wasn't much money in that, so our last recourse was to play in these Mexican restaurants and weddings.

"We did that stuff for the best part of 10 years, until we sort of found ourselves in the punk-rock and rockabilly scene with the Blasters and landed our record deal [in 1983]."

On bringing that music to the American mainstream via 1987′s Richie Valens biopic soundtrack "La Bamba," the title track of which became a No. 1 hit: "It spun us around a little bit. Up to that point, we had a couple critically acclaimed records, and so we were on track with what we worked for as a band. But then 'La Bamba' happened, and we very unexpectedly became rock stars with a worldwide hit.

"We were proud, though. Being where we came from, we were very aware that for nine weeks there was a 100-year-old Mexican traditional song atop the Billboard charts played by four Mexican kids from East L.A. It really meant a lot.

"And we took that limelight, that success, and turned it around and shined it even further on our own culture, because we followed that up with an acoustic record of traditional Mexican music from regional parts of Mexico ['La Pistola y el Corazón'], which a lot of people thought we were committing commercial suicide doing."

Why another album of new songs is still far off, following 2022′s "Native Sons," their tribute album to other L.A. bands: "We've just been [performing] a bunch since COVID and haven't found the time. David [Hidalgo] and I, we just kind of compartmentalize and spend a lot of time with our families when we're not on the road. When the time comes, we'll do another record. We've always set out to not just write new music on demand. We like it to be very spontaneous. We'll go into the studio and have ideas, and then pretty much David and I and Cesar [Rosas] write as we're recording. It's a little harrowing for the songwriters that way, but it's cool."

On what keeps the band members all going into their 70s: "There's no retirement center for rock 'n' roll seniors. You gotta go just as hard as you did as a kid. There's nothing that's going to make the drive to Duluth any shorter or easier. So we just have to face that and just kind of slow down. Physically, we can't do those long tours anymore. The last one we did was three months with the Tedeschi Trucks Band [in 2022], and after that we said we just can't do that anymore. The most we got is maybe 10-12 days.

"That's also a result of COVID, when we were forced to learn how to spend more time at home. I learned how to put it, how to putter around the house, and discovered that me and my wife actually like each other. We all learned to be better husbands and to enjoy being grandfathers. I think we've earned the right to enjoy our families and stay home, as much as we still love our band, too."