For reasons that remain unclear, however, Los Lobos were slotted to open for Spandex-clad teenybopper outfit La Mafia, who used a smoke machine. The average show attendee was about 16, staring at Los Lobos like they were from another planet. The short tour took them to spots like McAllen, Laredo and Brownsville, beginning just as a blue norther cold snap gripped the land in near-freezing temperatures.
Suffice it to say the pairing was a bust, but Los Lobos finally played a headline show in the Gulf Coast city of Corpus Christi. Relief washed over the band inside the local club. For the night's encore, Rosas sang the group's hit single "Don't Worry Baby," and the tightly packed crowd exploded.
I spoke with a beaming, middle-aged man who said he'd heard the song on his car radio that afternoon. "I thought, boy, that sounds like 100-mile-per-hour monkey music, and I knew I had to go see what this Lobos thing was all about."
The show demonstrated that the group could excel outside its comfort zones, and that its fans were coming out of the woodwork.
In Corpus Christi that night, Los Lobos found their mojo, one that sustained them through Kiko and beyond. It's now been almost 40 years since the band played its first shows in East L.A. backyards, plugging small amps into garage electrical sockets. The wolf has not only survived but thrived.
I vividly remember where I was, what I was doing, and who I was with at the very moment that I learned Lennon had been shot, that the Space Shuttle had exploded, and when I watched the North Tower crumble. And on the flipside, the first time I heard "Kiko. A seminal moment in my musical life.
"100 mile per hour monkey music".
Pretty damn good description of all those weekend shows at the Palace with Los Lobos opening for the Blasters back in the day. We would stomp out into that Hollywood night soaked with sweat and stinking of bourbon, feet sore from two hours of jumping around in cowboy boots and shouting for more. My God, those were some shows.
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