Little Feat, HMV Picture House
Barb Jungr, Assembly@George Street
Elvis Live!, Chambers Street
Denise Black’s Loose Screw, Pleasance at Ghillie Dhu
Little Feat’s two trains have pulled out of Fringe Central now, but their gig on Sunday will still be playing in their fans’ heads as you read this. It was an occasion with an inevitable hint of sadness, as the Feat’s iconic drummer, Richie Hayward, had died a few days beforehand, after succumbing to pneumonia while waiting for a liver transplant.
Numerous Feat classics were dedicated to him, but perhaps the best tribute came from Gabe Ford, who has been sitting in on drums while Hayward received treatment, in enabling them to continue very much in the Feat spirit.
Their cocktail of bottleneck blues, rootsy tradition and syncopated New Orleans funk ‘n’ groove, played with vigour, commitment and mastery, took a beat or three to develop its trademark clarity, but by the time conguero Sam Clayton was invited to recall that deadly dive, The Spanish Moon, hips were wiggling entirely of their own volition. A storming version of The Band’s Rag Mama Rag, showcasing Bill Payne’s keyboard skills, Paul Barrere’s guitar authority and bassist Kenny Gradney’s muscular certainty added confirmation, if confirmation were needed, of a class act from the 1970s still emphatically rockin’ in the here and now.
Barb Jungr’s current repertoire doesn’t include Little Feat but it must have been a narrow omission as she covers a huge amount of musical ground from Andy Williams to Talking Heads, whose Once in a Lifetime is one of the most notable successes in a variable performance.
As her initially hushed and gentle rendering of The Monkees’ hit I’m A Believer illustrates, Jungr is a great imaginative song interpreter but she lets her overwrought side take over too often here, showing she’s as brassy as Bassey with the dramatic gestures to match. Disappointing, but her between-song chat is more entertaining than most.
Catching Elvis Live! on the 33rd anniversary of the King’s passing added a certain frisson but couldn’t raise this beyond its end of term school concert standard.
Still, their Elvis makes a decent stab at the all shook up one, the film star one and the Vegas one, and while the show doesn’t quite have the stamina to reach its allotted span, the cast will enthusiastically involve you in its finale.
There’s another party going on after midnight at Ghillie Dhu, as Denise Black shows that she’s a better singer than she is a hairdresser.
The former Coronation Street scissor sister has luvvie pals in tow, so you might hear her and Elaine C Smith giving it some Randy Newman, or Denise being a busty Dusty or belting out a creditable Blues in the Night as her guitarists, Graeme Taylor and Max Moonlight, lend a class of musicianship well beyond your usual ‘all back to my place’ post-pub -- or in this case, post-Calendar Girls -- shindig.post-Calendar Girls - shindig.
