We flashback to one of the most famous live documents to ever circulate of legendary rock and rollers and ‘Country Funkers’ Little Feat. This performance features the band in their prime, nestled between the LP releases Dixie Chicken and Feats Don’t Fail Me Now and playing for a small and intimate assembled studio audience. The recording from Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, Long Island, on September 9, 1974 is a clear Pre-FM soundboard recording that lucky enough catches the band playing at an astronomical level.
Often discussed as their ‘best’ line up, this recording calls attention to the 1974 version of Little Feat containing Lowell George (Guitar, Vocals), Paul Barrere (Guitar, Vocals), Kenny Gradney (Bass), Richie Hayward (Drums,Vocals) Sam Clayton (Percussion, Vocals), and Bill Payne (Keyboards). While not considered a ‘hit making’ band, Little Feat was a group to be witnessed in the live arena and was recognized by music aficionados and underground FM stations as a vital and influential group.
The concert opens on the phased and strummed opening of ‘Rock n Roll Doctor’, who slips in the back door for a home visit. Intertwining keyboards and a slide guitar by George wrap themselves around the groove, tightening like a tourniquet. The drums and rest of the instrumentation play a tug of war with one another, the drums racing, the vocal melody slightly dragging behind, sweet, patient. George’s clean Stratocaster slide guitar adds a sleek narcotic dressing to the track, that by its conclusion has become a joyous call and response vocal jam riding the bumpy roads of the Feat’s rolling rhythm.
”Two Trains’ from 1973’s Dixie Chicken follows and is an earthy ‘Allman Brothers-esque’ track brimming with percussion, Hammond organ accents and syrupy vocals by George. Minus an additional horn section, this is chunky New Orleans funk, reminiscent of Dr. John, Allen Toussaint and The Band. Little Feat are a conglomerate of influence, contributing a cosmic improvisational dusting to their homegrown sensibilities. ‘Two Trains’ begins to pick up speed, entering a darkened tunnel of extended jamming. Barrere solos first with a slightly over driven tone to which Payne answers with his own keyboard excursions that also contain a bite.
An urgent version of ‘The Fan’ mischievously creeps from the backseat of a tour van, the aggressive rhythm lending shape to Payne’s slick keyboard riffs that develop the basis of the song. A sly staccato verse about the misgivings of a teenage groupie finally gives way to an extended Bill Payne keyboard liftoff. The insistent cadence of the track is memorizing as Payne concocts a plethora of melodic statements, manipulated into bends, swells, and crescendos. A reply of ‘heavy’ can be heard coming from a band member on the recording, and is a proper analysis of the preceding jam.
The mood quiets slightly with the slowly sinking Allen Toussaint cover, ‘On Your Way Down’ being displayed next. A slinky, slightly dark version follows, with Payne’s keys again being a focal point, the opening of the song being an acoustic piano saloon salute. George sings the straight up lyric with the soul of a man who has been hurt in the past, Barrere is sympathetic to every sweetly sung line with tasteful statements.
A song suite of three songs as funky as old gym shoes follows and are an obvious highlights of the performance. ‘Spanish Moon’ starts things off with a sexy stomp created by drums, percussion and bass. Walking with the light of the night, the band peers through the window a dusty, musty saloon to see a dark bluesy beauty playing guitar. The band paints this picture with their sensual reading of the song that eventually slips seamlessly into the Barrere penned ‘Skin It Back’. The Feat get six feet deep funky on this one, George lays down hand in glove slide playing that fits perfectly, working with the band in perfect harmony. A short drums and percussion interlude lays the groundwork for the segue into a bubbly ‘Fatman in the Bathtub’. Dual slide guitars are prominent in this recording as well as some sudsy Fender Rhodes enveloping the jumpy calypso tinged groove. An ass shaking version of one of Little Feat’s most beloved classic tracks.
After some thanks from the band to the assembled studio audience the band breaks into a ‘Oh Atlanta’ rock and roll romp. Longing for the friendly skies and his lovely lady Bill Payne takes over the vocal chores on this one, also contributing some roly poly honky tonk on the black and whites. George concentrates on his guitar work and lends silvery filigrees of sound from his instrument.
Often thought of as the most well known and popular songs in the Little Feat canon the bootleg recording ends with ‘Willin’, a song also covered beautifully by Linda Ronstadt. Road weary and on weed, whites, and wine, George sings an intimate version, with Payne’s rain on the windshield piano decorations played pianissimo over the top of George’s acoustic. High and lonesome the song follows the white lines with the windows cracked to let the smoke out, subject to contemplation, and always looking forward. Beautiful.
