REVIEW | VIDEO: Fleetwood Mac Live in Pittsburgh 4/26

Nicks, Buckingham take center stage at Fleetwood Mac show

by Kellie B. Gormly

Triblive

Two things that struck the audience at Fleetwood Mac's show at Consol Energy Center on Friday night were how great Stevie Nicks looks and sounds at her age, and how peculiar and intriguing her relationship with co-star Lindsey Buckingham remains.

Nicks and Buckingham gave a stellar concert at Consol, where the other members of the classic band were relegated to the background and, often, even out of sight. Nicks and Buckingham performed more as a duo, although the British drummer and founding member Mick Fleetwood got in a few appearances with a drum solo and dialogue with the audience toward the end of the show.

Nicks sports her signature thick, long, blonde hair, along with a frilly black top and skirt, and her popular shawl — which she spreads out with her arms, as she twirled to “Gypsy” on stage in a favorite move. Her distinctive voice often eerily sounded exactly like it did in the radio classics of three decades ago. Nicks' vocal range has decreased, though, as she avoids the higher notes and sometimes sings at a lower octave.

Although Nicks' and Buckingham's tumultuous romantic relationship ended years ago — a devastating split that drove Nicks to avoid Fleetwood Mac for a long time — the two send mixed messages now that they have reunited as bandmates. They often stood way apart on stage and didn't interact much, but at other moments, they showed affection toward each other. The two ended their encore with “Say Goodbye,” a song that Buckingham wrote about Nicks, and the emotion between the two was undeniable, if anything for old time's sake.

Although Fleetwood Mac played for two and a half hours with no opener or intermission, and we heard plenty of classic hits, most songs from Christine McVie didn't make the set list, except for “Don't Stop” in the encore. This created a notable void, since so many of the band's biggest hits came from McVie, who left the band in the late ‘90s. Fans miss her, but Nicks and Buckingham have made the best of her absence. Nicks included some of her solo work, including “Stand Back,” with complementing video images of a younger, glamorous Nicks twirling in a red outfit.

The audience included mostly middle-aged fans, but also a big crop of younger-generation 20-somethings who love Fleetwood Mac's music.

Almost the entire show from last night by clubdoc can be found here... Looking and sounding awesome!

1. SECOND HAND NEWS
2. THE CHAIN
3. DREAMS
4. SAD ANGEL

MORE VIDEO BELOW (hit the 'Continue Reading' link)

REVIEWS: Fleetwood Mac Live in Pittsburgh, PA - Consol Energy Center 4/26

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE

PITTSBURGH, PA

CONSOL ENERGY CENTER

APRIL 26, 2013

Fleetwood Mac show is powered by hits and rarities
By Scott Mervis

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Fleetwood Mac obviously has some issues playing nice with each other in a studio, as its last release was a decade ago and there have been a combined four solo albums from its dynamic duo up front since then.

On stage, though, FM still has the golden touch.

The band, which started as a British blues outfit in 1967 but practically defined mid-'70s pop-rock, turned up at Consol Energy Center tonight three weeks into its first tour since 2009. Once again, it's a foursome with a few sidemen and backup singers, as Christine McVie, out of the picture since 1998, has chosen to steer clear, taking with her the earthy harmonies and such hits as "Over My Head," "Say You Love Me" and "You Make Loving Fun."

They were missed, as usual, but even without that, Fleetwood Mac has no shortage of beloved classics. The hit parade started energetically with a galloping beat from the ageless Mick Fleetwood launching Lindsey Buckingham into "Second Hand News" (a sly, self-deprecating statement?), joined on the chorus by his former flame Stevie Nicks, still striking at 64.

Mr. Buckingham isn't often mentioned with rock's guitar heroes, clearly an oversight if you've seen him live. Those heroics started in earnest on the second song, "The Chain," with its tense riffage and piercing solo going over top John McVie's rumbling bass.

