I went to New Orleans one night to see my favorite rock band, Mountain. They played in the Tulane arena. I went with friends all packed into my car to drive the ninety miles from Ocean Springs to the city.

I’d seen Mountain before, and I regularly played their tapes in my eight-track player in my car and had records at home that had worn grooves. But, the concert at the Tulane arena was to be a treat, and it was.

We had good seats near the stage just to the right of center on Leslie West’s side of the stage. He started the night playing his Electra clear guitar. I’d seen the Gibson that he normally played, but the new guitar blew me away. A clear guitar. I’d never even thought of that.

It was just the trio, no keys. West, Felix Papparlardi on bass, and Corky Liang on drums. I watched Leslie, He was my main guitar hero at the time for the rock n roll. I liked Chet and Clarence for everything else.

But, the attraction about halfway through the show became Corky Liang. I rarely watched drummers, but he was a spectacle. He had a whole slew of drums and it seemed a million cymbals. I saw a flying object in my peripheral vision, and I looked at Liang, as he bounced what was left of a broken drumstick off one of his cymbals. The piece ricocheted into the air high above the crowd. I’m sure it came down somewhere. He never missed a lick, grabbing a fresh stick from a round container I spied right next to him. It was full of sticks.

Throughout the night, and they played a solid two and a half hours, Liang broke drumsticks and he would shoot the remaining part of a cymbal into the audience. A couple landed close to us, but we never got a prize. Before they were done, a stagehand took his stick can and re-filled it.

One time, someone yelled that a stick had stuck in the ceiling so I looked up. In the dim lights, I could see numerous sticks stuck in the ceiling which was way up there! He put on a show.

And of course, the band was first rate for me. They did all their good songs; played a little Roll Over Beethoven with a twenty-minute guitar solo, Nantucket Sleighride for a good twenty minutes, and Mississippi Queen with an extended solo and drum solo. They played a few new ones I hadn’t heard that were to be on a new record. It was, I decided, the best concert I’d been to.

The ride home was like heaven for me. I had Mountain tapes playing all the way. Everybody was mostly happy, well…except for that one girl. The ride home was surely an event in itself and one that should be told separately, so stay tuned.