Los Lobos At The Iowa City Arts Festival

Under the watchful eye of a Steve Earle promo, I took my position to get ready for the forthcoming Los Lobos concert that was part of the Iowa City Arts Festival.  Originally I couldn't go because we had to work this weekend but since the programming fools messed up on a highly important job, the boss told us we could take the day off.  Which meant I could finally go see Los Lobos for the first time.

I always enjoyed their music from time to time, the 80s stuff really rocks and on certain days Kiko can move me but I started getting back into them after proclaiming their Tin Can Trust to be the best album of 2010 and then started filling the missing albums on my shelf.  When I heard they were coming up here, I had to go see them, after all the last concert I went to was John Anderson last year and Richard Thompson a few years back at Iowa City.  And Los Lobos puts on a great show which could last for 2 to 3 hours given if they feel like playing.

The opening act was Carrie Rodriguez with Luke Jacobs playing petal steel guitar and she was good but she didn't really capture my fancy all that much.  She did however got Pieta Brown to guest on Hank Williams I'm So Lonely I Could Cry.  Although the fans were gracious they were ready to see the band from East LA and quickly but we would not see the last of Carrie and Luke.  Upon further review Carrie recorded for EMI Back Porch and her best known album was 7 Angels On  A Bicycle to which she played the title track.  She's also known for being on some of Chip Taylor's albums too.  But about her later.




Los Lobos hit the stage around 9 and didn't stop till quarter after 11 and they played a wide variety of stuff and extended jams thoughout their set.  Cesar Rosas, had some microphone problems to which he wasn't exactly pleased and it showed with him throwing glares at the dude next to the stage but he still rocked hard on Don't Worry Baby the second song of the set.  He also tackled I Walk Alone from The Neighborhood.  But for the most part it was David Hidalgo's show, playing lead guitar here and there, adding some accordion towards the end of the show.  But the crowd enjoyed a lot of the Spanish songs that Rosas' sang.  Conrad Lorenzo couldn't play due to an injury so Juan Bennett (I think it was his name but damn forgot it, he had long hair and could play the bass very well) subbed for him.  The drummer was Enrique "Bugs" Gonzalez and although he says he's 40, he looked 25 and played some mean drums.  More about him later too.

Somewhere along the way, Carrie Rodriguez and Luke returned to the stage to play three songs, the third (I'm guessing it was Lady And The Rose since the word Rose or Roses came up) and Rodriguez saved her best performance with her best violin solo of the show.  And Luke did some high quality steel guitar playing although once again the sound guy had him turned way too far up that he was just about drowning out the band.

Once thing about Los Lobos is that they actually made me dance around out in the crowd although I wasn't the only one.  There was 8 year old girl just dancing away to Come On Let's Go.  Then Rosas tore into a 10 minute blues song to which he, Louie and David played some nifty guitar solos before changing over to La Bamba/Good Lovin to which everybody got off their chairs and started dancing up and down the street.  I even had some hippie girl dancing next to me having a good time.  But once the song was over she disappeared into the mighty crowd.  Los Lobos came back and did another 10 minute jam encore and it was all over.  The band and David ever so personal, thanked the crowd and offered to hang around with the rest of the band for a meet and greet after the show.




Of course, I sat around the stage debating weather or not to chat up with the guys or not, I don't do well with bands that I like, they might not be so cordial and I would have to get rid of their cds if needed be. But one by one I actually shook hands with everybody except for Cesar Rosas who I didn't pick up or he just went back to the bus.  Got to chat with Steve Berlin and told him that I liked his production with the first Blasters album which he kinda looked at me funny but he thanked me for coming to show.  Louis Perez and David Hildago I got to shake their hand and told them I loved their music and come back again real soon.  Then I got chat a bit more with Bugs their drummer and the guy is super nice, super cool.  I'm sure if I asked him nicely we could have closed down the bar if need be but he made me feel like part of the band.  And some woman asked how old he was and he said he was 40, Nawwww, you looked like you're 25, you must have a fountain of youth in your back yard I said. He laughed.   Bugs Gonzalez as they say in the movies, I love you man!.

Nevertheless, this might have been one of the best concerts that I have ever seen.  Los Lobos can do it all, Spanish, rock, blues, country hell they even did a couple polka numbers and of course Kiko And The Lavender Moon as the full moon crept across the Iowa City night.  And they must have loved Carrie for she back on for the encore too, along with Luke.  And they're so low key and gracious, they make anybody a part of their family.   Even if it's 10,000 folk out in the streets dancing away to La Bamba.


A fun night enjoyed by everybody.  Including me!  But can't show you that picture, it has disappeared off the internet.


And to a lesser extent, Diana Nollen  http://hooplanow.com/2012/06/04/review-los-lobos-heats-up-the-iowa-arts-festival/   who surprised me by remembering I Walk Alone but betcha she don't know the album it came off from.


More Los Lobos Live Stuff: http://loslobos.setlist.com/