Midniters’ Leader Ready to Rock Again : Pop music: The East L.A. band that made the charts in the ‘60s will share the bill at a ‘Latino Legends’ concert Saturday.

Los Lobos drummer Louis Perez remembers the time in the mid-’60s when he was growing up in East Los Angeles and his older sister dragged him across Whittier Boulevard to hear a few neighborhood rock bands playing in the parking lot of JohnSons Market.

And he remembers a couple of years later taking his bike across the street and sitting on the steps of a Catholic church’s social hall to hear bands rehearse.

“That music was something I’d only experienced on television and radio, and here I was able to get a dose of what it was really all about,” he said.

In those days, East L.A. was a musical sponge. Such acts as Thee Midniters, Cannibal & the Headhunters and Chris Montez were absorbing everything from R&B; to doo-wop to traditional Mexican music to British Invasion rock ‘n’ roll, turning it into something of their own.

Not only did these artists bring rock ‘n’ roll into East L.A., they took their own musical perspective out of the community for the first time.

“Groups like Thee Midniters brought success to the neighborhood,” Perez recalled. “They were like the big stars. They were our heroes.”

On Saturday, several of the acts that helped pave the way for Los Lobos will be together for a “Latino Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll” concert at the Greek Theatre.

Featured will be Thee Midniters (who had national success with “Land of a Thousand Dances--Part 1”), Montez (“Let’s Dance”) and the first appearance in 15 years by former Midniters singer Little Willie G. Joining them will be several Texas-based Latino rock acts from the same era, including ? & the Mysterians (“96 Tears”).

For Midniters co-founder Jimmy Espinoza, it will bring fond memories of the group’s heyday, when it went from being the first rock band to play at the Hollywood Palladium’s regular Latin salsa nights to being among the first Latino bands to be on the bills of big rock shows.

“In 1965, we were at the Rose Bowl with Herman’s Hermits, the Turtles, the Bobby Fuller Four and the Lovin’ Spoonful,” said Espinoza, now 42 and living in South Pasadena while studying acting and leading the current Midniters, which he revived in 1982 after a 10-year break. “It drew 38,000 people. We had ‘Land of a Thousand Dances’ on the charts. It was a thrill just to be involved.”

Such billings were a breakthrough for the Southern California Latino rock community. But Espinoza said there was no great effort made to identify his band as Latino, and the music of these acts was never presented as part of a movement.

“We were aware of our culture,” he said. “But we were artists, musicians, entertainers, not rebellious or making political and social comments. We let our music do that. It was never a heavy viewpoint.”

Today Espinoza is taking more of that viewpoint. He’s currently developing a talk-variety television show designed to present Latinos from all backgrounds and social strata in order to counter the stereotypes.

“The show will acknowledge role models and celebrity guests from all cultures,” he said. “It’s not banging a drum, but there will be a Latin ambience. I want to show that Hispanics are mainstream. My whole family is college educated, they’re doing well. I want kids to see it’s normal to attain that. (Latino) kids turn on the TV and don’t see themselves like that.”

Espinoza has some mixed feelings about Saturday’s concert, which presents Latino rock as a separate musical genre. That’s something of which Los Lobos’ Perez was very critical.

“Whatever went on back then, it was for the moment and was special and is an important part of musical history,” Perez said. “It would be nice for some of these groups to instead have an opportunity to move on, to progress and pick up where they left off instead of this one-night, once-upon-a-time show.”

But Espinoza sees even this as a small but significant step.

“I understand Louis’ feelings because he is an artist who wants to broaden his appeal and sees a show like this as putting up a barrier for Latino musicians,” Espinoza said. “But there’s a part of me looking at the reality of the historical representation of our groups and culture. It’s a Catch-22 situation, but I’m glad the show is there. . . . I’m glad for it because it hasn’t happened before.”