Tag: rock

A tale of two concerts: Maná and Los Lobos

This was a Mexican-influenced concert weekend. I saw Maná in concert on Friday night and Los Lobos on Saturday. Maná is the most celebrated and decorated rock en español band from Mexico and Los Lobos is “just another band from East L.A.” comprised of Chicanos and a Mexican. I speak Spanish fluently, so language was not an issue.

Maná

We caught Maná’s Vivir Sin Aire tour at the Honda Center. Our seats were to the side of the main stage, so we had large video screens and a bank of sound reinforcement speakers right in front of us. Unfortunately, it took a while for us to find out how good it sounded because Maná took the stage 45 minutes after the supposed start time.

Photograph of Maná playing "Mariposa Traicionera" with Fehr's image in the jumbotron
Maná playing “Mariposa Traicionera”

The late start time did not stop them from playing three sets. In the first set, Maná played their hit “Mariposa Traicionera” and covered Santana’s hit “Corazón Espinado” (that featured Maná in Supernatural), among many others. This was my first time to see Maná live and what immediately impressed me is how rock solid the rhythm section is. To close out the set, Alex “El Animal” González played an amazing extended drum solo while the rest of the band moved to the secondary stage.

Photograph of Maná playing their second set on the secondary stage
Second set on the secondary stage

The second set was more intimate. Only Fher Olvera (vocalist), Sergio Vallín (guitarist), Juan Calleros (bassist), and finally El Animal took the secondary stage, which was on the opposite side of the arena from the main stage. They played more stripped down versions of songs like “Te Lloré un Río” and “Vivir Sin Aire.”

Maná at the Honda Center

The band returned to the main stage for the final set. Fher’s voice was getting a little tired, so he often appealed to the crowd to do the singing for him. The sold-out crowd obliged him, knowing more lyrics than I did. Being sure to perform all the hits, like “Labios Compartidos” and “En el Muelle de San Blas,” Maná packed at least twenty songs into the concert.

Los Lobos

I had seen Los Lobos in concert once before (fifteen years ago co-headlining with Los Lonely Boys at the Greek Theater) but this was my first visit to the Garden AMP. It’s an intimate outdoor amphitheater that has a posted capacity of 497 but I think they packed in a few more than that for Los Lobos. As you would expect, there is a close, unobstructed view of the stage from anywhere inside the theater and the sound reinforcement is great, so this is a venue I will definitely return to.

Los Lobos at the Garden AMP

The entire band are all septuagenarians, so they did not have the same level of power in their voices and energy in their stage presence that they had when I saw them before. That said, the band has been together with the same members for more than half a century and their experience showed. They were well rehearsed and their musicianship was impeccable. As with Maná, the rhythm section was rock solid but I was most impressed by the bassist Conrad Lozano. Even the audio production was very professional with a balanced mix of all of the instruments and voices coming through.

Los Lobos played “Will the Wolf Survive” early in the set and saved “La Bamba” for their encore. Besides their two biggest hits, Los Lobos played a wide variety of songs from genres ranging from cumbia to the blues and beyond. My Mexican companion sang along to all of the traditional Mexican folk songs. Probably more of the songs were in English than the number of Spanish-language songs. Regardless, I was very entertained throughout.

Before closing, I want to give a shout out to to EARPEACE Music earplugs. I am prone to getting earringers from concerts. As I have aged, I have gotten into the habit of using foam earplugs at concerts to protect my hearing, even though they muffle the sound. This weekend was my first time using EARPEACE earplugs and they were worth every penny (they cost over $30). The volume level was comfortable at both shows and the full range of sound was retained and balanced. I will definitely be using them at all the concerts I attend in the future.

Train and REO Speedwagon

Summer Road Trip 2024

I’d seen REO Speedwagon in concert a couple of times in the past but they were all in the last century. I had never seen Train in concert but I do like their music and I did see them live on TV once, which convinced me that I needed to see them in concert. When they both made a Summer Road Trip together to the KIA Forum, I decided this is the time to do it, so I got tickets for me and my concert comadre.

Train and REO Speedwagon concert ticket

We entered the Forum near the end of Yacht Rock Revue’s opening act. They are a cover band that does ‘80s hits. It made a good warm up for the show. More importantly, we got a preview of just how great the sound reinforcement system at the Forum is now. It sounded much better than the sound system at the Honda Center, where we’d seen a show a couple of months prior, and even better than when I was last at the Forum in 2019. This was going to be a good time!

REO Speedwagon

REO Speedwagon took the stage first. Kevin Cronin, who has been the lead singer for over fifty years, still fronts the band at age 72. Although they took a couple of the songs down a step or two so that Kevin could still hit the high notes, he sounded great for the first half of the show. It sounded like his voice began to tire in the second half of the show but still strong enough to deliver a respectable and entertaining show. Besides, he had just performed a full concert the night before in San Francisco, so who am I to fault him while he’s still rocking out at his age.

Kevin Cronin and bandmates

The rest of the band was solid as a rock. They were well rehearsed and it showed. The instrumentals and the vocals were all very tight. Their set included all the beautiful vocal harmonies you expect to hear from REO Speedwagon. They played all their biggest hits, which are too numerous to list but you know which ones they are, so no longtime fans were left wanting.

Train

Train came down the tracks last. Train is a generation younger than REO Speedwagon but their vocalist Pat Monahan is 55 years old. Regardless, he can still hit all the high notes flawlessly (and there are many in Train’s repertoire). Pat kept the energy high throughout the show and his voice never flagged. In fact, he managed to catch fans’ smartphones, take selfies, and sing “If It’s Love” all at the same time without ever missing a note.

The surprise of the night was when Pat brought his twelve-year-old son Rock out on stage. Rock sang the lead to a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away”. There must be a genetic component to vocal talent because Rock hit every one of Robert Plant’s notes perfectly. Kevin Cronin also joined Train on the stage for a mash-up of “Meet Virginia” and “The Joker” (by Steve Miller). And Cheat Codes, a group I was not familiar with, joined Train on stage for one of their songs. Rock and Yacht Rock Revue rejoined the stage with Train to cover “Hotel California” near the end of the concert.

Train opened their set with “Calling All Angels” and closed the show with “Drops of Jupiter”. In between, they performed all of their other hits that I wanted to hear. The entire band was tight instrumentally and well rehearsed. Their vocal harmonies sounded great. All in all, it was a very enjoyable concert experience and a good time was had by all.