The recording that I am listening to concludes here, but during a WILR rebroadcast of the performance a suite of three additional songs were premiered that were not included in the original radio broadcast and on bootlegs, a 15 minute medley of ‘Cold Cold Cold’, ‘Dixie Chicken’ and ‘Triple Face Boogie’. This jam includes two songs from the 1972 LP, ‘Sailin Shoes’, and ‘Dixie Chicken’ from the LP of the same name. ‘Cold, Cold, Cold’ is an appropriately chilling reading that starts low key, but builds in girth, eventually culminating in a vocal jam and slide guitar spotlight that falls perfectly into ‘Dixie Chicken’. Dixie is a celebratory version with grinning vocals, chippy piano additions, and tasty wah-wah’d guitar licks. Barrere and George both bring some riffs to the table, not harmonizing with their instruments like the Allman’s but having a conversation like Stills and Young.
After ‘Dixie’ runs her course she falls in the lap of the ‘Tripe Face Boogie’, and the tune is off an running. Straight rock, no chaser, the Feat stomp their through the flower garden and sprint their way through this welcome addition to an already legendary concert performance. The song breaks apart in the midsection separating into individual elements briefly, then coming together to blast through into the conclusion soaring on George’s hot knife through butter guitar neck navigation.
This Little Feat performance from 1974 at Ultrasonic Studios finds the group in the midst of arguably their most creative era. The song selection, sound quality, and energy exhibited by band are all reasons for the eager listener to search out this recording and to spend an afternoon with it. Little Feat are a highly underrated band full of influence and ability, often lost in the midst of time to larger and more well known names. In a time where glam and disco were becoming king, Little Feat stayed close to home and just kept on jamming.
The mixed excited chatter buzzed throughout the venue as fans waited for the arrival of Five Finger Death Punch. The roar of the crowd rang out as the crew began setting up the stage. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the band emerged from the shadows, not a moment was wasted as they began with one of their many hits, “Under and Over It”, followed by “Burn it Down”. By the beginning of the third song, “The Way of the Fist”, the madness that had been brewing before finally exploded into chaos; the crowd surfers rose from the sea of bouncing, fist-pumping bodies, plastic beer bottles flew into the air in the direction of the stage. There was a moment of peace when front man, 
At the sight of Escape the Fate‘s backdrop, the roar of the fans was almost deafening as they awaited the band’s arrival. The overhead music came to a halt as the lights suddenly dimmed and gave off a blue hue to the stage, a strong hint that it was time for Escape the Fate to rock the stage. “I was fucking sitting on the balcony at my friend’s house, named Kenny with our old singer and we were smoking refried cigarettes and at the time I was thinking of a band name,” Max Green, the band’s bassist, explained to Upstate Metal’s Kate Drexel earlier that evening, when asked about the creation of the band name. “I was like ‘Alright, it’s gotta be something that’s chant-able’, something we can clap to and so I wanted something with a three in it, so it can be abbreviated cool. So it was like…I feel like it would’ve been like doodling names or whatever else with just cool words or whatever and it kind of just fell into place, to be honest. I think we were writing down ‘escape’ or talking about fate or something like that, like ‘Man, those two look cool together’ and it’s cool with the E and the F, you can do something cool with it, just fell into place with Escape the Fate.”
After each member made their appearance, Escape the Fate didn’t hesitate for one moment as they began with the title track from their latest record, Ungrateful, followed quickly by “Issues” and the second single from the album, “You’re Insane.” The crowd was pumped and the moshing that started off slowly, intensified. “When we usually write, our real guitar player, Monte [Money] would just send a demo and I would write vocals but when he would explain how he would write it. That’s why I’m excited to see how he would write this next record, actually sit down and do it as a band because that’s something we’ve always wanted to do but haven’t done, it’s just more of he sits down…I think “Gorgeous Nightmare” was “Bad Romance” or some other Lady Gaga song,” said 
Finally, at the end of the interview, Drexel got to ask her favorite question: what does music mean to you? “Well, I’d say for me, personally, everything. It’s what got me through my day as a kid, it’s what I used to lock my room door after my dad would kick my ass and blast music as soon as he left the house because I couldn’t do it while he was there,” reminisced Craig. “As soon as he was gone, my mom would have to deal with the wrath of Craig and I would just blast music. It’s what I did my whole life. I played violin in the 5th grade then I moved to the saxophone and I started singing and now it’s what pays my bills and still helps me get through the day because I get to express myself. I can sit down and write a song whenever I want to so…music is everything to me.”
The stage was set with three toilets (lid down) for Chris Friday (guitar/vocals), Colby Dix (guitar/vocals) and Jon Fishman behind the drum kit. Bassist Aram Bedrosian stood at stage right all night, giving the band a beat that kept things progressing, even though every bit of the show, short of written setlist, was shot from the hip and had no sense of organization to the show. Therein lay the highlight of Touchpants – the band performs songs like “Penis Slap” and “Mushroom Tattoo”, discusses prolapsed colons and finds Colby Dix wandering through the crowd to talk-sing to anyone in his path, all the while the band keeps playing on stage.