Los Lobos – Lebanon Opera House, Lebanon, NH 9/30/14 (SHOW REVIEW)

As noted in their introduction to the stage, it was almost exactly nine years prior that Los Lobos appeared in this homey northern New Hampshire venue to play a largely acoustic two sets of music. In 2014, however, the circumstances were markedly different, making for a uniformly memorable performance, the intimacy of which may have been its greatest virtue.

Appearing without one of its founding members, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Cesar Rosas, the remaining five musicians nevertheless manifest the unity of their shared history. Lobos are celebrating their fortieth anniversary by playing, as the title of their live album denotes, Disconnected, i.e. without electricity except for that which powers Conrad Lozano’s bass, the pickups on the wooden instruments of David Hidalgo and Louie Perez and the keyboards and saxophone used by Steve Berlin.

Without the crowd-pleasing ebullience of their absent partner, Los Lobos nevertheless connected with an audience as friendly as it was loyal. The attendees needed virtually no encouragement to clap along and they did so with the quiet passion evinced in the somewhat solemn opening of “Tin Can Trust.”  In one of the first extended intros that stood as pieces of music unto themselves, Hidalgo’s patient entry into Traffic’s haunting “Dear Mr Fantasy” also radiated a cautionary mood, perhaps rooted in feelings for their missing comrade (circumstances of which absence were well-nigh impossible to procure as the group made no mention of it during this show or on their various websites).

Not the most forthcoming of front-men, Hidalgo nevertheless engaged in lighthearted repartee more than once during the two sets, at one point in reminding of a post-show meet and greet with the band, then flipping a CD out into the crowd. More importantly, however, he was the staunch navigator of Los Lobos during a performance where they engaged in markedly less improvisation than they might. Allowing only for brief interludes of atmospheric interaction, the musicians instead relied on their well-forged bond as a unit for material from their past, recent (“Burn It Down,” with harmony vocals from the Golden Palominos’ Syd Straw) and not so recent (“How Will the Wolf Survive?”).

Lobos’ finely-tuned expertise as live performers led the quintet to pick up the pace during their second set with the good-timey likes of “I Got Loaded” as precursor to a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Bertha” (including just the slightest tease of “Turn On Your Lovelight”), which, unlike its counterpart from nearly a decade prior sounded perfectly natural as an expression of this concert’s concept, a homage to the folk roots of the iconic San Francisco band. Hidalgo’s picking of his solos here and throughout the evening was remarkable in its precision, given the speed with which he often played.

Even in undermanned form, Los Lobos proffered an extremely tight performance, the likes of which any fan or novice music lover might expect from a band with this much history as, but one rendered more distinctive through the fine touches of Berlin’s organ, electric piano and guttural horn playing. The panache of youthful drummer “Bugs” Gonzalez might’ve gone woefully under-recognized by Hidalgo’s all too hurried introductions at a couple points, had not the crowd erupted at more than a few points with spontaneous acclamation of the zestful means by which he alternately grounded and propelled the band in motion.

The ultimate compliment to offer Los Lobos in their latest New Hampshire appearance, left-handed as it may sound,  is that only the most fleeting notions of a need for higher volume occurred during the expanse of the ninety-minutes playing time on the Opera House stage. It’s clear they’ve nurtured a personal resourcefulness and a musical versatility over the course of their four decades plus together.

Los Lobos Setlist Lebanon Opera House, Lebanon, NH, USA 2014

Related Content

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter