Concert at KB, Malmoe, Sweden 5th of July

[matt]

We´re a couple of long time featfans driving down to see the show. Approx arriving 'round noon or so. Anybody else who feels like joining us for some festivities before the show, let me know. We haven't got anything i particular planned yet, but I guess we'll figure that out along the way.

More news to be posted as the happen.

There seems to be plenty of seats left for th Malmoe concert - i dont reaaly know where the folks ar at, but anyway... - are you coming from "far away", order you tickets at www.ticnet.se

We'll tape the show for Highway 95, so if your intrested kepp a look out.

[nycfeat]

Malmo is a really nice city location-wise and otherwise. I do miss it, believe it or not.

I'm trying to convince a friend who lives there, to experience the Feat. But haven't heard from her sooo.... She's a big Crowded House/Neil Finn fan.

Have fun guys!

[caprani]

Ahoy there!

(snipped from posts to the HoyHoy Digest)

The "KB" (Kulturbolaget, which means something like "culture company") appeared to be a
nice, smaller venue with a centerpart with high ceiling where the stage and the concert
area was situated, and lower ceiled side "wings" where the bars and toilets etc. was
situated.

The soundcheck was, (as I remember it), I Do What The Telephone Tells Me To Do, Texas Rose
Cafe and Time Loves A Hero (Not nessesarily in that order, and not even nessesarily those
tunes. I must admit that I'm pretty sure about number 1 and 2, though).

The setlist:

1. Marginal Creatures. (Great opener)!

2. Time Loves A Hero (It's always a treat to hear this piece live).

3. Day or Night.

4. Mercenary Territory

5. Representing The Mambo (Our Mambo-Man Marius just jumping for joy ?)

6. Heaven Forsaken. (Great groove where Freds Mandocello compliments Pauls guitar
amazingly - Let's have more of those ;-)

7. Texas Rose Cafe (A sincerely drop-forged version, if anybody gets my drift GREAT
vocals by Sam and Paul. I would never have imagined to have the opportunity to hear this
thing live. - Fantastic ?)

8. Cadillac Hotel (Very funky - Shaun was smooooooking!)

9. Willin' (Lovely version incl. "Bogart")

10. It Takes A Lot To Laugh (Need I say that Shaun was on fire- She even had some
interactions with Laila and I which left us with a great vibe. Shame, shame, shame on
those who may still have doubhts about a lady fronting Little Feat).

11. Dixie Chicken with "I Do What The Telephone Tells Me To Do" chase in the middle.

Encore:

12. Fatman In The Bathub.

A great, great evening, but what else would you expect from a band like Little Feat?

[matt]

7.30 am. Getting started.

The chime goes off. Check my bags and stuff. All seems to be OK. It’s the day of Little Feat.



8.45 am. Load in.

A small crowd is gathering outside my house; already wearing sunglasses, and with some sort of distant looking smiles on their faces.

Rolf: Long time featfan & drumming friend for the last 20 yrs. Also sound-tech.

Bass-Mike: Not such a long time featster, but with the experience of playing Spanish Moon a couple of hundred times.

Albert: The hardest hitting drummer in town. [Once, after testing a prototype of the D-Drums, the rumor says he called the supplier with the question “Well, there’s a bunch of cables sticking out from just about everywhere – is this the way it’s supposed to be?”]. For the past 20 yrs a notorious fan of Steve Gadd, but after a long time of guidance from myself, he’s also a big admirer of Richie.

Bertil: Drummer #3 in this mid-swede feat-travel. Totally Alberts counterpart.

Me: I heard feat for the first time in ’79; Live from Rock-Palast, Germany. I was 18 at the time and had never heard anything like it. They’ve been with me ever since.

Once I tried to set up a local feat-concert involving the best local musicians available at the time. It included about 20 people to do the playing and singing alone. But imagine my surprise when “The Real Thing” released a new album and hit the road again…<br>
So, I took a rain check on my plan. (Tough shit putting all those transcribed arrangangements on the shelf ;-)

Guitarist usually.



