with Los Lobos and Ben Haggard
The Greek Theater – October 1, 2025
Every time we go to The Greek we regret it. It’s a nice venue – beautiful and not too big – It’s just a pain to get there. We meet there so it doesn’t make sense to pay $40 to park nearby because that turns into $80. We always meet at the Pony Lot for $10 and take the shuttle over to the Greek. And then after the concert, the line to get back on a bus is at least 45 minutes long and we swear we are never doing this again. As this concert approached we were both feeling like we’d rather not. To make matters worse, when we bought these tickets the tour was Dwight Yoakam and The Mavericks. The Mavericks were so fantastic last year we couldn’t wait to see them again. Unfortunately The Mavericks had to cancel a few weeks before the show. I found out from Dwight’s website that Los Lobos would be taking over and since I knew their tour with X had just been canceled, I was secretly hoping for an appearance by X as well (they did not appear).
As usual, I prepaid for parking in the Pony Lot. Traffic was so bad that Julie not only beat me there but called me to ask where I was. Maps had me taking surface streets all the way there, so I got to drive through some of the nicest (read with sarcasm) neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Still it was mostly fine as I zigzagged my way across the city. From Vermont, the map sent me down Avocado rather than Los Feliz which could only mean Los Feliz was AWFUL. I crawled my way down Avocado from one stop sign to the next until it turned into Rowena and just before rejoining Los Feliz at Lowry, came to a complete stop. It turned out that there was an accident at the corner of Lowry and Los Feliz. People were inching around the accident and further backing up Los Feliz. It cleared when I was 2 cars back and just as it was my turn to go, some a-hole in a Tesla pulled to my left and pulled out into traffic. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise since he was blocking everyone (horns a-honking) and I was able to make my right and then merge over 2 more lanes while he continued to block them.
Parking and the shuttle ride were uneventful and we made it to our seats just as the lights were dimming for Ben Haggard. Ben was great. He sounded so much like his father, Merle. He even did Okie From Muskogee. It wasn’t a sold out show so we weren’t all packed together and the people in our section were pretty okay – enjoying the show without annoying the people around them. There was a Dodger playoff game in progress and a guy in the row in front of us was streaming it on his phone. When Ben finished, he told us all the score. While Los Lobos was loading in we learned that many people around us bought these tickets specifically for the Mavericks. There was some disappointment, but we were all making the best of it.
Los Lobos took the stage and put on a good show – not as good as the Mavericks, but still good. I was surprised no one asked from the stage what the score was because they were clearly Dodgers fans. The keyboard player was fantastic. He had a huge Leslie speaker on stage that sounded so good! There seemed to be some problems with straps throughout their set. First a guitar strap, and then another person’s guitar strap, and when someone switched to accordion, that strap was a problem too. They’re pros though and just played through all the issues. I’d say they did a good job of winning over the crowd.
And then it was time for Dwight Yoakam. While they were loading in, someone came on the PA to say how much everyone was missing The Mavericks so they were going to have front-of-house crank up some Maverick’s for us. That was met with rousing applause and even some dancing.
Then Dwight’s band came out with all of their sparkles followed by Dwight with his signature cowboy hat and very tight jeans. He’s added a strip of sparkle to the back of his jacket which you get to see frequently as he dances around the stage. He did all the favorites and included a song he did with Post Malone off of his new album. Post Malone wasn’t there this time (he WAS there last time). He sounded great! Julie commented that he sounded better this year than last year and I told her that he sounded good last year too, it’s just that she was so blown away by the Mavericks that he couldn’t compare. The band was great too. The lead guitar really held his own and and the keyboardist really played all the things, just moving around the stage and picking up whatever needed to be played at the moment. We stayed through the encore – Suspicious Minds – knowing that we’d likely be waiting an hour for the bus back to the Pony Lot.
And then a miracle happened: there were plenty of buses. Plenty! The line was long, but they just kept loading and dispatching and as one would dispatch another would appear at the back of the line. It was less than a 10 minute wait to get on a bus. There are a couple of factors that could have been at play – for one, it wasn’t a sold out show, and for another a lot of people left before the encore. But this gives me hope. I’d be willing to try another show at the Greek after this experience.
All in all this was a really good show. It’s my third time seeing Dwight and I would happily see him again…even if it’s at The Greek!