Los Lobos [ tickets ]' set on Friday (11/28) was, as told from the stage, its unofficial 30th anniversary show. The two-hour set was a sometimes-quirky celebration, long on musicianship and short on slickness.

Somewhere in East L.A. in the latter part of 1973, Los Lobos tackled their first club shows, likely hitting a few technical snags as they acclimated to getting their electric instruments working properly on stage.

Endearingly, little seems to have changed in that regard 30 years down the road. Problems with the band's equipment pushed the start time at San Diego's Belly Up Tavern back some 35 minutes before the members of the group, ruefully shaking their heads, took the stage while the crew scurried to make their final adjustments.

Opener "Will the Wolf Survive," always a crowd-pleaser, seemed to lack a bit of its usual snap as the band found its groove. By the night's third song, the Caribbean-flavored "Maricela," the band was locked in. A quick change of guitars and Los Lobos [ tickets ] eased into a mini free-form jam that itself eased into "Angel Dance." The song has evolved from a percussion-based number on 1990's "The Neighborhood" into that same song wrapped into a well-honed wave of psychedelic-tinged guitar sounds in concert.

On stage, Los Lobos in 2003 sonically functions akin to a small orchestra. Across the front of the stage, guitars and voices ring from Cesar Rosas, David Hidalgo and Louie Perez. Percussionists Victor Bissetti and Cougar Estrada handle most drum duties these days (Perez was tied to the drum set before Bisetti and Estrada came aboard). Conrad Lozano acts as formidable glue between the strong musical personalities at the front of the stage and the percussion engine at the back. And Steve Berlin adds punctuation with sax, flute and keyboards.

Lozano is a large part of what goes right when the band is dialed in, as they were during the majority of Friday's set. His bass work--aggressive on the beat yet economical of notes--gets in and gets out of the way, letting the guitars masterfully sculpt over the musical foundation he and the drums lay down.

Midway through the set, the rhythm section shone on a re-working of Rosas' "My Baby's Gone," played as a slower, New Orleans-flavored shuffle that melted into Santana's "Black Magic Woman." And again on the percolating "Mas y Mas," which somehow merged into a rollicking take on the Grateful Dead's "Bertha".

Los Lobos wraps up its 2003 tour activity with pairs of shows at San Francisco's Fillmore and Los Angeles' House of Blues over the next three weeks. A new studio album featuring the band with several of their musical friends and heroes--reportedly including Mavis Staples, Bobby Womack, Tom Waits and Elvis Costello--is expected in the spring.

Set List:

Will the Wolf Survive?
Evangeline
Maricela
Angel Dance
Hearts of Stone
Let It Roll
Don't Worry Baby
My Baby's Gone
Black Magic Woman
Good Morning Aztán
Luz De Mi Vida
Malaqúe
Maria Christina
Mas y Mas
Bertha

Encores:

How Much Can I Do?
Cumbia Raza
I Got Loaded (w/Lovelight verse)
Cinnamon Girl

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