SoCal punk hero El Vez brings Christmas show to the Bottom of the Hill

Pioneering punk singer Robert Lopez brings his cross-cultural alter ego El Vez to the Bottom of the Hill Thursday, presenting the 2024 edition of his annual holiday show with backing from rockabilly trio the Centuries and support from East Bay ska band Day Labor and DJ Sid Presley.

Inspired by his early experiences seeing live music as a teen -- Led Zeppelin was his first concert at age 14, though he was far more influenced by his second show headlined by proto-punk icons the New York Dolls -- Lopez started playing guitar in the Zeros while attending Chula Vista High School in 1976 with fellow student, guitarist/singer Javier Escovedo. By the following year, the band was playing Los Angeles with fellow SoCal punk upstarts the Germs and the Weirdos as well as touring acts like Devo, the Damned and SF counterparts the Avengers.

The band issued one of the first underground punk singles out of Los Angeles with "Don't Push Me Around" on Bomp! Records, with Lopez penning the B-side of the follow-up 7-inch "Beat Your Heart Out" in 1978. But later that year, he split from the band, eventually ending up as the keyboard player with more experimental punk group Catholic Discipline. That band was featured in the landmark Penelope Spheris documentary The Decline of Western Civilization in 1981.

While Lopez spent much of the '80s focused on art, spending some time as a curator for a Los Angeles gallery that focused on Mexican folk art, late in the decade he invented his satirical tribute character El Vez, the Mexican Elvis. Initially testing out his concept in Memphis by performing songs with tweaked lyrics from a Chicano perspective over an Elvis karaoke tape, he returned to Los Angeles and appeared as the character on the NBC show "2 Hip 4 TV" prior to staging his first live performances. While the concept started out as a kitschy goof, Lopez soon realized that the character could be an outlet for serious if comical social commentary on the Mexican-American experience.

With increasingly elaborate costumes and staging, El Vez became a West Coast cult phenomenon, drawing packed houses at venues in LA and San Francisco as Lopez began recording his revamped Latino takes on Presley hits that would often incorporate elements of punk and new-wave songs into the mix. His first full-length album Graciasland (a nod to Paul Simon's Graceland album) in 1994 to wide acclaim. The El Vez legend would grow with nationally televised appearances on "The Tonight Show" -- singing "Happy Birthday" to actor Tim Robbins" -- "The Oprah Winfrey Show." 

Lopez would also play shows with a reunited line-up of the Zeros and introduce a new spoken word/performance art character Raul Raul, an angry, politically charged Chicano poet, but El Vez remained his principle creative outlet with regular tours and single releases. More recently, Lopez launched the Little Richards, another tribute band that features fellow San Diegan Pat Beers (The Schizophonics) on guitar, and Unhappy Hour, a black-humored cabaret show with his character "Mr. Bob" singing depressing American standards. 

This year, Lopez started fronting a revival of his original band operating as the Zeros '77. While guitarist/singer Javier Escovedo is still leading his own version of the group, Lopez and original bassist Hector Penalosa have teamed with Lopez's cousin Adam Remmers on guitar and the powerhouse drummer of the Schizophonics, Lety Beers, to bash out the group's classic tunes. For this Thursday night holiday show at the Bottom of the Hill co-presented by DJ Sid Presley (who will be playing records before and between bands), El Vez will be backed by veteran LA rockabilly outfit the Centuries, which will bring El Vez closer to the stripped-down early roots of the King's music. Opening the show is Pittsburg-based ska-punk band Day Labor, who released their second album Amigos in 2022.

El Vez & the Centuries Christmas Especial with Day Labor
Thursday, Dec. 19, 8 p.m. $25-$30 
The Bottom of the Hill