Nicks is the hippie earth mother cloaked in shawls and mystery

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE

MANSFIELD, MA - COMCAST CENTER

JUNE 21, 2013

Review: Fleetwood Mac goes its 'own way'

Rock giants enthrall Comcast audience with their classics
By Lauren Carter
The Sun Chronicle

MANSFIELD - Fleetwood Mac will not be going gently into that good night.

If Friday night's show at the Comcast Center was any indication, the legendary band will be staging spirited live performances well into their golden years.

The foursome - John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Buckingham and Stevie Nicks - have survived breakups, breakdowns, drug addictions, a fickle music climate and the loss of singer-songwriter and pianist Christine McVie, and what remains is a band that's clear-eyed and clearly in love with what they do, full of youthful energy despite the fact that they're technically senior citizens.

With no opening act and two encores, Friday's set was a 2 1/2-hour marathon of Mac classics that spanned from their self-titled 1975 album - when the addition of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham transformed them from a British blues band to an international rock sensation - to 2003's "Say You Will" and a pair of tracks off their new four-song EP.

There was time for mega-hits such as "Go Your Own Way," "Don't Stop," "The Chain" and the hypnotic "Dreams" as well as lesser-known tracks like a slowed-down "Never Going Back Again" and a punchy "Eyes of the World." A segment from "Tusk" - the album that represented the band's collective subversion of industry formula - included "Not That Funny," "Sara" and "Sisters of the Moon," which, before this tour, hadn't been performed onstage since 1981.

Buckingham continues to play the tortured guitar god, delivering masterful work on songs such as "So Afraid" and the acoustic "Big Love" and standing on the stage in triumph after solos as if he'd just slayed a personal demon.

Nicks is the hippie earth mother cloaked in shawls and mystery, twirling and dancing and conjuring up characters on songs like "Rhiannon" and "Gold Dust Woman." If Buckingham is the group's power source, Nicks is its emotional center, and nowhere was that more evident than on the venue singalong that was "Landslide." Even her rambling intro to new song "Without You" - originally recorded as a demo in 1974 and lost for many years until it surfaced on YouTube - was charming.

WITHOUT YOU Intro

With Christine McVie absent, the former Nicks-Buckingham love affair is now the axis around which Fleetwood Mac revolves. They take the stage together, they sing to each other and about each other, and a mere look in each other's direction or a slight embrace elicits howls from the crowd. During the second encore, Nicks aimed a spiteful "Silver Springs" at Buckingham, and then the pair remained alone onstage for an acoustic "Say Goodbye," a beautiful and bittersweet song about acceptance and closure.

Thirty-eight years later, some things have changed. Nicks no longer has the range she once did. Band members have visibly aged. But the band's giddy energy and their lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry remains intact.

It seems the pitfalls and excesses of fame have fallen away, and what's left is a foursome whose stardom has been tempered by wisdom and gratitude.

Buckingham said there are several chapters left in the book of Fleetwood Mac, and indeed the band's love affair with music - and their fans' love affair with the band -doesn't appear to ending anytime soon.

Photos by Kelly Glowik - Facebook Gallery

EYES OF THE WORLD
GYPSY

GOLD DUST WOMAN

SO AFRAID

REVIEW: "Stevie Nicks charisma as breathtaking as ever". "Lindsey Buckingham is one hellacious guitar player".

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE

MANSFIELD, MA - COMCAST CENTER

JUNE 21, 2013

Photo by Alexandra Paige

Fleetwood Mac rocks Massachusetts
by Jay Miller
Herald News

Fleetwood Mac's 2013 Live Tour is said to be celebrating the 35th Anniversary of their iconic "Rumours" album, but their two-and-a-half hour concert Friday night before about 19,000 fans at the Comcast Center in Mansfield (close to, but not quite a sellout)  included much more. The quartet, enhanced by two extra musicians and two harmony vocalists, performed a healthy cross-section of their vast catalog, as well as a new song, and an old one most of us hadn't heard before.

