MAKING THEIR OWN WAY : The Path Paved by ‘La Bamba’ Hasn’t Much Diverted Los Lobos

Some rock bands love success so much that, having grasped it once, they’ll try time and again to repeat the magic formula.

Good bands know they have to move on.

Los Lobos’ chance to make a bargain with the devil came in 1987, when the Los Angeles band scored a surprise hit with a remake of Ritchie Valens’ rocked-up rendition of the Mexican folk tune “La Bamba.” Because Mexican folk and ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll had long been among the distinctive strands woven into Los Lobos’ rich tapestry of roots-music styles, there was nothing suspect about their covering “La Bamba,” the title song of a hit film about Valens’ life.

Los Lobos’ version went to No. 1. If the band was ever going to recast itself from critics’ favorite to mainstream item, the time had arrived. But Los Lobos passed on the chance to reconstitute itself as a good-time band and went back to following its own lights.

First came “La Pistola y El Corazon,” which, far from repeating the Latino-rock hybrid of “La Bamba,” was a loving visit to the traditional Mexican folk sources that were at its root. Then, in 1990, Los Lobos released “The Neighborhood,” reasserting the social and spiritual concerns that had marked “How Will the Wolf Survive?” and “By the Light of the Moon,” the two mid-’80s albums that had established the band as one of America’s most versatile and respected.

Record sales for those two post-hit albums were, if not quite bombs, certainly not “La Bamba.” The devil went off looking for others to bargain with. The five members of Los Lobos kept following their lights and stumbled onto something truly luminous--namely, “Kiko,” one of those rare albums that, like a good novel or film, creates a persuasive, detailed, magical and philosophically beautiful world of its own.

On “Kiko,” we encounter a feeling of community and a sense of the past hovering very close to our present--the sort of timelessness that informed the first two albums by The Band. It’s no coincidence that David Hidalgo, who sings most of the lead vocals and writes most of the songs with drummer/lyricist Louie Perez, rivals the Band’s Rick Danko in soulfulness and poignancy. But the past is only one of the album’s dimensions. Parts of “Kiko” bring us into a strange spirit world of angels and apparitions that can be haunting or comforting; others make us helpless witnesses to the suffering of innocents.

“Wicked Rain,” written and sung by Cesar Rosas, the band’s resident blues specialist, puts the Job-like questions that are at the core of “Kiko”:

Father, father, father, why do you let your sons go astray?

Brother, brother, brother, why must we go on this way?

Los Lobos offers no firm answers, just a great fund of heartfelt commiseration for the human lot and a sense of wonderment at life’s more magical possibilities. The sheer excellence of “Kiko” is cause in itself for hope, because it stands as evidence that those who resist the devil’s bargains can open themselves to the occasional visitation of inspiring angels.

Who: Los Lobos.

When: Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7:30 and 10:45 p.m.

Where: Rhythm Cafe, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana.

Whereabouts: San Diego (405) Freeway to Harbor Boulevard exit; go north and take the third right, Lake Center Drive. Rhythm Cafe is on the left. Also, Garden Grove (22) Freeway to Harbor Boulevard exit; go south to Lake Center Drive and turn left.

Wherewithal: $29.50 in advance, $31 at the door.

Where to call: (714) 556-2233.