NEWS ARTICLE
Roots-rock band Los Lobos to perform at Mass MoCA
by Seth Rogovoy(NORTH ADAMS, Mass., March 31, 1999)-- Grammy Award-winning roots-rockers Los Lobos will help inaugurate the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art with a concert to take place on Sunday, May 30, as part of the opening-weekend festivities at the restored 19th-century factory campus.
The concert, which is planned for outdoors in Courtyard D, is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., capping Mass MoCA's first full day of public operation.
"In both the visual and performing arts, Mass MoCA uses its dramatic, renovated factory spaces to exhibit works and host performances of great scale," said Joseph C. Thompson, director of Mass MoCA, yesterday. "Courtyard D is one of those breathtaking spaces, and after thirteen years in the making we just want to have fun and celebrate Mass MoCA's opening. Los Lobos seemed like the perfect band for that."
Los Lobos is known for renovations of its own, in which it builds upon the traditional Mexican folk of its members' heritage and mixes it with an array of American styles, including jazz, rhythm and blues and industrial sounds and textures, in order to create a unique, post-modern, world-music fusion. The group's innovative approach to rock 'n' roll has garnered it critical acclaim and several Grammy Awards.
Originally formed in East Los Angeles in 1973, Los Lobos began performing Mexican folkloric music and garage-rock for weddings and local nightspots. The group was a mainstay of that city's vital music scene in the early-'80s, when punk-rock rubbed elbows with American roots music, and Los Lobos soon earned a cult following.
With its first hit single in 1987, a remake of the Ritchie Valens tune "La Bamba" recorded for the film of the same name, Los Lobos became a nationally-known act, with hit albums including "The Neighborhood," "Kiko," "Colossal Head," "How Will the Wolf Survive" and a two-disk retrospective, "Just Another Band From East L.A."
The group's next album, "This Time," is due to be released by Hollywood Records on June 15. At the beginning of March, band members David Hidalgo and Louie Perez released "Dose," their second album under the name Latin Playboys, recorded with producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. In addition, two weeks ago, Hidalgo released "Houndog," an album he recorded with blues legend Mike Halby.
The Los Lobos concert, which will take place at 5 p.m., will be part of the weekend-long opening planned for the new institution. "We hope this event will attract a very diverse audience," said Katherine Myers, director of marketing and public relations at Mass MoCA. Myers said further details about the opening weekend will be released soon.
Myers also said that Mass MoCA will host additional bands in Courtyard D later this spring and summer, including a series of dance parties featuring "some of the best global dance bands in the country." The exact dates and times of these events will be announced in the next few weeks, she said.
Mass MoCA was previously the site of a concert venue operated by entertainment impresario Mort Cooperman of North Pownal, Vt. Over the course of a year and a half, Cooperman's Night Shift Café, based in Building 13 at Mass MoCA, played host to concerts by The Band, Little Feat, Ani DiFranco, Arlo Guthrie, Willie Nelson, Dr. John and the Marshall Tucker Band, among others.
Tickets for Los Lobos are $15 for general admission and will go on sale at Mass MoCA starting April 26. The concert will be held outdoors in Courtyard D; in case of rain, it will be moved indoors.
For more information call 664-4481.
[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 31, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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