March 15, 1985 PAGE 15 Los Lobos Finalamente ellos estan aqui by SPAM and SUZ I was in San Diego last weekend catching some rays. Always on the lookout for a good story, I kept my tape recorder with me at all times. One evening, while sitting in the park, I caught this conversation on tape. With the help of our Venezualan correspondent, it has been translated for the benefit of you, the reader 4 Epa chamo, how’s it going? No mucho, Chico, no mucho. What you been up to? Oh man, | just bought some tickets for the Los Lobos concert. Los Lobos? Who are they? What? You've never heard of them? Gono qué estipido. Aiee su madre, Chicot Well what are they like? If they’re such hot stuff, how come I’ve never heard of them? Because you listen to top 40, you sapo! But they’ve only been around for a little while, too, so that’s probably why. How long is a “‘little while’’? Knowing your bizarre tastes in music, they probably started about a month ago and play concerts in their neigh- bour’s garage. Cofo gocho, qué sabes ti? For your information, they’ve been around for 15 years, but they didn’t get going until they met the Blasters. Si, yo conozco los Blasters. So that was a couple of years ago, and they helped get Los Lobos a contract. They just put out a new album. What's it called? How Will the Wolf Survive. You should really get it, man. El es fantastico. | haven’t heard anything like this since | saw Queen Ida and her Bontemps Zydeco Band. Who? Nada. Yo los vi en Canada. Proba- lamente ti no los conoces. Listen man, it doesn’t really matter who they sound like. You just have to trust me, OK2 It’s kind of Tex-Mex with a conscience, but it’s not music that makes you depressed, comprénde? Yeah, | get where you’re coming from. But is it slow, fast, or what? If I’m going to buy a record, | gotta know for sure. | don’t have a lot of dinero right now. Yo perdi mi trabajo en el supermercado hasta el proximo mes. Hey that’s too bad Juan, !’m really sorry about your job, but | got an extra ticket for the concert. I’ll give you an advance, okay? | don’t know Chico, tG me conoces, no? And you still haven’t told me what they’re like. Okay, Juan, okay, it’s just really good. | can’t describe it. You can dance to every song; they even do polkas. There’s this one great song called | Got Loaded, and it makes you feel like, um, tG estas muy alto. Another one, L’il King of Everything, man, it has some fantastic traditional guitar playing. Los Lobos, Juan, now they are professionals. It gets better and better as you listen to it, and it builds up, you know. By the time the Who is the Godfather of Soul, Mr. Funkedelic and the hardest working man in show business? Why James Brown, of course, and he earned all by DAVE WATSON three titles in two sold out shows at the Commodore Ballroom March 5. | chose the second show. The doors were supposed to open at 10:30, but when | arrived at 11:00, he was still playing the first show. | hoped he would be able to provide me with my money’s worth. After all, he’s 52. When we finally entered, at almost midnight, the opening act, The Rhy- thm and Blues All Stars, were playing the best I’ve ever seen them do. For the occasion all former band members were reunited, giving them a six piece horn section. A more perfect warm up band couldn’t have been chosen. The crowd was an odd mixture of: businessmen, punk rockers, trendos, old hippies, drunk ex-jocks, bikers and people who could only be described as someone’s parents. All wanted to see the king of soul. Shortly after 12:30, the Revue portion of the James Brown Revue came on stage—his backup _ band. Most came out in pairs: two each of trumpets, saxophones, female backup singers, drummers, and guitar players (one bass, one lead). Budget or stage title cut comes on at the end, Juan, you want it to go on forever. It’s got a great melody. Hmmmm... You are hard to please, man. Hey, | know what'll convince you. They won the Rolling Stone band of the year award. They were right up there with Bruce. That many critics can’t be wrong, man! restrictions kept the number of key- board players and announcers down to one of each, however. Some members performed quick solos before the announcer hyped the crowd up by channelling their enthusiasm into a chant of ‘“James Brown’’, about 20 times before his entrance. God, but he was good. One of the most energetic, nonstop performances | have ever witnessed. The band, most members of which have been with James for 20 years, were polished and tight. Good R and B requires a precise rhythm section and these guys were Dhoto by Dave Watson Okay amigo, I’Il go to the concert. It sounds fun. We could even write a review of it for the student newspaper. Naa! We’ll get Dave Watson to do it. He’s got lots of time for stuff like that. Sounds good. Me voy, Chico, debo ir por el autobus. Entonces chamo, hasta luego, chao! Los Lobos, looking consider- ably more cool than your average patch of carrots, are, left to right, David Hidalgo, Steve Berlin, Conrad Lorzano, Cesar Rosas, and Louie Perez. Don’t scoff at the accordian. How Will the Wolf Survive? lives up to the favourable:criti= cism it has received. J.B. : licenced to funk just that. A hand signal from James and they would change songs without missing a beat. Precision and energy like this constructs a wall of sound that would kill Hall and Oates (and their plastic ‘soul’). Hardly understood a word he said. A brief mumbled phrase would be fol- lowed by an utterance like ‘‘yow’’ or “hech’’. This man can yelp more soulfully than most people can sing. He uses them like exclamation marks. James did all his classics except Night Train. Despite that unusual omission, Sex Machine, Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, and It’s a Man’s World were all performed with incred- ible vitality. ; For some unexplainable reason the Commodore had set tables out all over the dance floor. I’ve never seen them do that before and | never want to again, except for a banquet. Bad Move. When James is on stage the last thing you want to worry about is bumping into a chair or table. Well, clean living and a funky hairdo must be good for you. James played until 3:30 a.m., outlasting half the crowd (who had to work in the morning or something). Don’t forget, this was his second show that night. No matter how tired | got, | wasn’t going to go early. Who knows when an authentic sixties soul revue is going. to come around again.