In 1973, four friends in East Los Angeles put together a band playing a mix of traditional Mexican music and rock 'n' roll for their families and friends.

Over the years, the quartet has won Grammy Awards, had a huge hit with its version of "La Bamba" and ventured into more experimental musical territory. Earlier this month, it played the White House as part of Fiesta Latina, a celebration of Hispanic musical heritage that also featured Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony and José Feliciano.

Friday night, Los Lobos will be at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, still together after all these years.

"There aren't too many bands that last 36 years; that's a long time," said Louie Perez, the band's guitarist. "The Stones have been around for a long time, but not with the original lineup. This is the original lineup. Steve Berlin is the new guy, and he's been around 25 years."

What has kept Los Lobos together for 36 years?

"Our creditors," Perez quipped before getting serious.

"If you strip it all down, it's four guys who grew up together and are friends," he said. "Over the last few years, we've all lost parents and we've gone through that together. Those are things that don't have a thing to do with the band. We're just friends. We're a family, as dysfunctional as we might be."

Perez moved from guitar to drums when Los Lobos began. He's now back on guitar, with Cougar Estrada moving onto the drum kit and making the band six pieces on stage.

Other Lobos are: David Hidalgo (vocals, guitars, accordion, violin, keyboards), Cesar Rosas (vocals, guitar, mandolin), Conrad Lozano (bass, guitarron, vocals) and Berlin (saxophones).

"In the early years, all our moms knew each other," Perez said. "When I'd come home after a fight in the band, my mom would say 'You're going to quit? You go apologize to Conrad right now.' The same thing would happen with David and Cesar and Conrad. They (the moms) wouldn't let us break up."

Los Lobos emerged outside the neighborhood in the late '70s/early '80s Los Angeles punk rock scene that birthed kindred spirits The Blasters and X and attracted national attention with its 1984 Slash Records debut, "How Will The Wolf Survive?"

But it took a 1987 cover of "La Bamba" that served as the title cut to the Ritchie Valens bio-pic to push the band into mainstream visibility. That success, however, didn't lead to musical repetition. Instead, the band followed its hit with a recording of the traditional Mexican song "La Pistola y El Corazon," for which it received the second of its three Grammy Awards.

In 1992, the band released the wildly experimental "Kiko," followed a few years later with the critically acclaimed, equally different "Colossal Head." The band has continued to zig and zag, making an EP of cover songs, then some originals and, earlier this week, releasing "Los Lobos Goes Disney," a CD of 13 songs from Disney movies.

"It's not a willful thing," said Perez, who writes most of Los Lobos' songs with Hidalgo. "A lot of the stuff is intuition. I've never sat down and said, 'I'm going to make a record that's really different.' I just leave the door open and see what shows up."

Perez headed for the White House a couple weeks ago, approaching Fiesta Latina as just another gig, albeit a more visible one. That changed when he got inside, wandered the halls and looked at a portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt. He met President Obama and the first lady, with whom, he said, he felt "completely comfortable."

When Obama introduced Los Lobos and cited their contributions to the American musical and cultural fabric, Perez was overwhelmed.

"I thought, 'Wow, that's me,'" he said. "It was like I stepped out of myself for a minute. If somebody would have asked 'Do these guys know what they're doing, what they've done?' I truthfully would say 'No.' But for them to acknowledge that this band has contributed so much to the music and culture of this country - and for that matter the world - the band has done something. ... What an honor."

The White House was a new type of venue for the band, who has delivered memorable shows in tiny clubs, ornate old ballrooms, basketball arenas and outdoor festivals. Tonight, they'll play in a performing arts center.

"We've seen the world through music," Perez said. "We've played every state in the union. We've played every venue. We've done tours in stadiums. We played big places when we were 'La Bamba' boys. We started off in punk rock clubs that hold 40 people."

They've always done it together, the neighborhood band that grew up to become a national treasure.

"The music is an outgrowth of the common spirit, the community, the family vibe," Perez said. "It has to come from that. As songwriters, David and I grew up with a shared experience. I always go back to that well of experience tempered with what's going on in our time. In 1973, there was a sense that there was something going on with us four guys playing together. Our families sensed it too. There was something going on and to this day, I still feel it."

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.