Los Lobos - Grande

On Monday I told you about the freaking amazing concert Dawn (by the way, read this beautiful post, she rules) and I went to last weekend: Cordero and Los Lobos. The Cordero review is here but I wanted to take some time to think about Los Lobos and let the excitement of the show wear off a little bit to make sure I wasn't thinking with my adrenaline.

I wasn't: after thinking and listening to most of their recorded work over the last several days, it seems clear to me that Los Lobos is the best rock 'n' roll band in America that isn't led by a guy named Bruce.

We saw Bruce and the E Streeters in '99 right after Lily was born, and there is nothing like the majesty, the passion, and the spectacle of seeing Bruce whip 17,000 people or so into an extended frenzy. Size counts, and if you can turn 17,000 people into a small crowd with your songs, charisma, and musicianship, then that trumps doing the same to 800 or so people.

Los Lobos is the only American band I can think of that has grown better in every way over 25+ years: their latest CD, Good Morning Aztlan - their first since the astonishing career overview set El Cancionero Mas y Mas in 2000 - offers some of their best songwriting ever ("Good Morning Aztlan"), and a tough guitar sound that sometimes borders on grunge ("Done Gone Blue"). Also present on Aztlan is a New Orleans-style cross rhythm reminiscent of Little Feat (drummer Cougar Estrada and percussionist Victor Bisetti).

So now Los Lobos - the same five members for 20 years - not only has absorbed and made their own traditional Mexican music, Tex-Mex, SoCal Chicano rock, doo wop, psychedelia, '60s soul, '50s R&B, Southern blues, boogie, Southwestern Americana, and riff rock, but also an aggressive fuzzed out guitar and percussion assault worthy of any Warped Tour band.

Name a band besides Los Lobos that has gotten better at songwriting, performing, broadened their approach, AND become increasingly more contemporary and vintage AT THE SAME TIME OVER THE COURSE OF 25 YEARS. There aren't any my friends.

Los Lobos is Creedence without the country, the Allman Brothers without the slide, Little Feat with two great singers (the lush, mellifluous comfort of guitarist/accordionist David Hidalgo; and the tougher guitarist Cesar Rosas), The Grateful Dead with a sax (Steve Berlin, the only non-Chicano), The Band with guitars instead of keyboards - a great American band.

Article Author: Eric Olsen

Career media professional Eric Olsen is honored to be the founder and former publisher of Blogcritics.org, and former publisher of Technorati.com, which both rule. He is now editor, co-founder, and CEO of The Morton Report.

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