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Attendance: 1646 (sold out)

I was surprised by the number of old rock fans in the audience. Grey hair and balding heads were everywhere. Clearly, a chance to see Mountain, one of the classic rock's most popular early 1970's bands, was too much to resist for these 50 and 60-something fans.

Leslie West's vocals weren't great but he performed adequately on the electric guitar, neither speedy or full of finesse, compared to Satriani, but in command of huge riffs and power chords. Drummer Corky Laing (60) looked a bit like Arthur Fonzarelli, if the Fonz had frizzy hair, and he had a blast. Throughout the set, and especially towards the end, Laing would point at audience members and then let loose a drum stick at one of the cymbals, allowing it to whirl away into the crowd. No doubt, many fans went home with souvenirs.

I didn't recognize the songs that they played towards to beginning of their set. I did know the blues classic "Crossroads" (A cover of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind," which seemed like an ineffective cover to me.) and their best known tune, "Mississippi Queen." Some members of the crowd, perhaps fueled by beer, were particularly boisterous, calling out to West and Laing, with requests for "Mississippi Queen" and offering words of approval and encouragement for their playing. Mountain are touring in support of Masters of War, an album of Bob Dylan covers.

Joe Satriani (52) is a monster on the electric guitar, and I enjoyed his performance the most when he was playing the old classic tunes that I recognized, as well as when he slowed things down a bit and sustained notes. In fact, during the tunes that were chock full of endless fast noodling, I found myself being numb to his playing and, truthfully, getting bored.

Highlights for me included "Flying In A Blue Dream," "Ice 9," "Surfing With The Alien" and "One Big Rush." I wasn't so keen on the show's opener, "I Just Wanna Rock," the first track from the new album, Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock. It sounded like something you would expect from KISS, AC/DC, or any other purveyor of overly simple rock, not something from this metal maestro. I was quite impressed with another track from that album that was played towards the end of the show, "Asik Vaysel." With an exotic opening and beats, it's about a Turkish musician and poet who died in 1973.

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