On Friday night, Little Feat returned to Southern California for one of the seven remaining shows of a nearly year-long 45th-anniversary celebration of the 1977 concerts represented on the band’s Waiting For Columbus album.  The venerable sextet last performed in the region in August, visiting Los Angeles, and marked its latest and final SoCal date on the lengthy tour with a stop, this time, at the City National Grove of Anaheim.  With a two-hour, complete performance of 1978’s critically acclaimed double-disc set, and a special guest appearance by opener Nicki Bluhm on a couple of Feat favorites, the group delighted the near-capacity crowd.

Following an extended “Fat Man In The Bathtub,” loaded with slide guitar explorations from the group’s newest guitarist/singer, Scott Sharrard, as well as the vocal and keyboard talents of founding member Bill Payne, the veteran band shifted to “All That You Dream,” and Sharrard’s first of several soulful lead vocals.  Payne followed with a brief wink to “Jingle Bells,” then launched into the upbeat swing of “Oh Atlanta.”

Payne then introduced the other recent addition to the Feat fold- drummer Tony Leone- given the honor of singing “Old Folks Boogie,” written by the band’s late guitarist, Paul Barrere, who passed in 2019.  (Sharrard, soon after, accepted Barrere’s spot.)  Fittingly, just prior to “Time Loves A Hero,” Payne offered a touching tribute to the band’s former principal, now deceased, members, acknowledging Feat founder Lowell George, drummer Richie Hayward, and Barrere.  

Most of the band’s expansive improvisation came next, beginning with Sharrard’s six-string workout on “Day Or Night” and continued through the poly-rhythmic grooves of “Mercenary Territory.”  The darker funk of “Spanish Moon” that segued into another Leone vocal on “Skin It Back” carried with it plenty of instrumental exchanges from Payne, Sharrard, and veteran guitarist Fred Tackett.  Next up was the classic “Dixie Chicken,” which welcomed Bluhm to the stage to share in the chorus, as well as Tackett’s trumpet, and the propulsive bass of Kenny Gradney, stretching the favorite.

After a raucous “Tripe Face Boogie,” Bluhm returned to split vocal duties with Sharrard on George’s iconic truck-driving tune, “Willin’.”  A final push through the electrified crunch of “A Apolitical Blues,” featuring vocals from longtime percussionist Sam Clayton, and the equally blues-soaked “Sailin’ Shoes,” culminated in a rush of “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” and the finale, and only non-Columbus cut of the evening, “Let It Roll.”

Next up for Little Feat are the last six dates of the tour, with a final show on Dec. 17 in Boulder, Colo., available as a livestream event.