"Charity On Ice"
Saw Los Lobos last night at a very hoity-toity, formal charity benefit here in Minneapolis. The whole night had a certain element of adventure attached to it since it was kind of a "private" function that barely made a blip on the radar screen. The thought that LL was in town doing a show that hardly any "music lover" was aware of still blows my mind a bit. We headed down to the event not even knowing if we would be able to get in. When all was said and done it turned out to be one of the coolest, most enjoyable concert experiences I've had in well over 30 years of attending live rock shows. The whole night was kind of a surreal dream: what if you went to a LL concert and hardly anybody was there? In terms of stage proximity and access to the band, this ranked right up there with those 1999 Marlboro Miles "private" shows.
The venue was the refurbished Milwaukee Road Depot, a former train station that has become one of the coolest renovation projects in recent Mpls history. It's smack in the middle of a much delayed overhaul of the historic (pre-Civil War) riverfront on the West bank of the Mississippi river in downtown Mpls. As Conrad L. noted after the show, whoever did the work has done a superb job. Five years ago this site was a rusted out piece of urban blight. It's now a first class complex that features, among other things, a beautiful indoor skating rink that doubles as an event center. The skating rink area has a glass wall so you can drive down Washington Ave. and see people skating as you zip by. Now that I think about it, if people looked closely last night they would have seen LL playing on stage! It's a huge space with a large stage and top notch lighting and sound. Behind the stage you can view the old Milwaukee Road clock tower through a glass ceiling. A low angle photograph of this with the boys on stage would've been a perfect cover for a bootleg of this show that would just have to be called "Charity on Ice." BTW, even though some of the guys got a tour of the facilities before the show, none of them realized they were actually playing on a big slab of ice (which was covered, of course, for the show). The space was set up with the stage and a very large open space in front of it at one end, a bunch of banquet tables in the middle, and a bar / coat check area on the other end.
The event itself was a fundraiser for the Minnesota Children's HeartLink charity, an annual function held in conjunction with a celebrity pool tournament that used to bear the name of former Minnesota Twin Kirby Puckett. There were tons of local "celebrities" in attendance (mostly TV news cats and pro athletes), although I was shocked when the band started playing and noticed Leslie Nielsen standing a few feet away near the edge of the dance floor. I guess he was the premier "real" celeb in attendance - read into that what you will.
This event had been billed as a "private party," but that wasn't entirely accurate. Tickets were available to the public, but at $200 per person I guess it was, for most common folk, essentially a private shindig. My wife and I, veterans of several dozen LL shows, had been fretting about this thing since I first heard about it. All we knew was that there was no friggin' way we were gonna stay home and watch Saturday Night Live when Los Lobos was in town!
Paying wasn't an option, so we decided to just head on down since we live right across the river, less than 10 minutes away. The event ran 6pm-midnight and, through a bit of "advance scouting," my wife found out the set time was 10pm. We decided to head on down around 9 or so to check things out. The Depot complex is connected to a brand new Marriott hotel so when we got there we headed for the lounge. We promptly spotted David, Victor and Steve enjoying a cocktail with a small group of people. I immediately took this as a good omen. I could bore you with a bunch of useless details, but suffice it to say we essentially got in the old-fashioned way - by crashing the party. I won't give away any trade secrets but here are two tips: 1) try to blend in 2) when in Rome...As for "event security," by the time we got there (after 3+ hours of dinner, speeches and auctions) there essentially wasn't any. I wish I could say that we concocted a complex plan of Mission Impossible-like subterfuge in order to gain admission, but the simple truth is that we just walked right in with nary a glance from anybody with a walkie talkie.
The show began promptly at 10, about 20 minutes after a live auction had ended. A significant portion of the crowd had left or was in the process of doing so. The large dance floor in front of the band was totally empty. 30 minutes into the set there couldn't have been more than a few hundred people left in what is a very large space. The number of people up by the stage was even less. After an hour the total crowd was down to about a hundred. It's amazing how many of the "stuffed shirts" clearly had no interest in the music.
The stage setup was very typical and, with the large stage, the boys certainly had lots of room to move. The band flew in their guitars, drums and keyboards and rented the "back line." The sound was, somewhat to my shock, totally excellent. I moved around a bit during the first 10 minutes and found a "sweet spot." Being a semi-retired taper I soon had that sinking feeling that accompanies a "LTO" (lost taping opportunity). Then I realized that I was 15 feet away from David Hildago ripping through "Don't Worry Baby" and suddenly all was right with the world! I was surprised to see two huge video screens on either side of the stage which showed all the action on stage. There were 4 or so cameras and a mixer - all very professional. At least there's a video recording of the night somewhere.
Given the setting, I didn't figure we'd get much in the way of jamming, but the 90 minute set was actually a nice mix of a little bit of everything that LL does so well. It was very clear that the boys were loose and in fine spirits. Since this obviously wasn't a typical LL crowd, I had no idea what to expect. The fact that virtually everybody I saw was decked out in formal wear just added to the strangeness. Like I said, very surreal... A fair number of people did hit the dance floor in front of the stage right way -- always a good sign at an LL show. David, bless his heart, did his usual exhortation for people to dance and "come up closer," which pretty much kicked off the dance party. Anybody who saw the Guthrie Theater gig here in Mpls earlier this year knows how critical it is to get the band's "seal of approval" for dancing in venues that normally don't see much in the way of rump-shakin'. Nothing shuts down an overzealous usher like a guy in the band telling them from the stage to chill out!
