Concert Review: Little Feat / Miko Marks @ Troy Music Hall, 04/18/2023

By Mark Hudson On Apr 20, 2023

Little Feat delighted a sold-out crowd at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Tuesday night.

The versatile veteran rockers jammed a packed (jampacked?) audience into happy submission with a fiery set that had more energy than many bands half their age.

Little Feat’s music is impossible to categorize, a glorious mambo gumbo of just about every genre you can think of, with maybe some more you can’t. Blues shuffles transform into twisty prog workouts in the blink of an eye, yearning country ballads slide into laid-back jazz reveries at the drop of a hat, and hard rock riffage morphs into ragtime quick as a flash …and that’s just in one song!

Keyboard wiz Bill Payne is the only original member still serving from the band that formed in Los Angeles in 1969. He is insanely talented and able to produce a plethora of voicings from his setup of three Korgs. His solos throughout the night were transcendental. One electric piano outing in “The Fan” sounded like the spirits of Chick Corea and George Duke playing three-dimensional chess in space, all the while with the band laying down a dense Zappa-like groove.

Kenny Gradney (bass, vocals) and Sam Clayton (percussion, vocals) came on board in 1972, considered part of the “classic” 70’s lineup, and have survived the various personnel changes since then. Multi-instrumentalist Fred Tackett (guitar, mandolin, trumpet, vocals) has been a Feat soldier since 1993. That leaves the two “newbies”; Tony Leone – on drums and vocals and Scott Sharrod on guitar, slide, and vocals, both with the band since 2020. All were simply excellent. Sharrod, in particular, superbly handled the majority of the vocal and guitar parts originally performed by Lowell George, the Feat’s former frontman, who passed away in 1979. Wisely, Sharrod did not imitate George; instead, he put his own spin on the material while staying true to the vibe. He, too, pulled off some ferocious solos. The whole band showed a great level of taste and synergy whenever they stretched out into improvised instrumental passages, never boring, always tight.

The band played a mix of favorites (the trucker’s lament “Willin’,” the finger-lickin’ good “Dixie Chicken,” which had the crowd lustily singing along) and some deep cuts (“Representing the Mambo,” “Honest Man”), all performed with power and finesse.

They came to boogie our Spring away, and they surely did.

Little Feat – an American treasure.

Opening act Miko Marks went over well with a thirty-minute set of bluesy Americana. Her strong soulful voice was nicely framed by her band The Resurrectors, the understated backing of Steve Wyreman and Effie Zilch on acoustic guitars and vocals and Justin Phipps on harp. They also came out to provide extra vocals for the headliners on “Willin’” and a rambunctious set closer, “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now.”