Legendary L.A. Bands X and Los Lobos Play the Paramount

It's not often that music fans get to enjoy two legendary bands performing together for the first time. After decades of separate and impressive success, the band X is teaming-up with fellow Los Angeles rockers Los Lobos to bring their sounds to Denver. The bands will play the Paramount Theatre on Saturday, July 19, for their 99 Years of Rock 'n Roll tour.

"Some people have asked me why we're playing with Los Lobos," says Exene Cervenka, co-founder of the punk-rock band X with partner and former spouse, John Doe. "But that's what we did in the late '70s and '80s in L.A. It was the Blasters and Lobos and the Plugz and the Weirdos and us, all these bands playing the same places, all who seemed to have nothing in common but at the same time had everything in common under what was then the punk umbrella."

Steve Berlin, who left the Blasters (with that band's blessing) back in the early '80s to join Los Lobos, shares that sentiment. "If I had a time machine," says Berlin, speaking about what other L.A. bands from back in the day he wishes could join Los Lobos and X on this tour, "I would love to take the original three-piece Plugz. I always loved the
original Wall of Voodoo, and it’d be interesting to see what the Weirdos would sound like now."

But Berlin admits that while these bands shared a lot of stages, they didn't share a lot of shows. He says X and Los Lobos have "played together a few times over the years, but surprisingly not a whole lot." After conferring with "all the guys and Doe" to see if they remember when that's happened, all they could come up with was "a show in Santa Barbara either at the Arlington or La Casa De la Raza in the early '80s. We’ve always been huge X fans and if the Casa show was the first time, I’m sure it was an epic show. That was a great place to play back then, as it was kind of a museum by day. So not exactly like a punk-rock club."

Still, Berlin says that period in L.A.'s music scene was unforgettable. "I’m sure I have rose-colored glasses on, but in retrospect, it was just an amazing time to be in L.A. It was actually cheap to live there then, and at the heyday, it was seemingly great music seven nights a week all over town. Every cheesy bar or restaurant with anything resembling a stage — or not even — would host shows. Everyone showed up mostly from elsewhere, and basically, whoever you said you were, you were, so everyone got to try on a new name/identity/personality, and everyone else was totally cool with it. As long as you could either play or write or paint or throw a cool party, you were golden. There wasn’t enough money to create jealousy, and the drugs were initially benign or non-lethal, so it was just a non-stop scene for a few years from '77 to '84. Then real money, harder drugs, less cool people, and the inevitable crass monetization kind of crept in, and it was mostly over."

"It's so funny," Cervenka says. "When I go into the past, so many of my pivotal moments, so many enlightening moments of mine lead straight back to Dave Alvin. The first time I saw the Blasters, it changed my life forever. I thought, Oh, it's not just records that sound like this. It's people. People that play this music. Oh, oh. I just fell in love with those guys. And that's who introduced me to Los Lobos. And Dwight Yoakam, too. We were part of this show at [Club] Lingerie on Sunset. Dwight Yoakam opened the show, Los Lobos played second, and the Knitters [Cervenka, Alvin and Doe's side project that focused more on rockabilly, country and folk; its name was a play on the old C&W group the Weavers] headlined. It was maybe $7 to get in. Man, what a night that was. Like, wow. Wow. Wow. Wow."
One of the things Exene Cervenka and X are known for is authenticity; neither are known for gilding any available lilies. But Cervenka says the same is true for Los Lobos. "They're just one of the best bands," she says. "They can play just about anything, and they're really, really good. And they're just them. Talk about authentic."

That take is reinforced by the title Los Lobos gives itself on its own website: "Just Another Band from East L.A." Berlin says that was mainly an inside joke riffing off a Mothers Of Invention record from the early 70’s with almost the same name. "At the same time," Berlin shrugs, "it also happens to be true. We don’t hold ourselves in any particularly high regard, so it seems to fit."

When it comes to playing Denver, Cervenka fondly remembers playing the Mercury Café. "Cool hippie place," she smiles. "I remember looking out the window while we were getting set up, and it was snowing. I was like 'its June. It can't be snowing.' But it was snowing. We met so many great people at that show. At all our shows. It's the great joy of touring."

For Berlin, his favorite memory comes from touring not with Los Lobos, but as a Blaster. "Some friends of my fellow saxophonist Lee Allen’s came and kidnapped us for the entire stay," he says. "I’m pretty sure we didn't sleep until we were on our way out of town and I remember thinking coming in that I was pretty hardy, but I wasn’t vaguely close to their league."

While Berlin says that Los Lobos has "absolutely no plans to say sayonara any time soon," Cervenka and X are calling this their farewell tour. "The end is near was our slogan from last year," laughs Cervenka. "So now its near-ER. The end isn't getting any further away, let me put it that way.

"But what a great way to end it," Cervenka smiles. "The way we began it. It's fantastic."

X and Los Lobos, Paramount Theater, 1621 Glenarm Street, 8 p.m. Saturday, July 19. For tickets and more information, see the Paramount website.