‘Old Guys’ Sound Great In Reconstituted Little Feat

“This is one of those old tunes--we’re a bunch of old guys,” keyboardist Bill Payne said Friday at the Pacific Amphitheatre just before the reconstituted Little Feat launched into “Oh Atlanta.” True, the song was 14 years old, and the core of the band formed longer ago than that. But neither the tune nor the guys seemed the least bit over the hill.

In fact, while there were frequent dips into the Feat catalogue, Friday’s show--opening for headliner Jimmy Buffett--didn’t operate as an unsteady trip down memory lane. Rather, this was a revamped band playing close to the height of its powers and sounding wholly contemporary and great. Drawing sharp new material from the just-released “Let It Roll” LP didn’t hurt that effort, either.

It might be hard to imagine Little Feat taking the stage--much less excelling--without the late Lowell George, the group’s singer-songwriter-guitarist. But reaching back to such early classics as “Dixie Chicken” and leaping forward to the present with selections from “Let It Roll,” this “bunch of old guys” was inspired and inspiring. Smart money says that, somewhere, Lowell George was smiling.

Buffett capped the evening with a set pretty much like those he’s been doing for the last zillion summers--the journey to Margaritaville has taken a wrong turn to Dullsville.