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FLEETWOOD MAC... Shots from Charlotte, NC April 25, 2009
For More Pictures of Charlotte Annonthebeach's
Sunday, April 26, 2009
REVIEW: FLEETWOOD MAC CHARLOTTE, NC
Fleetwood Mac feeds Charlotte fun, favorite songsBy Michael Persinger
charlotteobserver.com
Sunday, Apr. 26, 2009
How great would it be to reach a point in life where you only had to do things that were fun?
Fleetwood Mac, which has been around as a band since the 1960s and as a pop phenomenon since 1975, is there. The band shared the result with a crowd that reached the rafters of Time Warner Cable Arena on Saturday night.
There's no album to promote -- "yet," singer and lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham told the crowd. That leaves the band's free to pursue its stated mission for the "Unleashed Tour 2009" -- have fun, and play the songs that are fun and important to them.
The show, two hours 25 minutes of non-stop music that paused only momentarily to set up two encores, does, sort of, support an album, though. "Rumours," the 1975 album that made Fleetwood Mac a big part of the pop soundtrack for a generation, is being re-released in conjunction with the tour. Of the 23 songs they played, seven were from that album, which has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide.
crowd sang along with "Rumours" staples such as "The Chain," "Second Hand News" and "Gold Dust Woman" sprinkled throughout the show. But that was not all Fleetwood Mac had to offer.
Buckingham's guitar riffs, Stevie Nicks' still-velvety voice and the bass of John McVie were all solid. British-born band founder Mick Fleetwood's percussion, showed off most impressively during the title track to 1979's "Tusk," kept the energy level high.
The passion for the work they shared was evident, notably in Fleetwood's wild-eyed looks on the big video screens and Buckingham's riff during "I'm So Afraid." But there are signs beyond Fleetwood's white beard and ponytail that they're getting older, too.
Nicks didn't quite hit the original highs in "Sara," and she and Buckingham couldn't generate the on-stage sexual tension they could when they were younger, during what Buckingham acknowledged was a "complex and convoluted emotional history."
Still, Nicks, at 60, can pull off wearing ankle boots with 6-inch heels without looking silly. And there was more than enough in the music to satisfy the big crowd and carry it to the end.
Buckingham's performance of "Big Love" celebrated a song he said explored both who he was and the power of change. It featured a brief embrace with Nicks near the end that drew a cheer. And the three-song span of "Go Your Own Way," "World Turning" (featuring a drum solo by Fleetwood, 61) and "Don't Stop" had the crowd on its feet.
If there's an album to be made at the end of this tour, it'll feature a group with plenty left to celebrate. If Saturday was an indication, it's still worth thinking about tomorrow for Fleetwood Mac fans.
Tomorrow could be fun, too.
Set list from Saturday's show in Charlotte: Monday Morning, The Chain, Dreams, I Know I'm Not Wrong, Gypsy, Go Insane, Rhiannon, Second Hand News, Tusk, Sara, Big Love, Landslide, Never Going Back Again, Storms, Say You Love Me, Gold Dust Woman, Oh Well, I'm So Afraid, Stand Back, Go Your Own Way, (first encore) World Turning, Don't Stop, (second encore) Silver Springs.
Michael Persinger is executive sports editor at The Observer. "Rumours" was one of the first two albums he owned as a kid. "Hotel California" by the Eagles was the other.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
TUSK TOUR 1980 MADISON, WISCONSIN (PHOTOS)
TUSK TOUR 1980
In honor of Fleetwood Mac's current "Unleashed" tour, Pat scanned photos taken during the "Tusk" tour at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin on May 11, 1980 - from the front row. It was a general admission show. The Coliseum has since been torn down.
Thank you Pat!
