Mountain, a band now departed for the great Fillmore in the Sky, was a standby whipping boy for practically any rock critic, regardless of taste. No wonder - they played high volume rock 'n roll without the Funk/Sabbath image of drug-induced teenage stupidity; but rather, they kept up a superstar front as real musicians (a knife in the back of many a rock critic). Certainly Mountain were often boring in concert, but no match in the ho-hum category for the annoying fuzz-toned, monochromatic Black Sabbath. There really is no reason to make any excuses for Mountain, for as a heavy recording band, Leslie Weinstein and his cohorts were untouchable as far as American hard rock groups go. To me,Nantucket Sleighride and Climbing stand as classics in the Heavy Hall of Fame right next to the first two Led Zeppelin discs and Deep Purple In Rock. This new Live is fairly good, and a lot of it is untypically interesting (for a Mountain performance). It begins with "Long Red", which is one of the best things from the first album, the guitar wailing away at a solo that Eric Clapton would be proud of. Surprisingly enough, the next song is a new song, "Waiting To Take You Away," but it's not much of anything except a taking-off point for West's vocal excesses. Next on the bill is one of the better tracks from the horribly sub-standard studio side of Flowers Of Evil, "Crossroader," and although the riff is fairly common, it comes across with some fiery slide guitar acrobatics from Leslie West. Side two showcases a fully-extended "Nantucket Sleighride" which abruptly illustrates both the brilliance of Mountain and it's monotony side by side. The first and last few minutes of the song are beautiful, complex hard rock, but unfortunately the ten minute space between serves little if any purpose. Only a qualudin-pacified mind could tolerate this type of instrumental for any period of time, but I doubt that even the staunchest redfreak could claim that he "got off" on it. It is for this very reason that of the three Mountain concerts I have attended, I have walked out on two due to sheer boredom. Mountain was responsible for quite a lot of exciting music with their records, but somehow let their music get control of them onstage instead of vice-versa. My only hope is that West, Bruce & Laing (the descendants of Mountain) will realize the errors of the past and rectify them immediately. And any critic who dispises a group because they drive around in broughams better start driving his Chevy to the levee a little less often. - John Tiven