Radio City Music Hall is ideal for Mountain music. The flagship New York film theater, home to Walt Disney and wholesome family entertainment, is thirsting like other Manhattan cinema and Broadway theatres for rock as a seat filler. Grandmother may recoil at the likes of Marvin Gaye, Jefferson Starship and Mountain in the home of the Rockettes but that is what brings in the bread these days. A bar serving hard liquor was even instaled for the evening.
The cavernous, comfortable interior, all art deco and plush seats (actually Radio City's entrance hall is about as big as the old Fillmore East) can destroy subtle sound, as anyone who attended Newport Jazz Festival jam sessions there can testify. However, Mountain is not subtle: Here is rock - hard and heavy - stripped down to essentials and pushed, shoved, forced, rammed kicked and thrust from the amplifiers by Felix Pappalardi, Leslie West, Corky Laing, the old firm back together for another high school reunion.
As in any reunion, old times and old tunes were recalled - "Nantucket Sleighride" and "Mississippi Queen" coming from what could be termed Mountain's classic period - and there was a lot of focus on the band's new album, Avalanche, although as with most of Mountain's material the theme is just used as a peg on which to hang some slashing improvisations. And Mountain is aware of the past: the encore was "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Whole Lotta Shakin" and "Satisfaction" are in the repertoire, all performed with ferocity.
It was a relentless evening, heavy on the amplification, but brought to correct aural dimensions by the architecture of Radio City. Mountain works on the Archimedean principle that a rock group must displace 50 times it's own weight in amplification to relate to its audience. In other halls this tends to work against the groups but not in Radio City. clad in white suits - Leslie West as the Great Fatsby - they brought back the sixties - those dear dead days of rock experimentation - maintaining their central position between Cream and Grand Funk Railroad.
One of Mountain's more attractive features is the rapport they have with paying customers. There is genuine loyalty and regard from both sides of the stage and the reward is one of the best behaved and excited rock audiences around.
Since it was Radio City, a little theatre had to be injected into the proceedings. Corky Laing's drumsticks caught fire, followed by his tom-tom rims, while a fireworks display exploded on the big screen behind him. And as Mountain sank from site - the whole stage was lowered - a sunrise replaced the fireworks. Ear your heart out, Walt.
- Ian Dove
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~