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exactly when he rst heard the
band that would come to de ne
his career. But that rst encounter
years ago was not a magical
one. ings didn’t go so well for
Los Lobos that night, and it wasn’t at all
clear to Berlin that he would eventually
join them and help the band evolve to a
place of collective fame and fortune.
In
, Berlin was a young musician
who’d le his hometown of Philadelphia
to make his way into the music scene
in Los Angeles. He was a session player
and soon-to-be producer when he went
to catch a punk show, headlined by
Public Image, at an enormous venue. “It
was at a boxing arena called the Olym-
pic Auditorium,” Berlin recalls. With
his penchant for blunt talk, he quickly
adds some colorful descriptors: “It was
a real shithole—just a horri c place for
anything other than boxing.”
at already sounds like an odd ven-
ue for Los Lobos, an unknown quartet
at that point in time. But the match was
even worse because the band was still in
its earliest, unplugged iteration. “ at
rst time I saw them, in ’ , they were
playing folkloric stu ,” Berlin continues.
“And I guess [Public Image frontman]
John Lydon thought it would be great to
have Hispanic bands open that night.
“It was just unbelievable. It was red
meat for the lions, to have this acoustic
folkloric Mexican band open a punk
rock show. People were throwing every-
thing they could get their hands on—but
[Los Lobos] hung in there. ey stood
their ground, and I was just amazed.”
Although they didn’t meet that night,
Berlin never forgot the determination of
those four guys onstage, courageously
playing their set. So he knew exactly
who they were when they actually spoke
two years later.
los lobos’ steve berlin howls at the band’s unlikely tracks of success
B y W e b B e h r e n s
JUNE 1 – JUNE 17, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
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