Memorial Coliseum

October 27, 1978

This concert marked the second time Lowell George and Little Feat appeared in Memorial Coliseum. Their first show in Tuscaloosa was as an opening act for Traffic in 1974. The archetypal 1970s band had a charismatic frontman and a slew of talented supporting musicians. The 1978 concert was big and bold, featuring a dynamic band that drew liberally from their library of albums, including “Time Loves a Hero,” “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now,” and “Dixie Chicken,” and singles. The Friday night concert immediately went into overdrive, pushed by George’s outstanding slide guitar work, and Bill Payne’s barrelhouse piano rolls. The pair had met years while working in Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, then left to start Little Feat, which progressed from a West Coast cult favorite to a massive success. The show felt like a page torn out of Allen Toussaint’s New Orleans playbook, a hallmark of the group’s rich gumbo of musical styles. The concert had several high points like “Day or Night,” the funky “Skin it Back” and “Fat Man in the Bathtub.” Decked out in white overalls, George commanded the crowd’s attention. At the time George was also working closely with singer Robert Palmer, who would come to downtown Tuscaloosa a year later for a UPC concert “Under the Stars” at the Bama Theater. As George sang, the audience was enchanted and transported to a place not so far away: “I've seen the bright lights of Memphis and the Commodore Hotel. And underneath a street lamp, I met a Southern Belle. Well, she took me to the river where she cast her spell. And in that southern moonlight, she sang the song so well. If you'll be my dixie chicken, I'll be your Tennessee lamb. And we can walk together down in Dixieland, down in Dixieland.” Within about a year things would fall apart for Little Feat. The group reportedly broke up over “creative differences,” George recorded a solo album (“Thanks, I’ll Eat It Here”) and went on tour to support it. After a sold-out show in June 1979, he died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 34, allegedly due to years of drug use. Little Feat would go on to reform and continue to perform to this day. But no one who was in Memorial Coliseum that chilly October evening in 1978 will ever forget the stunning concert.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/little-feat/1978/memorial-coliseum-tuscaloosa-al-13e165cd.html