Blazers Heating Up : Band that plays Mexican folk and rock shares roots with Los Lobos. It may be ready to claim its own piece of the limelight.

The cultural mix in the music of the Blazers was perhaps inevitable. The band’s devotion to the sounds of Mexican folk, to country and, especially, to roots-flavored rock ‘n’ roll can be traced back to the neighborhoods of East Los Angeles.

Three of the rock quartet’s members grew up there while attending high school and playing music with a handful of buddies who would later form a band called Los Lobos. By the end of the ‘80s, that eclectic Tex-Mex rock act would have a No. 1 single and an endless stream of critical acclaim. But it’s only now, with their own debut album and a coming national tour, that the Blazers look ready to reach for some success of their own.

“Growing up in East Los Angeles, there were a lot of talented musicians, a lot of real good rock players,” says singer-guitarist Ruben Guaderrama. “It was always real puzzling to a lot of them how to make that step, how to get further ahead. And we’ve been knocking our head up for years and years, and one thing we realized is there is no formula. We were told that before, but we know firsthand now.”

One indication of the band’s improving fortunes is its show tonight at the Palomino in North Hollywood, marking the Blazers’ second headlining gig at the club. The band is certain to perform songs from its coming “Short Fuse” album, due this month from Rounder Records and produced by Los Lobos singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas. (The Blazers will return to the Palomino for its record release party March 26.)

But on this recent Saturday morning, the band members are still a little bleary-eyed from a show the night before. Guaderrama, singer-guitarist Manuel Gonzales, bassist Lee Stuart and drummer Ruben Carlos Gonzalez sit on their manager’s back patio in Montebello, eating chorizo burritos, talking and joking about the band’s career thus far.

Stuart, who’s actually from West Covina, talks of the three-week van tours, bouncing from town to town, as far east as the Mississippi, the whole group sometimes getting just $60 for a night’s performance.

“It really makes a unit, though,” says Stuart, sporting sunglasses and a ponytail. “I’ve been looking for a band like this my whole career. You feel like you’re 21 years old again, sleeping on floors, sneaking into motels, eating one meal a day. No bickering or fighting. Just waiting to get to the next gig, and jamming your heart out.

“One time a kid came up to us, and he was all excited because he had never heard a band with live drums, real drums,” Stuart adds. “He’d heard all this electronic stuff. It blew his mind. So I’m hoping there is a bubbling underneath of people who really want to see people play, make mistakes, warts and all, out of tune, whatever. It’s the energy.”

That energy emerges on stage and on record both through the band’s Chuck Berry-style rockers and in such quieter romantic ballads as “Mi Ultima Parranda,” sung in Spanish.

“It’s things that everybody can relate to, everybody has been through at one time or another,” Guaderrama says of the songs. “In a way you can consider that folk music, because it is for the people, regular folks.”

Although the band has earned a loyal local following with that sound, a number of major pop figures have also discovered the Blazers. One night in 1992, Bob Dylan drifted into the Palomino during a performance, and soon invited the band to open his show at the Pantages Theater a few nights later.

“He was the nicest guy,” says Guaderrama. “We were all sitting around him like he was a priest or something.”

At the Pantages show, the Blazers met some other major musical figures, from George Harrison and Ringo Starr to Bruce Springsteen. But that night was no more memorable for Guaderrama than the first musical event he attended, as a 6-year-old, when he was brought to the concert of a major Mexican singer. Guaderrama then understood the power of music.

“He came on stage on his horse, with a full-dressed, 30-piece mariachi band. The hair behind your neck stands up. What is this excitement? I was just a little kid, but there was something there. There is something to it.”

Where and When What: The Blazers at The Palomino, 6907 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Hours: 9 tonight. Price: $6.50. Call: (818) 764-4010.