Ms. Nicks remains a vocal enigma, as there's no one way to describe her instrument, other than expressive. It's still nasal and husky ranging somehow to clear and girlish, as we heard on "Dreams" and a powerful "Rhiannon." As you'd expect, she runs around the occasional high note.

There's no new album to freshen the set -- or perhaps get in the way of a casual Mac fan's good time -- but there is a promised EP on the way.

They teased it with "Sad Angel," a vintage-sounding Buckingham-Nicks collab that was more up-tempo than the title suggests.

The band's other creative twist on this tour is its four-song mini-set from "Tusk," the 1979 curveball that Mr.
Buckingham described as "a line in the sand" creatively for the band. It included the cacophonous title track (with the USC marching band on the screen) and the lovely "Sara," during which Mr. Fleetwood sounded more like competition. They also added Mr. Buckingham's quasi-punk freakout "Not That Funny" and Ms. Nicks' bewitching "Sisters of the Moon," which sounded a little chaotic, too.

They also revived the long-lost Buckingham Nicks song "Without You," which could have stayed lost, and offered a few old deep cuts: rumbling rocker "Eyes of the World" and "I'm So Afraid," with a killer guitar jam that explored the high end of the neck to the furthest extreme.

The stripped-down mid-section, one of the best parts if the night, brought Mr. Buckingham's frantic acoustic workout on "Big Love," a dramatic, finger-picked "Never Going Back Again" and a beautiful "Landslide" with the emphatic and always warmly received line, "I'm getting older, too."

Even more well received was Ms. Nicks' shawl dance at the end of a "Gold Dust Woman" that toed the line in the sand between plodding and mesmerizing.

For the closers, they tapped the Nicks solo catalog for a hard-driving "Stand Back," with the singer spinning in circles, followed by one of rock's best fist-pumping breakup anthems, "Go Your Own Way," ecstatically played.

The encores started with a pummeling "World Turning" and "Don't Stop," the one Christine McVie song they can't skip, and ended with a gentle "Say Goodbye" ??? that's only goodbye for now.

"You'd think there'd be nothing left to invent," Mr. Buckingham said at one point, "but there apparently are some new chapters to be written for Fleetwood Mac."

With a 50th anniversary on the way -- at least for the band name and esteemed, cranked-up rhythm section -- they can't very well stop now.

(not mentioned, but Silver Springs was back in the set)

PHOTOS: Fleetwood Mac Live in Newark, NJ (by Gabrielle Dragan)

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE 

NEWARK, NJ - April 24, 2013

Prudential Center

(Photos sent in by Gabrielle Dragan)

The video below isn't Newark, it's at Mohegan Sun Arena - but the footage is incredible!... Shot right at the stage.
GO YOUR OWN WAY:

Mick Fleetwood Reveals Setlist Change For Euro Fleetwood Mac Shows

Fleetwood Mac Concert Review 2013

VIP Experience With Mick Fleetwood

Full details at T-Mak World

Fleetwood Mac at Prudential Center is enjoyable, but...

By Tris McCall/The Star-Ledger
NJ.com

Last year, Hear Music -- that's the label run by Starbucks -- released a tribute disc to Fleetwood Mac. There wasn't a single cover of a Christine McVie song on the collection. Maybe she gave the okay for that, and maybe she didn't want to negotiate with Hear; in any case, it felt like she'd been written of a story in which she's a central character.

Last night, the Mac held the stage at the Prudential Center for nearly two and a half hours. There was only a single Christine McVie song on the setlist -- "Don't Stop," which is mostly sung by Lindsey Buckingham. McVie wasn't present for the concert, which is nothing new: She hasn't been performing with the group in more than a decade. Mick Fleetwood mentioned in an interview that the door is always open, and he'd love it if she'd walk through. Some fans have high hopes for the upcoming London gig; in Newark on Wednesday, she didn't walk through.

