Eclectic Los Lobos to play Blues on the Fox

I remember seeing Los Lobos while on vacation on the Delaware shore in what must have been the early '90s. It was the last show of a long tour, played in an overgrown roadhouse in Dewey Beach in front of a crowd largely made up of drunken frat boys on summer break. They kept chanting for "La Bamba" and "Bertha," two cover songs the band had had hits with that didn't really reflect the breadth and depth of its music, and the group just seemed miserable. They played the Grateful Dead boogie tune "Bertha," and when they did an obligatory encore they played it again, as if to say, "If that's what you want, that's what you get."

Today, Los Lobos saxophonist Steve Berlin admits that, for all the success, it was a low era for the group, which comes to the Blues on the Fox Festival in Aurora this weekend. "It was the end of that whole run," he says.

It was a run that had seen the group grow from its roots in Mexican folk music to its more rocking 1984 debut album "How Will the Wolf Survive?" and the excellent follow-up, "By the Light of the Moon," then on to the chart-topping cover of "La Bamba" for the Richie Valens movie biopic of the same name and "Bertha," the song they recorded for the tribute album "Deadicated." Yet they found little satisfaction in the popularity and radio airplay.

"I don't think we were ever up for Springsteen-type success. It's more for us about making interesting records and making ourselves happy," Berlin says, on the phone from his Southern California home. "We knew the music that made us happy was not going to be top of the pops. The things you have to do to get to that place, that trade-off would not have pleased us."

So, beginning with 1992's more atmospheric "Kiko," the band gave full range to its vast array of influences, from traditional Mexican music and more contemporary nortenos to rock, blues, jazz, zydeco, Motown and beyond. "'Kiko' as much as anything came out of some frustration for us," Berlin recalls. "'Kiko' was kind of the break. That was the first time we really said, '(Forget) the world.' Up to that time, we'd been listening to too many people's advice about how we should act and what we should do and how to make records. We decided from that moment on we weren't going to do that anymore.

"We weren't really using our full complement of weapons," he adds. "Up to that point we hadn't really used them intelligently, and from that point forward we just said, 'Screw it, we're going to just use everything.' And that's served us to this day."

For all its uncompromising derring-do, "Kiko" turned out to be remarkably popular. That gave lead singer and guitarist David Hidalgo and drummer Louie Perez the confidence to go off with producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake and form the Latin Playboys, an even more adventurous group that produced two terrific, almost avant-garde albums in the '90s. In between, they returned to record the later Los Lobos masterpiece, "Colossal Head," and along the way Hidalgo and fellow singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas reconnected with their Mexican roots by forming the more traditional spinoff project Los Super Seven, including singer Freddy Fender, guitarist Joe Ely and accordionist Flaco Jimenez, with Berlin serving as producer. That too enriched Los Lobos' music when they returned to the fold.

"We're unbelievably blessed to have had a 30-plus-year career," Berlin says. "We're happy in this day and age to have a career playing music, and to keep my family fed and my mortgage paid is an unbelievably terrific thing."

If they no longer think of booking arenas, that's to the benefit of events like this weekend's Blues on the Fox Festival in Aurora, where Los Lobos will be the headline act Saturday, June 20.

Otherwise, they just keep on going. They'll release a new album in September to conclude a recording deal with Disney - "a children's record for grown-ups," Berlin calls it - but they've also just signed a new contract with Shout Factory.

"At some point, we're going to do a tour where we do a kids' show in the afternoon and a grown-ups' show at night," Berlin says.

For now, though, they'll probably only include their cover of "I Wanna Be Like You" from "The Jungle Book" in Saturday's set list, which figures to emphasize their blues roots and Hidalgo and Rosas' stinging guitar leads, although "we have so many disguises we can wear," Berlin adds.

He also points out that audience members can always make requests beforehand on the loslobos.org Web site. But, please, not too many shouts for "La Bamba" or "Bertha," all right?

Blues on the Fox

When: 6:45 to 10 p.m. today, June 19; 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 20

Where: "Blues Alley," Galena Boulevard and Stolp Avenue, Aurora

Who: Big James & the Chicago Playboys open at 6:45 p.m. today for the 8:45 concert by Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam. The Hix Bothers Junior All-Stars open at 2 p.m. Saturday, followed by Henry Butler at 3, Cedric Burnside & Lightnin' Malcolm at 4:15, Sugar Blue at 5:30, Watermelon Slim & the Workers at 7 and Los Lobos at 8:30.

How much: Admission is free.

Contact: Mayor's Office of Special Events, (630) 844-4731, or visit bluesonthefoxaurora.com.