Re Broadcast LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM A&E'S PRIVATE SESSIONS
A&E's Private Sessions® with “Lindsey Buckingham”
Rated: TVPG
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Sunday, May 03 @ 9am/8C (check local listings)
(original airing November 2, 2008)
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Lindsey Buckingham chats with host Lynn Hoffman about his substantial career including his new release Gift of Screws. Plus, don't miss exclusive performances of his hits "Tusk", "Big Love", the classic "Go Your Own Way", and his new songs "Great Day", "Love Runs Deeper" and "Did You Miss Me".
Friday, April 24, 2009
REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Ft. Lauderdale
Fleetwood Mac's underlying drama means great showBY DAVID DORSEY
News-Press.com
The chemistry of former lovers who have reconciled — but realize things never can be the same — and the human drama that goes on with being close-quartered colleagues, or in this case, professional musicians, can be seen by all the world on Fleetwood Mac’s stage.
The band, founded by drummer Mick Fleetwood in the late 1960s, has evolved over the years, and its most prominent lineup, minus keyboardist/singer Christine McVie, played a 23-song set that lasted two hours and 30 minutes Thursday night at the Bank Atlantic Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Singer and “welsh witch” Stevie Nicks, guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham — the onetime couple — played off one another and at times sang to one another throughout the show.
Even those sitting in the upper reaches of the 20,000-seat — and almost full — arena could see, on the massive screens above each side of the stage, the expressions of remorse and reconciliation on the faces of Nicks and Buckingham as they played the ballad “Sara.”
Nicks’ singing and Buckingham’s melodic guitar playing were supported by the thunderous rhythm section of Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on the bass guitar.
“Every time we get together, we sit in rehearsal and try to make each return a little different,” said Buckingham, who turns 60 on Oct. 3. He did not look or play like his age. “This time, we said, ‘Let’s just go out there and have some fun.’”
And so they did.
Fleetwood, approaching his 62nd birthday on June 24, looks like Santa Claus. Except he stands a few inches taller — he’s 6-foot-6 — and wore black, not red.
Also unlike St. Nick, Fleetwood sports a silver pony tail and has eyes that bug out of his head.
And he sure can play the drums.
Pounding on the drums the entire night, Fleetwood finally had his chance for a solo.
After ending the 20-song set with “Stand Back,” and “Go Your Own Way,” most of the crowd did not go anywhere. They stuck around for the encore.
Toward the end of “World Turning,” the rest of the band, which included five supporting musicians, left the stage, leaving it to Fleetwood.
Following a five-minute drum solo, his bandmates returned for “Don’t Stop.”
And the band didn’t. They did one more song during a second encore, concluding the show with “Silver Springs.”
Fleetwood Mac opened with “Monday Morning” and “The Chain.”
Other highlights included “Gypsy,” “Rhiannon,” “Gold Dust Woman” — during which Nicks’ donned a gold-colored scarf — and this reviewer’s personal favorite, the bluesy “I’m So Afraid.”
REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Better Than a Big Mac - Live in Ft. Lauderdale
Fleetwood Mac
April 23, 2009
Better Than: A Big Mac
Having seen Fleetwood Mac at least a dozen times, and Stevie Nicks on her own probably twice as many, suffice to say I have a bit of history to compare Thursday night's stop in SoFla for the Fleetwood Mac "Unleashed: Hits Tour 2009."
For all the Mac fans out there (I am one of you, remember, before you continue reading further), there's no doubt of the talent and greatness of each of these demigods, including Ms. Nicks, Lindsay Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie. But Thursday night's concert left a hollow spot in my gypsy soul. The multi-Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees haven't released any new material since 2003's "Say You Will." So this latest tour is to dust off the old chestnuts that continue to make this band a draw whether there's something new to pitch or not.
Fleetwood said in a recent interview, "For the very first time, we're going out on the road without an album. All of the energy is really about just getting out there and putting on a show that really resonates emotionally."
Mick, that sounds all well and good, so what happened?
