SoCal punk hero El Vez brings Mex-mas show to the Bottom of the Hill

Pioneering punk singer Robert Lopez brings his alter ego El Vez to the Bottom of the Hill Wednesday, presenting the 2023 edition of his annual holiday show with support from Chaki the Funk Wizard and the Mutilations.

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.  

For this Wednesday 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 joined by hysterical one-man groove tornado and former Bay Area resident Chaki the Funk Wizard. Playing bass and keyboards while delivering a deranged mix of covers and unhinged original songs, Chaki weaves together elements of vocoder-powered electro grooves in the vein of Roger Troutman's Zapp, ferocious bass-slapping Bootsy/Prince funk, Devo-esque synth absurdity and trashy Misfits punk in his highly entertaining sets. A year ago, he released his digital single "Christmas Funk/How to Chanukkah," a pair of seasonal tunes that are sure to get an airing Wednesday. San Leandro psychedelic surf-garage rockers the Mutilations open the show. 

El Vez 2023 Mex-mas Show with Chaki the Funk Wizard and the Mutilations
Wednesday, Dec. 20, 7:30 p.m. $25-$30 
The Bottom of the Hill