If circumstances had been different, this field trip would also have included: Ola, Hasse, Lasse D, Acoustic-Lasse and a few others who, due to other vacation plans or not getting free from their jobs, couldn’t join us.



9 am. Departing.

Swedish highways are a bore. (If you didn’t know that there’s a lot of people living in the southern parts, you’d easily be fooled to believe that there’s not a living soul for about half our journey, just woods.



12 pm. Lunch.



More fuel needed, both for the bus and us.

The time also used for handing out jackets buttons and tattoos supplied by Franz.



The rest of the trip was made in silent expectation; no music at all. Just to make sure that we’d arrive with clear minds.

To be continued...

[matt]

2.30 pm. Arriving in Malmö. Help wanted #1?



10 seconds later Sound-Mike pulls into the curb with his trunk full of recording gear.



Patric, KB:s chief band contact, meets us in the street, brings us inside, and introduces us to Howard. We offer to help out with rigging the PA system, but he assures us that there is no need, and asks us to check with Denny when he and the band arrives around 16 pm. He helps us with a few questions concerning our taping.



Dancin’ Tanja greets me with joy and tells me the tales of the earlier European shows; the arrival in England, the long flight to Italy followed by a six hour drive all in the same day; the totally side-ways rained-in Finnish gig two days before…<br>


She also hands me a handful of “Fred-crumbs” (guitar picks) – “…they’re everywhere…”



Rather than being a nuisance for the crew, we decide to get a beer somewhere, and find a nice spot in the nearby square where the sun warms us thirsty travelers. (Not a common thing this summer).



3.30 pm. Help wanted #2?

Back at KB, the band and Denny is already in place. Backline has arrived and is being set up by the crew. There’s still no need for any of us to lift anything else but a glass of water for Howard.



Albert, who’s brought a small bell cymbal in his jacket pocket, chats with Richie and manages to get him to sign it. He also got one of Richies drumsticks, so now his Feat altar is complete J. Cadillac Hotel being one of Albert’s favorites – he called me up in the middle of the night and screamed when he first heard it – he asked Shawn if it was possible to get a change in the set list and include that; and after a while the set lists were changed, to Albert’s delight.



Denny politely makes sure that I know what I’m supposed to do as POC and hands me a handful of sign-up sheets.



Paul asks me about the recording we’re going to make, and is genuinely appreciative when he learns we’re doing a 4 channel matrix recording on A-DAT.



Fred and I takes about the tour so far, and he says that’s is fun to be back, but that there’s more troublesome than touring in the US. He philosophically wondered how it’s possible to place the gigs as far apart as the European map allows…



5-6 pm, Soundcheck



Soundcheck started a little late because the backline company forgot to bring along a drum stand for the two highest toms in Richies set.



Klaus, Laila, Marius, Franz and others showed up. Nice to meet you (it’s fun to have faces to add to the names).



Songs played as soundcheck were the ones noted down by Klaus in hoy-hoy 2794, as far as I can remember but with the initial America’s favorite sound check song: Hate to loose your lovin’.



With the chance of being mistaken, there were a few discussions at soundcheck. Mainly between Richie and Howard. I didn’t really hear what they were saying to each other, but Howard was heard to mutter “…Richie hears a sound…” passing on his way to the soundboard.



As listeners we also heard a sound. At least during soundcheck. But it wasn’t hearable during concert. (Although Sound-Mike, who listened to the tapes Tuesday morning, noted that there seemed to be a ringing sound onstage that stuck to the tape. We’ll see if we can correct that before we release it). So I guess Richie must’ve been right.



Shit happens, sometimes. Howard wanted his clothes washed and after washing them he put them up to dry. Only he misunderstood the timer, so when he called the hotel to check whether his laundry was dry, he got a confused no as an answer. He then realized he had set the timer for 5 minutes instead of 5 hours. Guess he got his clothes in a plastic bag…<br>


When we sat down to listen to the soundcheck, we were struck by the same thing all of us. It was just like home, or just like us going about our business before a gig. Fixing a few things here, talking, joking but mostly waiting. Rehearsing a few parts that hasn’t been played for a while… It brought me a feeling of kinship with these fabulous guys. Being who they are, and doing what they’ve done for the past three decades, they are anything but self centered and they’re having a pure love for what they’re doing, for their music. The time spent before and during the soundcheck showed that they care about themselves, their music and their fans in a profound way. (Beg your pardon if I’m getting a bit too religious here…;-)



Howard helped out with connecting our recording gear to the soundboard, and KB:s sound tech helped out with the ambience mikes. (Many thanks to both of yous).