On Thursday night, every one was on autopilot. It was like my old bar band days when we'd be like, "Let's collect the money and get the hell outta here" after singing an evening full of cover tunes. Then, the crowd loved it, so we had done our job. Same thing with Fleetwood Mac, who has now become a cover band of their own tunes. The crowd loved it, so they had done their job.
At least Stevie remembered what Florida city she was playing in. A few years ago, while I was reviewing a show in Philadelphia, Nicks blurted out, "Hello, Pittsburggggh!" This time it was, "Fort Lauderdaaaaaaaaale. It's great to be here!"
I so wholeheartedly wanted to embrace this iconic woman of rock, but I couldn't get beyond the Ghost of Nicks Past. On May 26, the rock chanteuse will be 61. Just for comparison's sake, a few months ago I caught Chrissie Hynde's show. The mascara-laden frontwoman of the Pretenders is 57, but she sure kicks it. And as long as I'm on the subject, freakin' Patti Smith is 62. And the high energy she exhibited at the last show I saw of hers in New York wasn't from a bunch of Red Bull's, but rather from a real passion.
But on Thursday night, it was Nicks, mostly, who had put herself on cruise control, propped up in front of a microphone, chortling out her greatest hits like "Dreams," "Rhiannon," "Sara," and "Gypsy."
Maybe what distracted me the most was my vantage point!
MY LIFE IN PICTURES.... STEVIE NCKS
Stevie Nicks is featured in the May 4, 2009
issue of People Magazine.
MY LIFE IN PICTURES:
REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Sunrise Florida
Fleetwood Mac's chemistry still on display in concert
Fleetwood Mac's always done dysfunction well.
Rumours, the group's greatest hit, was a testament to making art out of madness, and Thursday, before about 10,000 fans at Sunrise's BankAtlantic Center, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, along with ex-lover Stevie Nicks and the terrific core rhythm section namesakes of the band, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, paid homage to what Buckingham called ``a complex and convoluted emotional history.''
But for this Unleashed Tour, devoted to the band's greatest hits, Fleetwood Mac, for only the second major road trip sans their old ray of light Christine McVie, ''just wanted to go out and have fun,'' Buckingham said.
''Fun'' in Fleetwood Mac lingo, of course, was primarily the domain of Christine McVie's sunny pop tunes (she's the one, after all, who wrote You Make Lovin' Fun). For Buckingham and Nicks, ''fun'' is in the airing of their romantic disappointments in songs that champion all the ways in which lovin' isn't much fun at all.
''If you don't love me now, you will never love me again,'' spit the duo on the set's second song, The Chain, and it was hard not to observe Buckingham's glare at Nicks, who harmonized on the other side of the stage.
''You'll never get away from the sound of the woman who loved you,'' retorted Nicks in the show closer, Silver Springs, more than two hours later.
For 140 minutes and 23 songs, Buckingham and Nicks traded hits -- musical ones, natch -- to entice fans who are still hooked on the strikingly scored soap opera aspect of this band.
For Sara, a 1979 hit rarely performed live, Nicks sauntered over to Buckingham's mike from her side of the stage and the two entangled, heads resting against each other's shoulders. ''There's a heartbeat, and it never really died,'' Nicks whispered in Sara's delicate coda. Needless to say, the crowd delighted. Storms, a 1979 beauty never performed live until Unleashed, was even better as Nicks, 60 and radiant, introduced the album track as a song about ''stormy'' situations and people. Few do justice to the big time world heartbreak of drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll so well.
All of this would be trite melodrama if the band had chosen to coast on its enviable catalog. Buckingham, 59, in particular, had always bristled at taking the easy way out by repeating the success of Rumours, for instance. But for this tour, heavy on favorites from mid- to late-70s classics Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk -- nothing newer than 1987's Big Love featured and the foursome dug back into its '60s Peter Green blues period for a blistering Oh Well -- Buckingham and his musical partners proved amenable to celebrating the band's legacy. The most pleasant surprise, and a concert highlight, was Buckingham returning his solo single, Go Insane, to its original '80s synth-pop arrangement.
