at The BoomBoom Club, Sutton on Sunday
4th June 2006
supported by Trafficker
Charisma is sometimes an oft overlooked quality. At times hard
to pin point, and not always immediately apparent, the charismatic figure emerges
as anything from a saint to a maverick. And in the case of Mountain's Leslie
West, perhaps the latter applies and his unique charisma comes
with a heavy dose of gruff New York cynicism.
Yet
whichever way you look at him, Leslie is a figure with real presence, from his
sizeable gait to his cryptic wit that borders on the downright irascible. Then
there is his trademark heavy metal power chords, and grating tone, not to mention
a guttural style of singing that often substitutes a scream for feel in some
hard rock blues outings. Complete with blue tinted shades Leslie is the kind
of man for whom the word legend would sit quite comfortably with him, even if
his was not an enduring rock musician of substance.
And damn it all, he is man of history, a heavy weight guitarist who announced
his presence on the world stage at Woodstock and went on to add memorable guitar
lines to the late Felix Pappalardi's lyrics and mellifluous bass lines. The
other main character in the band remains drummer Corky
Laing (keyboard player Steve Knight having long since departed).
Corky who turned in a thunderous performance with a splash of toms toms and
snare drum, obviously decided that as this was the final night of the tour he
would turn in a command performance, of which more later.
Goth bass player Ritchie Scarlet
(a guitarist turned bass player) danced energetically - a suitable foil for
Leslie's more studied approach - and the band kicked into a set that was basically
the best of Mountain plus some hoary old blues, and an acoustic interlude with
Leslie delivering an impassioned version of Dylan's 'Blowin In The Wind'.
'Theme For An Imaginary Western' showed Leslie has lost none of his raucous
growl, and 'Nantucket Sleighride' still remains an all time hard rock classic,
albeit it came with an instrumental Stones break in the middle.
Corky
duly climaxed the show with a Keith Moon drum trashing sequence. Having launched
over a dozen drum sticks into the crowd, Corky took off like a guided missile
and disappeared into the front rows of admiring fans. Quite a finale then, topped
by a final fierce some growl from Mr West who delivered an awesome 'Mississippi
Queen' as the encore.
So what does a charismatic figure do with a trashed drum kit all around him?
On seeing Corky enveloped by the roaring crowd Leslie announced deadpan, 'He
gets lonely'. Then unbelievably he started applauding the audience for their
enthusiastic response. Fewer stranger moments have happened in rock & roll.
Then he turned, he waved one more time and he was gone.
Earlier young Tommy Allen and
his power trio Trafficker had
rocked the crowd with a mix of melodic hard rock and good time boogie, nicely
setting things up for a truly memorable show
Yet
whichever way you look at him, Leslie is a figure with real presence, from his
sizeable gait to his cryptic wit that borders on the downright irascible. Then
there is his trademark heavy metal power chords, and grating tone, not to mention
a guttural style of singing that often substitutes a scream for feel in some
hard rock blues outings. Complete with blue tinted shades Leslie is the kind
of man for whom the word legend would sit quite comfortably with him, even if
his was not an enduring rock musician of substance.