Check out these Photos by Jon Gregory - The Click Studio Photography - View The Gallery

I love Lindsey Buckingham. He's something of an onstage megalomaniac, and he'll solo all night and day if you let him, but he's endearing, he's a magnetic frontman and a dexterous guitarist, and his restlessness and taste for experimentation was put to good use by the rest of the group. I love Stevie Nicks, too; her songs are smart, tough, and intoxicating, and get her going in an extended outro and she's likely to guide you to places that few singers ever visit. John McVie and Mick Fleetwood are the rare rhythm players with indelible personalities; push play on a Fleetwood Mac recording and within seconds, you'll know it's them.There are days on which I am convinced that there has never been a greater British-born rock group than Fleetwood Mac -- not the Beatles, not the Kinks, not Led Zeppelin, not the Attractions, nor any of the other boys', boys', boys' bands who never seemed to want to let the girls get a word in. 

But that version of Fleetwood Mac is impossible without Christine McVie. She provided the serenity that made Buckingham's frenetic approach palatable, the earthiness that kept Nicks grounded, and the trancelike electric piano parts that added mystic resonance to the thump and throb of the rhythm section. Most of all, she added terrific songs to the repertoire: songs of romance and warmth, stories that added to that distinctive Fleetwood Mac feeling of men and women in conversation. She did not demonstrate Buckingham's imagination or Nicks' urgency. But no songwriter in a band of great songwriters understood the architecture of pop melody better than she did.

Christine shown here in this recent
photo supports Trevor's Law!

Years before Mick Fleetwood had the bright idea of enlisting Buckingham and Nicks, Christine McVie was

writing and singing great songs for Fleetwood Mac. She was writing good songs when she was still Christine Perfect, singer and pianist for British blues act Chicken Shack. After "Rumours" became a smash hit, pre-Buckingham-Nicks material dropped out of setlists, and because of that, an unfair percentage of Christine McVie's finest work has gotten lost in the Dark Ages of Mac history. She joined the group in 1971 (she'd drawn the children's book-like cover for the "Kiln House" set the year before) and immediately became a major contributor. "Believe Me," the leadoff cut from the 1973 album "Mystery to Me," is first-rate Fleetwood Mac and as delicious as anything on "Rumours." "Come a Little Bit Closer," from 1974's "Heroes Are Hard to Find," anticipated the major-league pop moves the band would make a year later. Once the band hit the big time, she kept right on penning hits: "You Make Loving Fun," "Think About Me," "Hold Me," "Say You Love Me." (Her album cuts were just as good.)

I'll have my review of this show in Saturday's paper, but I'll give you the short version here: Fleetwood Mac is always something great to behold, but I missed Christine McVie like a jeweled ring I'd dropped down the drain. I want her back, badly, and I'll bet her former bandmates do, too. 

Note: Mick Fleetwood has recently been indicating to fans during the Meet and Greets on the Fleetwood Mac Tour that Christine will likely make an appearance on stage in London during The Mac's 3 sold out shows... When asked if she'll be doing all 3 he indicated likely just one, but wouldn't confirm which show.

STARTING FRIDAY: Stevie Nicks "In Your Dreams" Film at Carlton Cinema in Toronto For 1 Week!

SCREENING FOR 1 WEEK IN TORONTO

Beginning Friday, April 26th and running through Thursday, May 2nd, Stevie's documentary "In Your Dreams" will be running at the Magic Lantern Theatres - Carlton Cinema located at 20 Carlton Street at Yonge.  The film will play twice daily at 1:40pm and 6:50pm.

Go on Toronto... You know you want to!