But any concerns that potentially shop-worn songs like Don't Stop, a Rumours hit burnished further into pop culture by a former United States president's fondness for classic rock, or Go Your Own Way or Gypsy might feel perfunctory evaporated as the band's stellar musicianship revitalized the material.
Nicks, introduced by drummer Fleetwood as ''the First Lady of Fleetwood Mac,'' was in strong voice, hitting the intense vamping ending of Gold Dust Woman and her sassy Stand Back with surprising ease and resonance. Buckingham's inventive electric guitar work is peerless as anyone who witnessed previous tours, The Dance (1997) and Say You Will (2003), can attest. But his voice, which hadn't kept pace, was in the best, most pliable shape it has been in since he first left the band in 1987.
Fleetwood Mac still matters because the links that kept this particular chain together -- the interpersonal chemistry, the passionate songwriting that has endured for 42 years, the desire for growth and the joy in the playing -- remains intact.
STEVIE NICKS CELEBRATES NEW SOLO
Night of the one and only StevieStevie Nicks celebrates new solo album, Fleetwood Mac tour, and the gay fans who spawned the ‘Night of a Thousand Stevies’
SOVO.com
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 | By: GREGG SHAPIRO
More than three decades into her musical career, Stevie Nicks has charted dozens of hits, sold millions of albums, been dubbed “the queen of rock and roll” and even spawned her own drag queen tribute show.
But the singer-songwriter who helped make the band Fleetwood Mac famous with such hits as “Landslide” and “Rhiannon” isn’t resting on her laurels. Last month, Nicks released a solo DVD, “Live in Chicago,” with a companion CD, “The Soundstage Sessions” (Reprise/Warner Brothers) just as Fleetwood Mac launched its “Unleashed” greatest hits tour, which brings the iconic band to Atlanta’s Philips Arena on Tuesday.
SoVo spoke with Nicks in late March, on the day before “The Soundstage Sessions” was set for release. The 17-song DVD and the 10-track CD are bound to elate Nicks’ legion of fans, who will delight in her performances of beloved originals including “Landslide,” “Stand Back,” “If Anyone Falls in Love” and “Sara,” as well as renditions of songs by Dave Matthews, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Petty and Led Zeppelin.
SoVo: For your first filmed and recorded live show in nearly 25 years, what was it about your performance on the Chicago PBS series “Soundstage” that led you to want to release it as the “Live in Chicago” DVD?
Stevie Nicks: Well, what happened was in 2005, we got an offer to do four shows at Celine Dion’s major big theater, the Colosseum at Caesar’s [Palace]. I was in Maui and I thought I was going to have another month off and I got a call from my manager and he said, “I need you to come in and see Celine on this stage because she leaves after the show tonight and Elton [John] comes in tomorrow. So you could actually see Celine and Elton in two days and decide whether or not you’d like to do this because they’ve offered you four shows. And getting your foot in the door to play Vegas once in a while is not a bad thing.”
Not a bad thing, at all.
So I’m like sorry, I’m on my Rhiannon-quest here in Maui, so I don’t think I’ll be able to do that. And he goes, “I’ll see you Tuesday.” So, off I went. Waddy (Wachtel), my guitar player and I walked in. We’re sitting there and we watched Celine and then we watched Elton, and we’re like, “Oh, my God, we can’t do this!” You have to build a world here. This is a massive IMAX theater and the screens are a hundred feet tall. You can’t just take your little rock band in there.
We’re like, “Can we do this?” Elton filmed everything he ever did and Celine has Cirque du Soleil. What do we have? ...
We got this artist, Sulamith Wülfing, a German artist, my favorite, she died in 1989, but we got permission to use some of her drawings. So we mixed Sulamith’s drawings, my drawings, all the film footage, pictures, photographs, everything we could find, gave them to our lighting and stage guy and said, “OK, here it is. Go for it, work it out, fix it, put it together. Build a world.” He said, “OK!” That’s what we did.
