One of the most important bands to emerge from Los Angeles since the late 1970s brings its current stripped-down acoustic tour to San Francisco Friday when Latin roots-rock giants Los Lobos headline the Fillmore Friday night.

Revered by some critics as one of the best American rock bands to emerge since the 1970s, Los Lobos has evolved over the course of over 40 years from bluesy roots-rock and Latin sounds to incorporate funky R&B grooves, folk and experimental electronica into its eclectic sound. Founded by multi-instrumentalists Dave Hidalgo and Louis Perez, guitarist Caesar Rosas and bassist Conrad Lozano in 1973 after the players met in high school, the group honed its fiery style of playing Top 40 covers and traditional Mexican standards at Southern California bars, weddings, quinceañeras and anyplace else they could get a gig for a decade before actually recording an album.

An independently produced album and EP led to a deal with Slash/Warner Bros. which issued the band's 1984 major label debut How Will the Wolf Survive?, which was the first to features contributions from new member Steve Berlin on saxophones and keyboards. While it received a good deal of critical acclaim, the album was not the commercial success it deserved to be. The band's profile would rise significantly with the success of the 1987 soundtrack for La Bamba featuring their blazing renditions of Ritchie Valens songs. While hitting the top of the charts might have led more commercially minded musicians to stick with stripped-down retro rock, Los Lobos followed that platinum album with La Pistola y El Corazon, an EP of acoustic Tejano/Mariachi songs.

In the '90s, the band evolved to embrace electronic textures with help from producers Tchad Blake and Mitchell Froom who collaborated on several of the group's most experimental and acclaimed efforts including the seminal album Kiko in 1992 and the equally beloved follow-up Colossal Head four years later. Members also branched out into side projects with Hidalgo and Pérez teaming with Blake and Froom in the experimental group the Latin Playboys that released a pair of acclaimed albums during the decade.

The band has been less prolific with the release of new original material after releasing a string of well-received studio albums during the 2000s. Los Lobos has also issued several live recordings and collections of covers, including their most recent effort Native Sons from 2021 which featured the group delivering versions of songs by fellow Californian artists including the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, Jackson Browne and War. 

After their longest break from touring in their entire career during the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Lobos has stayed busy on the road where there is no questioning their status as one of the most accomplished and energetic live band playing today. In the fall of 2023, the band brought its 50th anniversary tour to San Francisco with two spectacular shows at the Fillmore. It was just over a year ago that Los Lobos celebrated their induction into the California Hall of Fame. This time around, Los Lobos is on its current "Disconnected" tour (a nod to their 2013 unplugged live album Disconnected in New York City) that features the band playing songs from throughout its career in a stripped-down "acoustic with drums" format. Opening the show is Altadena-based Chicano soul outfit Los Yesterdays, who have built a solid following with a string of 7-inch singles mixing lowrider R&B balladry with Mexican Folklorico traditions. Last year, the partnership of  producer/drummer Gabriel Rowland and singer/songwriter Victor Benavides released its first full-length album via Now-Again Records.

Los Lobos with Los Yesterdays
Friday, Jan. 24, 8 p.m. $71
The Fillmore