Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Pittsburgh "He thrashed and smacked his guitar strings like a man gone mad"

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Pittsburgh - April 26, 2013
by Nicole Chynoweth
pghcitypaper

Three years have passed since Fleetwood Mac’s last tour, but their performance at Consol Energy Center last night proved their on-stage spark is hardly exhausted. For about two and a half hours, the band sent the crowd on a nostalgic journey through their back catalog with many of their greatest hits, as well as a long lost demo and a new track from their upcoming EP. While the band as a whole put on a great show, the musical chemistry between Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks could not be ignored.

“Second Hand News” opened up the show, presenting Buckingham’s awe-inspiring fingerpicking skills almost immediately. As soon as the last chord sounded, Mick Fleetwood, seated atop an impressively large drum kit, rattled his shimmering chimes and broke into “The Chain.” John McVie’s dark, ominous bass solo hypnotized the squealing audience. Both songs set the tone for the evening: the Mac is back.

After “Dreams,” Buckingham took to the mic to discuss Fleetwood Mac’s return to the road.

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)