It sounds amazing.
We went in there with a world. We did those four shows and they were great. Everybody really loved it and I loved it. Then it was like, “OK, we’re started now.” Between then and August of 2007, we toured with that show, obviously pared down a little bit...
At the end of the tour in August 2007, I’m sitting in my living room and I’m thinking to myself, “Once again, this show’s not going to be filmed.” So I called my manager and said, “You’ve got to make some calls. Or you’re soon going to be my ex-friend. Because this show is perfect. It’sabout as perfect as I can get. I’ve worked so hard on this thing since the four shows in Vegas two years ago, that I can’t move on until we film this show. It’s really not fair to me to not film this.”
Did he make the calls?
He did. And he called back and said that Joe Thomas from PBS was very interested in doing it. … This was August, and we went on the first of October to Chicago, rehearsed for three weeks, and filmed it on Oct. 27. We came back to Chicago on Feb. 6 and stayed all of February and all of March and worked six days a week, eight hours a day and just hovered...
They let us be as involved as we wanted to be, which was great because we wanted to be involved.
That’s good to hear.
We left at the end of March [2008] and then they started putting it together, and that takes a couple of months. It was supposed to be out at the end of summer, but something happened and I don’t even remember what it was. They moved the date to late October. Then everybody realized — “Do we really want to put Stevie up against Barack Obama and John McCain?” That was a big no. They [also] didn’t really want to put it out when we were in rehearsal for Fleetwood Mac.
So because Lindsey (Buckingham) is taking a break right now... we gave him that two weeks and Warner Brothers and PBS said, “Let’s put it out then. Because then Stevie can do some press, she’ll be out on the road. She didn’t want the ski vacation anyway.” I’m just as happy to work. That’s how it got to here. Now you know!
The songs on the companion CD “The Soundstage Sessions” are cleaned up, in that the audience response to the songs was edited out. Why did you choose to go that route?
I said, “Let’s try to make this into a little album. Let’s pull the 10 most unfamiliar songs. Let’s take the Fleetwood Mac songs out and let’s put in “If Anyone Falls,” “Sorcerer,” the Dave Matthews song, the Bonnie Raitt song. Let’s put the unfamiliar things from the show [on the disc] and let’s take the applause off and let’s go to Nashville and redo some vocals and add some strings and make this a distinctly different piece of work that can go out, along with this DVD. …
You’re going to have the version of “Landslide” on the CD that didn’t go into the show, which is a really spectacularly special “Landslide” because it was really a moment for me where I decided at that point I was going to have to say goodbye to my dad. It’s a very emotional “Landslide” which is not on anything else. From that moment onward, I had made my peace with my father going.
“Landslide,” which is included on both the CD and DVD, is a song of yours that has been covered by Dixie Chicks, Smashing Pumpkins, and most recently by Ann Hampton Callaway, who performs it on her new CD. How do you feel when you hear other people’s interpretations of that song?
I love it when people actually take it upon themselves to interpret something. It’s no different, really, then me trying to interpret “Crash Into Me” by Dave Matthews. Who would have ever thought that I would have done that? So who would ever think that people would try to do “Landslide.” Because mostly people would be like, “Oh, that’s a Stevie Nicks song, I can’t do that.” And the fact that somebody is brave enough to do that, I think is great!
Every time somebody does “Landslide,” it brings it to that generation of listeners. It just takes my music and spreads it out over the world now. I’m always thrilled.
Your songs “Edge of Seventeen” and “Gypsy” inspired the gay coming of age movies “Edge of Seventeen” and “Gypsy 83.” Is a gay following something that you have always been aware of?
Well, I’ve not always been aware of it. But I became aware of it with Night of a Thousand Stevies. And I am so thrilled. I’m thrilled! Because I want my music to mean something to everybody. I think that every song that I write can be dealt with for whoever you are. When you hear one of my songs, it is about you.