Carlton Cinema

PHOTOS | VIDEO | REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Newark, NJ

Fleetwood Mac Live in Newark, NJ

at Prudential Center

April 24, 2013

"Silver Springs"
(was a no show tonight)

Photos by: By Saed Hindash

View the full gallery at NJ.com

Above 2 pics by Brian Killian

WITHOUT YOU:
SAD ANGEL:

Above photos by Ashley Glynn

Rare moment! A fan brought the Buckingham Nicks album and both Stevie and Lindsey agreed to sign it.
Fleetwood Mac - Prudential Center - 4/24/13 By Brian McManus  Village Voice Better Than: The idea of the band not reuniting this year at all. It begins with "Second Hand News" -- a song with a title and lyrics probably meant to be a self-deprecating nod to the reunion's time and place. It's an entire arena clutching their hearts along to songs that are older than I am and mumbling "angel" with every golden twirl of Stevie Nicks' body. It's a Fleetwood Mac concert in 2013, and it needs less explanation or apologies than one would think. "This is all your fault," Nicks told the audience at the show's end, joking but stern. She was referring to the collection of moments that led to the very one we were experiencing right then. The dreams the band had become and the dreams the band lived thanks to the audience seeing their own dreams in the band's, or some magical through line similar to that one. Until that particular monologue, the concert had been a compilation of greatest hits ranging the varied career of varied sounds that Fleetwood Mac enjoys and is still able to revel in with the conviction of an artist celebrating a particularly intimate new release. With "Second Hand News" followed immediately by "The Chain" and "Dreams," the opener could have easily been an encore with the feverish audience response they each elicited. New songs like "Sad Angel" and show closer "Say Goodbye" were just as welcome to the repertoire, especially after the band revealed the upcoming short EP they will be releasing next week with a grand total of four new songs on it. They were equally sweet musical moments that brought Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham's incomparable stage chemistry to the forefront. This chemistry between the two -- famous for many reasons -- was a beautifully endearing element to the overall performance. Providing anecdotes to the histories of songs like oldie "Without You" and newbie "Say Goodbye," each serving as an emotional antithesis to the other, were loving and intimate. They came back onstage for the encores holding hands and braided their voices together in a stunning, velvety manner. One front row fan handed them a vinyl album slip with a cover featuring a young, half-naked version of them. Nostalgia seemingly floated through their eyes. In a show that was meant to be nothing but highlights, and delivered as such, the moments that catapulted themselves to the forefront were truly surreal. "Big Love," a Buckingham solo, was mesmerizing with the guitarist's impassioned and hypnotic finger-picking. Nicks still has it, and sounded flawless during "Rhiannon" and "Gold Dust Woman" as she wailed away with her signature raspy-but-smooth voice. During the latter, the singer came onstage with a shimmering gold shawl and created the illusion of golden wings as the song faded out. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie were exceptional, per usual. While McVie remained a silent presence on-stage, Fleetwood joked around, made funny faces to the crowd, and played a heart-stopping extended drum solo during "The World Keeps on Turning." The individual talents that each member brought did, however, make it hard not to notice the absence of Christine McVie, who's soft but smoky voice would have provided another rich layer to an already grand performance. "Landslide" featured a particularly poignant moment: With arms triumphantly outstretched, Nicks gave the most valiant delivery of the famous line "...and I'm getting older too." Fleetwood Mac has experienced an aging that is less comical or just awkward to watch be performed onstage; they've grown naturally in a way that feels wise and most certainly bold. Critical Bias: Stevie Nicks is an angel sent from Heaven, hallowed be her name. Overheard: "BEAUTIFUL!" - a very aggressively gruff man during the sweet, soft performance of new song "Say Goodbye." Random Notebook Dump: A general rule should be: if you're telling people to sit down at a concert then you should not have gone to the show in the first place. Major shout out to the people in front of us who held their own against some very confused and unnecessarily angry audience members telling them to stay seated. Setlist: Second Hand News The Chain Dreams Sad Angel Rhiannon Not That Funny Tusk Sisters of the Moon Sara Big Love Landslide Never Going Back Again Without You  Gypsy Eyes of the World Gold Dust Woman I'm So Afraid Stand Back Go Your Own Way ----- World Turning Don't Stop ----- Say Goodbye A lot more from the show below... Click the "Continue Reading Here For More" link