They went "Top 40" early with Richie Valens, but they soon stretched things out with a Papa>ICY>Santana run that was absolutely superb, one of the best I'd ever seen or heard. On this particular night the band may have been the "entertainment" at a big party, but for all intents and purposes they pretty much treated the whole night like just another concert. Some local radio dude who has a blues band on the side popped up to blow harp on "One Way Out" and "All Night Long," which I'd never seen LL do before. David actually asked for requests a couple of times; "Kiko" was the direct result of some very well dressed woman standing next to me. At one point I yelled out "Mas y Mas" and she excitedly started jumping up and down saying, "ooh, that would be a good one." You just never know when (and where) you're gonna run into a lobos-head!
I had no idea how long the set was going to be and was pleasantly surprised to see the boys cruising along after the 1 hour mark. When they went into "Angel Dance" - a frequent jam "launching pad" - I started entertaining thoughts of a marathon set but they ended it early, which was still fine with me as this is one of my fave live LL songs, one that I _never_ get sick of hearing. The set wound down with a typically beautiful Marvin Gaye reading and "La Bamba," with a little Young Rascals thrown in for good measure. You just knew they were gonna play their big "hit" for this kind of crowd; at least they did it last. David invited all of the ladies on stage for the finale and most all of them (and a few dudes, too) dutifully headed up to join the band. Victor and Cougar handed out some percussion thingies and my wife and I stood their, our mouths agape, watching the pride of "East Los" playing away in the midst of 60 or 70 people dressed in tuxes and prom dresses! Who needs drugs, huh? This was beyond surreal.
Since this wasn't really a "concert," when the band thanked everyone and headed off the stage most of the people just kinda stood around and didn't do much of anything! Everybody filed off the stage and eventually a few people stared clapping and yelling. Before long more people joined in and, sure enough, the band came back and offered up a nice "Bertha," in response to a request. A Deadhead at a black-tie $200 event? Now that's what I call a long, strange trip.
We talked to a few people after the show, including a fellow "scammer" we met who shocked his wife earlier in the night when he pulled out his suit at 9pm, causing her to ask, "you're going where?" He was a commercial real-estate broker and said that LL was his favorite band. He found out about the gig earlier in the week and made up his mind on the spot that he was going to go. Sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do.
We headed out of the rink close to midnight, still stunned by what had transpired. Seeing one of your fave bands do a full concert in the kind of setting where you could practically walk up to the stage and start talking to the band (something I actually saw occur a few times during the show!) was more than a little freakin' weird. We soon noticed 3 attractive young ladies that had been hanging out with the band before the show in the hotel lounge. We kinda nodded at them as we all headed in the same direction. As we were trying to find our way out to the street where our car was, we noticed that they were going into a hotel "meeting room" with a sign on the outside that said "band." We kinda tagged along and ended up hanging with the boys for awhile as they wound down and chatted with friends and a few other fans. They couldn't have been nicer or more gracious. I soon "came to the rescue" when I volunteered the use of the corkscrew on Swiss Army knife to Conrad as he wandered around the room with a full bottle of wine, a glass and a confused look. My knife was pressed into service several more times as people needed beer and wine bottles opened. I knew my Boy Scout training would come in handy some day! I'd met the boys on a few occasions over the almost 20 years they've been coming to Mpls but my wife was in seventh heaven. She got hugs and kisses from Conrad and Cesar (quote from her: "I can die happy now"), a few autographs and even a nice T-shirt. The highlight for me was David sincerely thanking us for supporting the band over the years when we unabashedly told him we were huge fans. You could tell how much the fans mean to these guys and that's no BS. At the risk of being self-serving, I think they dug the fact that a few of us "fans" had shown up. They certainly got a kick out of our chutzpah! I got the impression that they don't always get the same vibe from the "stuffed shirts" at these "private" gigs that they do out in the real world.
Conrad and Cesar also talked about the new record they are in the midst of recording (at Cesar's studio) with a plethora of guest artists including Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and Richard Thompson. It's scheduled to be released in May - no title yet.
So, that's most of the dirty details. Needless to say, a truly memorable evening - one surreal moment after another and a great set from the best live touring band in the biz. The price sure was right! Apologies for anything resembling gloating but the "back story" was, I thought, almost as interesting as the show itself.
LOS LOBOS
15 November 2003
Milwaukee Road Depot Skating Rink
Minneapolis, MN
Children's HeartLink Benefit
1. Luz Di Mi Vida
2. Don't Worry Baby
3. Done Gone Blue
4. Come On Let's Go
5. Sabor a Mi
6. Evangeline
7. Papa Was a Rolling Stone >
8. I Can't Understand >
9. Oya Coma Va
10. One Way Out *
11. Georgia Slop
12. Cinnamon Girl
13. Maricela
14. Kiko and the Lavender Moon
15. All Night Long *
16. Anselma
17. Angel Dance
18. What's Going On
19. La Bamba >
20. Good Lovin'
21. La Bamba
ENCORE
22. Bertha
* With Chris Hawkey - harmonica
[90m]
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