Only lately have I started to explain the real stories behind the songs, because I don’t want people to, when they think of “Landslide,” always think of Stevie sitting in Colorado. I want you to think of what it means to you. I want you to think of why it touched you.
I am first and foremost a writer. I am thrilled and honored that the gay community backs my music. I always kid everybody that one day, all you Night of a Thousand Stevies people, one day I’ll be there, in complete dress, and you won’t know it. I’ll be hulking around somewhere, standing behind you, so be careful what you say, because I could be standing next to you at any moment.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
FLEEWOOD MAC - TOP 10 CONCERT TOUR
Top 20 Concert Tours
4/22/2009
The Associated Press
(AP) — The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
TOP 20 CONCERT TOURS
1. (1) Britney Spears; $2,287,230; $100.69.
2. (2) Elton John / Billy Joel; $2,185,634; $115.84.
3. (3) Celine Dion; $2,029,095;$108.17.
4. (4) Eagles; $1,691,056; $130.12.
5. (5) AC/DC; $1,409,211; $85.12.
6. (6) Fleetwood Mac; $1,169,580; $99.27.
7. (7) Nickelback; $787,420; $58.38.
8. (8) Rascal Flatts; $656,209; $61.08.
9. (9) Lil' Wayne; $582,663; $66.26.
10. (10) Brad Paisley; $454,374; $48.30.
11. (11) Motley Crue; $382,436; $54.11.
12. (12) Jeff Dunham; $272,548; $44.17.
13. (13) The Killers; $265,429; $42.01.
14. (14) Slipknot; $249,015; $37.83.
15. (15) New Kids On The Block; $231,931; $54.03.
16. (16) Avenged Sevenfold / Buckcherry; $186,182; $36.94.
17. (17) John Legend; $173,355; $55.28.
18. (18) Larry The Cable Guy; $172,301; $32.82.
19. (20) Rain ? A Tribute To The Beatles; $168,160; $47.40.
20. (21) Bill Gaither & Friends Homecoming; $143,407; $34.84.
4/22/2009
The Associated Press
(AP) — The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
TOP 20 CONCERT TOURS
1. (1) Britney Spears; $2,287,230; $100.69.
2. (2) Elton John / Billy Joel; $2,185,634; $115.84.
3. (3) Celine Dion; $2,029,095;$108.17.
4. (4) Eagles; $1,691,056; $130.12.
5. (5) AC/DC; $1,409,211; $85.12.
6. (6) Fleetwood Mac; $1,169,580; $99.27.
7. (7) Nickelback; $787,420; $58.38.
8. (8) Rascal Flatts; $656,209; $61.08.
9. (9) Lil' Wayne; $582,663; $66.26.
10. (10) Brad Paisley; $454,374; $48.30.
11. (11) Motley Crue; $382,436; $54.11.
12. (12) Jeff Dunham; $272,548; $44.17.
13. (13) The Killers; $265,429; $42.01.
14. (14) Slipknot; $249,015; $37.83.
15. (15) New Kids On The Block; $231,931; $54.03.
16. (16) Avenged Sevenfold / Buckcherry; $186,182; $36.94.
17. (17) John Legend; $173,355; $55.28.
18. (18) Larry The Cable Guy; $172,301; $32.82.
19. (20) Rain ? A Tribute To The Beatles; $168,160; $47.40.
20. (21) Bill Gaither & Friends Homecoming; $143,407; $34.84.
FLEETWOOD MAC - POTENTIALLY LUCRATIVE VICTORY LAP
Fleetwood Mac finds there is great fun in revisiting classic tunesBy PRESTON JONES
DFW.COM
The cycle for rock legends is numbingly familiar: Achieve stratospheric success, release a so-so album, fall off the top of the world, disappear for a bit and gradually — if luck holds — inch back into the spotlight for a potentially lucrative victory lap.
