On Friday night, Little Feat returned to New Haven, bringing its Boogie Your Spring Away Tour to the Connecticut seaside city. Just a block from the hallowed halls of Yale University, the band’s faithful filled the College Street Music Hall to near-capacity and enjoyed two hours of higher musical education from the venerable sextet. With a set dotted with classics from both the group’s early and latter eras, Little Feat immediately brought the packed house to its feet and kept them rolling through the night.

2022 saw the band spend the entirety of its touring schedule supporting the 45th anniversary of the seminal live album, Waiting for Columbus. As such, the six were locked in each performance to an in-sequence reading of the record–granted, still with plenty of improvisation. A few appearances into this spring run, it’s been apparent that the rejuvenated ensemble has been consciously contrasting that approach, changing up the setlists each time out, touching down at various spots within the legendary group’s five-decade discography. As such, the Feat tossed it back 50 years for the opening “Easy to Slip” from their second album, 1972’s Sailin’ Shoes, then slipped nicely into “Hate to Lose Your Lovin’” from the group’s 1988 comeback hit, Let It Roll.

The familiar second-line snare drum lead-in, courtesy of Tony Leone, announced “Fat Man in the Bathtub,” extended energetically for solos from keyboardist and founding member Billy Payne and guitarists Fred Tackett and (relative) newcomer Scott Sharrard. It’s now been almost four years since Sharrard entered the Feat fold, joining full-time after the October 2019 passing of longtime guitarist Paul Barrere. Too, on drums, Leone is a fresh face, replacing Gabe Ford, who maintained the chair for over a decade following the 2010 death of founding drummer Richie Hayward. Together, Sharrard and Leone have revitalized this iconic group, bringing their prodigious instrumental and vocal talents to the Feat repertoire; Sharrard handling many lead vocals once anchored by Feat founder Lowell George, and Leone taking a few turns, as well, including early in the set, on the winking ode to ladies of the evening, “Walkin’ All Night.”

For every favorite, such as a rollicking “Oh Atlanta,” there was a deeper cut, as the six followed that ‘74 single with Barrere’s rarer “Perfect Imperfection,” sung beautifully by Sharrard. Or a tight turn back to ‘88 on “One Clear Moment” from Let It Roll and the pot-boiling funk from Tackett on his “One Breath at a Time,” off of 2012’s Rooster Rag. They also welcomed a few guests: bringing up the show’s opener- Miko Marks and her supporting duo of Effie Zilch- for a slinky “Sailin’ Shoes” and George’s gem, “Willin’.” And invited Mike LoBue, on harmonica, to blow the blues on “Mellow Down Easy,” led by percussionist Sam Clayton.

Highlights came early and often, with a mid-point “Day or Night” dazzling on solos from Sharrard, Tackett, and Payne.  Then again, with Payne and bassist Kenny Gradney’s solos on the expansive Feat standard, “Dixie Chicken,” that led into a high-octane take of “Tripe Face Boogie” that boogied the speakers away.  After Marks and Effie Zilch returned to grace the up-tempo roll of “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now,” the six simmered the funky stew on a final pairing of “Spanish Moon” and “Skin It Back,” led by Sharrard and Leone, respectively; a fitting meld of classic Feat and its newest torch-bearing troubadours.

Little Feat’s Boogie Your Spring Away Tour continues Sunday night at Penn’s Peak in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, and dates through the end of April.  Visit www.littlefeat.net for more information.