Los Lobos at City Winery

David Hidalgo

David Hidalgo (vocals, guitar, accordion, fiddle, requinto jarocho) and Louie Pérez (vocals, guitar, drums, jarana huasteca) met while in high School in East Los Angeles, California, and began jamming together in 1973. They enlisted fellow students and formed a band called Los Lobos del Este (de Los Angeles) ["The Wolves of the East (of Los Angeles)"]; the name was quickly shortened to Los Lobos. Cesar Rosas (vocals, guitar, bajo sexto) and Conrad Lozano (vocals, bass, guitarron) joined early, and Steve Berlin (keyboards, woodwinds) and Enrique González (drums, percussion) later completed the present lineup. Performing at hundreds of weddings and dances between 1974 and 1980, the band mixed pop and rock with the traditional Mexican music most of the members heard as children. Los Lobos achieved national and international success when the band recorded several Ritchie Valens covers for the soundtrack of the film La Bamba; the title track became a number one single for the band. Los Lobos has won three Grammy Awards. The band's 16th and most recent studio album is 2015's Gates of Gold.

Returning to City Winery for a three-night run, Los Lobos performed a signature mix of rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Latin American music including cumbia, boleros and norteños. Los Lobos was a lively band, mixing bouncy originals with uptempo covers, crossing the border a few times for songs in Spanish. While many songs hearkened back to classic good time rock and roll, others featured charango, accordion and maracas for a more authentic Mexican sound. Simply put, Los Lobos lit the party spirit with its exuberant take on American and Mexican roots music, and as if one set was not enough, the band came back for a second set of fun-tastic rockers.

Visit Los Lobos at www.loslobos.org.

Setlist:

Set 1:

1. Angel Dance
2. Manny's Bones (>) Revolution (>) Rattlesnake Shake (Fleetwood Mac cover) (>) Maricela (César Rosas on maracas)
3. The Town
4. Shakin' Shakin' Shakes
5. Evangeline
6. My Baby's Gone
7. I Walk Alone

Set 2:

1. Will the Wolf Survive? (Louie Pérez on charango)
2. Teresa (Los Super Seven cover) (Louie Pérez on charango)
3. Chuco's Cumbia (Louie Pérez on charango and two women offstage on güiro)
4. Angels with Dirty Faces
5. Set Me Free (Rosa Lee)
6. Anselma (David Hidalgo on accordion)
7. Volver, volver (Vicente Fernández cover) (David Hidalgo on accordion)
8. Marie, Marie (The Blasters cover)
9. Don't Worry Baby

Encore:

1. Más y más (>) She's About a Mover (Sir Douglas Quintet cover) (César Rosas on maracas)