It has become a cliché that superstars like Fleetwood Mac know all too well. Fortunately, the star-crossed pair of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham have carved out respectable solo careers, which not only allows the band to take much-needed breathers but also makes endeavors like the "Unleashed: Hits Tour 2009" an opportunity for, surprisingly, creative rejuvenation.
"[Having] solo work and Fleetwood Mac is a really great thing to be able to go back and forth," Nicks said in a recent conference call with the four remaining band members. "It really is kind of a blessing in many ways. . . . It’s like it’s you never get bored. . . . It really makes for staying in a much more excited and uplifted humor for everything that you do when you’re not just doing one thing year after year after year after year after year."
Fleetwood Mac, sans keyboardist Christine McVie, who bid the band adieu in 1998 (although she did contribute a bit to 2003’s reunion record, Say You Will), will play Dallas’ American Airlines Center on Thursday.
Back to basics
The multiplatinum rockers haven’t released any new material since Say You Will, nor have they toured extensively (this stop marks the band’s first Dallas performance in five years), and they are hitting the road without anything in stores or even on the horizon, aside from a possible re-release of the 1977 masterpiece Rumours. Freed from promotional obligations, the band is able to get back to basics, Mick Fleetwood said.
"This is the first time that we’ve gone on the road without an album," said Fleetwood. "It is, truly, believe it or not, a refreshing thing to do in terms of selecting a whole lot of really emotively connected songs to the audience that we’ve enjoyed having through the years."
Buckingham echoed Fleetwood’s sentiments, saying that the absence of commercial expectations makes the band’s famously volatile relationships less susceptible to explosion.
"What it does is it kind of frees you up to kind of enjoy each other a little bit more as people — the mantra is really more, 'Let’s just have a good time’ and value the friendships and the history that really underpins this whole experience that we’ve had over these years," he said.
"It takes a little pressure off not having to kind of reinvent anything this particular time. Because of that we are actually able to just look at the body of work and choose. And then just have a little bit more fun with it than we would normally be able to have," Buckingham said.
Still, pounding out the same hits every night — The Chain, Go Your Own Way, Don’t Stop or any of the band’s considerable string of smash singles — can be a precarious proposition. Become too comfortable and it looks as though you’re going through the motions. Change it up too much and you’re messing with what people plunked down hefty chunks of change to see.
"It stays fresh because we never stop playing," Nicks said. "Basically, what we are is entertainers. Even if this band had never made it big, we’d be playing all the clubs, we’d be still doing that. So when we go onstage, we’re performers. It isn’t a question of keeping it fresh because it’s what we love — we don’t have anything else, basically, to do."
A new album?
Inevitably, the question was raised about whether Fleetwood Mac would head into the studio and cut a new album once this tour wraps?
And, just as expected, the band tried to artfully evade answering.
"There have been discussions, for sure, that we would love to make some more music," Fleetwood said. "I think it’s really down to the whole sort of biorhythms of how everyone is feeling and what’s appropriate. We have careers and families and whole different sort of perspectives from what it would have been, you know, 20, 30 years ago, and going onwards from there."
Buckingham, while waxing rhapsodic about the opportunities he’s had as a solo artist, took a bit more expansive view of the future.
"We’ve been down this road — a long, long road together," he said. "In some ways we know each other better than we know anybody else. I think that we all want to dignify the road we’ve been down . . . and I just think we all want to get to a place where we all feel that unity is waiting in the wings.
"It’s not that we’re not unified, but it is still a work in progress. I think that’s one of the main meanings of what we’re doing right now. So I actually feel quite excited to be able to go out and just relax into playing a body of work you know."
Fleetwood Mac
8 p.m. Thursday
American Airlines Center, Dallas
$49.50-$149.50
800-745-3000; www.ticketmaster.com
Preston Jones is the Star-Telegram pop music critic, 817-390-7713
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