It dawned on me yesterday that I have not made any reference to music on this blog. I listen to a lot of music each day, whether it be in the car , in my office or at home and was surprised to find that I have not mentioned it in any posts. It is time that this changed. I have quite a varied taste in music, to identify one genre I enjoy would be far too difficult. The musicians I find myself listening to the most are Pavement, Preston School of Industry, The Ramones, The Clash, Rival Schools, Cardia, Ian Love, Wilco, The Smiths, Alice in Chains, Idlewild, Old 97s, Nightmare of You, Velvet Underground , Silver Jews, Quicksand, The Shins...shall I keep going? I suppose my music taste could be categorised as 'alternative' but I am open to anything providing it is not dance or today's pop/chart music.

On Wednesday night Sam and I went to see Los Lobos at the Warwick Arts Centre. Like many people in the UK, I first became aware of Los Lobos through their contributions to the La Bamba film soundtrack in 1987 when the title track was number one in the UK charts. But they should be known for much more than Richie Valens covers. They are an accomplished band who adopt a number of different musical styles ranging from rockabilly through to Mexican/Latin. It was disappointing to see such incredible musicians playing to such a small crowd, there could have only been a few hundred people present. A bad thing for the band but a good thing for us as it meant we could have a central, front row view. Initially the band looked most unhappy about the poor turnout but enthusiastically began the set with some traditional Mexican music before they progressed to the more 'rockier' songs.

It was an incredible gig. As it was such an intimate show due to the low attendance they willingly took requests from the audience and thankfully played the Ritchie Valens cover Come on Let's Go, my favourite Los Lobos song. I usually find that when I go to a gig the band never play the one song I want to hear so it was refreshing to hear this so much so I attempted to record it on my new mobile phone (more on that later) only to find that the sound quality was atrocious. In fact, the sound quality for the entire show was very poor. I am not sure whether it was because we were so close to the front or that the levels were messed up but the vocals were drowned out by the guitars. Not knowing much of their work as I amazed to see what incredible musicians they are, David Hidalgo is one hell of a guitarist. It was amusing to find that they did not play La Bamba, the one song they are most famous for in the UK, and hear the upset audience members moaning about it after the show. After such a great a performance they should have appreciated them as more than just a Richie Valens cover band. Sam said to me before the show that you should experience a band such as Los Lobos in a rundown TexMex bar not an arts centre. I agreed.