LOS ANGELES — The site of Los Lobos’ recent homecoming record release party seemed unsettling: the former Ramirez Mortuary in East Los Angeles, where a concert stage had been set up in what reportedly once was the embalming room.
But as the band has done throughout its 42-year run, Los Lobos found the silver lining in what others might perceive as a dark cloud, casting in high relief its rich back catalog and the new album “Gates of Gold,” which was released in late September.
“This used to be a funeral home, and up until now there has only been sorrow in it,” singer-guitarist-accordionist-songwriter David Hidalgo told a couple of hundred friends, family members and radio-station contest winners who’d been invited to the show.
“So c’mon!”
Then he counted off “Saint Behind the Glass” from the group’s watershed 1992 album “Kiko.”
He was joined by his longtime band mates Cesar Rosas, Louie Perez, Conrad Lozano, Steve Berlin and latter-day drummer Bugs Gonzalez as Los Lobos brought vivid life into a space built to serve death.
“Mother don’t cry,” Hidalgo sang. “Saint behind the glass/ Tells mother not to cry.”
There were still a few tears, but those were tears of joy inspired by Los Lobos’ festive return to its old neighborhood, where the band first came together as Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles in 1973.
“It’s good to be back,” Hidalgo said.
Los Lobos, after its free concert during the Stillaguamish Tribe’s Festival of the River in August, is returning to Snohomish County for a performance Saturday evening, Nov. 14, at the Edmonds Center for the Arts.
The Grammy award-winning band is perhaps best known for the hit cover of the Richie Valens tune “La Bamba.”
“Gates of Gold” has met with enthusiastic critical response. National Public Radio raved that it “practically bursts with the spirit of exploration that has marked Los Lobos’ best work over the years.”
Hidalgo and Perez typically provide the band’s more experimental-leaning songs, which push the group into various realms of rock, jazz and Americana while remaining in traditional Mexican norteno and jarocho sounds.
Since their days playing block parties and weddings in East L.A., the band has developed a loyal national audience.
Earlier this fall, Los Lobos was presented with a lifetime achievement award by the Americana Music Association.
“People are starting to give us these lifetime achievement awards now I guess because they figure we’re not going to go away,” Perez said.
If you go
Los Lobos will perform at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 at Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 N. Fourth St., Edmonds. Tickets are $44 to $59. Call 425-275-9595 or visit ec4arts.org.
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