Photo by Kelsey Hogan

Publicity for this tour noted that it includes original members John McVie on bass and Mick Fleetwood on drums, both of them dating back to the band's 1967 founding, as well as 1975 recruits Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. There was no mention of McVie's former wife, Christine McVie, who'd joined the band in 1970 and retired from the road in 1998. So it was not a surprise that last night's show didn't include a lot of Christine McVie songs, and while the band did do nine tunes from 'Rumours," they did not play three Christine McVie-penned numbers from that album, including "You Make Loving Fun." But since we're talking about an album that sold somewhere between 40-50 million units worldwide, there were still plenty of Fleetwood Mac nuggets to play.

John McVie and Fleetwood came out of a blues-rock background, of course, while Buckingham and Nicks came out of the California singer-songwriter mode, and their joining pushed the band into a more pop direction. Christine McVie added a bit of English folk roots, which only added to the band's intriguing mix back in the day. The setlist this year is heavily skewed towards Buckingham and Nicks numbers, and that's fine, making for some galvanizing rock moments. The main quartet was placed center stage, with the two vocalists on a back platform at stage right, while the two extra musicians--either both on guitar, or with one on keyboards--played on a back platform at stage left.

Full Review at Herald News

SISTERS OF THE MOON

SAY GOODBYE

REVIEW: Buckingham-Nicks still the romantic soul of Fleetwood Mac

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE

MANSFIELD, MA - COMCAST CENTER

JUNE 21, 2013

By Scott McLennan
Providence Journal

MANSFIELD, Mass. — Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are to classic rock what George Jones and Tammy Wynette were to country music and Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell were to rhythm and blues: the everlasting couple.

Though in real life the Buckingham-Nicks romance flamed out long ago, its myth still fed Fleetwood Mac’s nostalgia-laden concert at the Comcast Center on Friday.

After founders Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, plus the hired guns, took the stage, Nicks and Buckingham walked out hand-in-hand to start the show with “Second Hand News.”

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Drummer Fleetwood, bassist McVie, and guitarist Buckingham easily recreated their parts from Fleetwood Mac’s mid-70s glory days. Nicks, still the high-priestess of romantic souls, has far less range and power in her vocals. She did not struggle through “The Chain,” “Dreams” or “Rhiannon,” but she also did not deliver those songs with any sort of spark. Applauding her efforts felt more like cheering for memories than finding life in the moment.

Fleetwood Mac can still orchestrate a brisk 21/2-hour concert. After a run through early hits, Buckingham introduced “Sad Angel,” one of two new songs included in the concert. That up-tempo number was far better than the hippie-lite wobble “Without You,” a song Nicks wrote in 1970 and introduced in a story that would have been tolerable at “rambling” but went on to tortuous lengths. Both songs fed the romance storyline in different ways, as did the Buckingham-Nicks embrace at the end of “Sara.”

Buckingham introduced a suite of songs — including “Sara — from the “Tusk” album with a speech about taking artistic risks, which that album was when it followed the monolithic “Fleetwood Mac” and “Rumours” albums. Of course the merits of artistic risk were on display when people streamed toward the concession stands when Buckingham began the “Tusk” deep cut “Not That Funny.” But a turn into that album’s “Sisters of the Moon” proved a treat to older fans, with Nicks noting the song hadn’t been part of the concert repertoire since 1981.

A mid-concert turn into stripped-down acoustic material was a highlight.

Buckingham launched it with “Big Love,” brought it to a peak when he and Nicks aired “Landslide” and gently brought it down with a duo reading of “Never Going Back Again.”

Late into the concert, Nicks and Buckingham each stretched out on theatrical numbers. Nicks went first with an extended “Gold Dust Woman.” Buckingham followed with his tightly-coiled “I’m So Afraid.”

Though Nicks is not the powerhouse she once was, she still has commercial clout, as the band followed her through her solo hit “Stand Back.”

Fleetwood Mac wrapped up its main set with “Go Your Own Way.” The encore portion contained the requisite Fleetwood drum solo (though shortened from past tours).

The final song was “Say Goodbye,” done with just Buckingham and Nicks harmonizing alone on stage, looking very much like a love story to be continued as long as there is an audience for it.

GOLD DUST WOMAN - Awesome again, she's in the groove!
LANDSLIDE