Los Lobos – Live At The Fillmore
For a number of years I worked with one of the foremost tapers and traders of live concert bootlegs. He has a remarkable memory for nuance and can distinguish small details between performances of the same song throughout a tour. I could never figure out how he had time to listen, nor reason to care.
Most of the shows which are obsessively traded happen in huge venues, and only rarely and in highly unusual circumstances (Live Rust, say) are those events primarily about music. For most of the crowd, music is simply a backdrop to the evenings festivities.
The result, as with Los Lobos disc and a half of live material here, rarely sets the songs in a context which serves them best. Los Lobos are a brilliant live band, have been for three decades. But their transition from the punk world into the jam band orbit seems to have worn the crisp edges from their work.
And theyre great songwriters. They are also compelling vocalists and gifted instrumentalists. Tears Of God, to pick one of the fourteen tracks on the main disc, is a shimmering, subtle, highly emotional work in the studio, and when Ive seen them perform it in smaller venues. Here it seems to be more focused on a loping groove, and almost played for laughs.
Some of the problem may be in the recording itself, or perhaps the original live mix. Vocals sometimes seem more shouted over the instruments than musical, and snarling guitars which unquely thrive in big rooms like the Fillmore seem strangely muted. The three acoustic songs on the second disc are somewhat more satisfactory, and a tease.