Most of the band hanged around between soundcheck and gig and was extremely talkative and nice to deal with. I didn’t see much of Billy and Sam. Guess they were occupied with other matters. We let the band & crew have their dinner in peace, though, and headed for restaurant Möllan, across the street.



7-8 pm. Food.



Steakes, fries & beer. Compliments to the chef.

To be continued...

[matt]

8-9.30 pm. Signups.



When I went my way around KB after the doors opened, to sign as many up as I could, I can tell you I really got surprised when I found out where the people were coming from. (I thought that we had driven quite a bit with our 420 km, but I found one gang who had traveled double that distance. My conclusion is that Little Feat is one Long Distance Love and that the ones who came had made a very conscious decision to do so.



In every company I talked to, they signed up gladly, or they had already done it. So I got at least one yes in almost every company of people. I think I got 10 rejections, but with promises to check the website later.



9.30-11.30 pm. Show.



1. Marginal Creatures (My first thought was: “ How’re they gonna top this!”)

2. Time Loves A Hero

3. Day or Night.

4. Mercenary Territory (Great versions of three songs from the same era, but with a “2000+-Little Feat-touch” that oughta tell every doubter out there that this is no cheap “Lets-play-the-old standards-though-we-don’t-really like’em-anymore-kind-of-set-up.

5. Representing The Mambo. Not especially representative for the Mambo, more like Representing the Feat.

6. Heaven Forsaken.

7. Texas Rose Café. I read once that some critic called Richie “Richie behind-the-beat Hayward”. In the low tempo parts, everybody was so behind the beat it’ was like a extremely slow roll-a-coaster ride. Sam really sang his heart out! How the hell did you nail that second slow part? I didn’t see the cues for all the happiness…?

8. Cadillac Hotel. Shawn dedicated this one to my travel-pal Albert, who I can tell you really shone hearing it. He sends his thanks!

9. Willin'/Don’t Bogart That Joint. Slowly. With a touch of humor. Too bad some folks don’t know how to wait for the weeds-part…;-)

10. It Takes A Lot To Laugh. Outstanding Shawn! Full of feeling.

11. Dixie Chicken/I Do What The Telephone Tells Me To Do/Solos. Keyboardists destiny in to play on somebody else’s gear. At least that’s what Billy looked like a few times during his solo. I felt sorry for you feeling sorry, but your job was brilliant anyway!!! Bass-Mike & Albert screamed in chorus “How does he do that? It’s just key & drums?”<br>


Encore: Fatman In The Bathtub. Richie played the most musical drum-solo I’ve heard in ages.



Thanks to everybody involved for making this a night hard to get over (as if I wanted to:-).



Special thanks to

- Paul for all the smiles, the talk about the day Craigh fell off stage.

- Shawn for your special audience contact, your presence. Don't doubt for a moment that you are anybody’s replacement.

- Richie for showing us that it can be done.

- Kenny - The only bassist I know who can fit it six half-note tones between E and G. How Do you do that?

- Fred for the solo ending where you left the whole band hanging on a cliff by landing on a minor third - Shawn frowning and Paul looking surprised - but after a while giving them the major third they wanted so it all could continue.

- Howard for your patience with us around the soundboard wanting our 2 channels...

- Denny for being so cooperative.

- Patric for great organization. An extra thanks to your sound tech, I forgot his name.



We’ll go about mixing the tapes probably next week, then they’re off to Cris for uploading. I’ll keep you posted.

To be continued...

[matt]

Check out w1.097.comhem.se/~u09700112/

[matt]

The show is available for downloading at www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=17178