Photo by Jaime Butler

Little Feat
El Rey Theatre
Los Angeles, CA
September 16

Great nights can happen anywhere. They aren’t reserved solely for the final show of the tour in front of the hometown crowd with a slew of guests sitting in for some spectacular, one-time jamming. That is, unless it’s Little Feat at the historic El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, where the proximity to the friends and family of the ageless sextet better provides for such spontaneous musical combustion.

The vintage Miracle Mile movie house made for an ideal host to a Sunday-night welcome-home parade of 500 ranging everywhere from toddlers to the senior set, presumably many relatives of the Feat. Under a trio of crystal chandeliers, the gathered had dance shoes on as the legendary combo stepped off with a punchy “Rocket In My Pocket.” Perhaps a harbinger of the evening’s emphasis on material from Rooster Rag, the group’s 16th and latest studio album, the heavy-duty crunch of “Just A Fever” and California highway ode “Rag Top Down” were next, two of six of the record’s cuts on the setlist. Delving back 40 years, second-line greetings from drummer Gabe Ford launched “Fat Man In The Bathtub,” detouring into Captain Beefheart’s “Abba Zaba,” then returning to resolve the Dixie Chicken classic.

As the concert’s first guests, the Texacali Horns duo of Darrell Leonard (trumpet) and Joe Sublett (sax) joined in for the intoxicated funk of “Spanish Moon” and modern-day counterpart “One Breath At A Time.” Truck-driver homage and certifiable staple of any Little Feat performance, “Willin’” found new life with the addition of Jimmy Vivino (Conan O’Brien’s Basic Cable Band) and his harmony vocals, sharing his high-pitched pipes for the subversive sing-along “Don’t Bogart That Joint” and Band tribute “The Weight,” as well. Guitarist Fred Tackett’s gospel-infused “Church Falling Down,” accented by the cello cameo of son Miles Tackett (Breakestra), headed three consecutive Rag tracks including the title tune and “Way Down Under.”

Always a fan-favorite, an extended “Dixie Chicken” benefited from a boost of Vivino, this time on guitar, while axe ace Robben Ford (and current Feat drummer’s uncle) fired counterpoint stingers and a blistering lead on the powerhouse “Let It Roll” closer. Two hours in and not quite done, the ensemble returned for the encore bop of “Oh Atlanta.” Finally, lined shoulder to shoulder, all of the evening’s performers took a bow and wrapped another great night in the annals of Little Feat.