Reviews: Fleetwood Mac Live in Kansas City and St. Louis

Reunited Fleetwood Mac put on exquisite show at Scottrade Center Friday
by Sean Derrick
Examiner.com

Fleetwood Mac concert Friday Night in Saint Louis

Fleetwood Mac, one of the greatest selling acts of all time, brought their most successful lineup back to Scottrade Center for the first time in 18 years on Friday for a stop on their “On With the Show Tour” and the resulting show was a trip down memory lane.

Longtime vocalist/keyboardist Christine McVie had left the band after their successful 1997/98 “The Dance Tour” (Which played at the then named Kiel Center on November 17, 1997) to retire from touring.

While there have been many incarnations of Fleetwood Mac in their 47 year history their most popular and well-known has been with the lineup that was featured Friday night of McVie along with vocalist Stevie Nicks, vocalist/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, bassist John McVie and Founding member Mick Fleetwood on drums.

Each of the band members glowed about McVie’s return and noted that it was her 70th show back with them, bringing the band back to where they are their best.

Full review and photo gallery at Examiner.com



Fleetwood Mac dazzled a (nearly) full house at the Sprint Center last night
By Natalie Gallagher
Pitch.com

Fleetwood Mac - Sprint Center, Kansas City - Saturday, March 28, 2015

“If you would have asked me ten years ago, I never thought I’d be doing this,” Christine McVie announced to the Sprint Center audience last night, before she began “Everywhere,” her first lead song of the evening.

Photo: April Fleming

Indeed, McVie was not alone in that sentiment. The majority of Fleetwood Mac’s throbbing audience – which very nearly sold out the Sprint – had likely never dared to hope the day would come that McVie would once again be taking her place at the keyboard on stage with her former bandmates. After a 16-year absence, this joyful reunion is part of what made last night’s two-and-a-half hour show so special.

The rest was pure nostalgia, with a 22-song setlist packed with fan favorites performed with the kind of enthusiasm artists generally reserve for their freshest material. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were in fine form, the former acting as both a tireless shredder – his agile handiwork was displayed multiple times on the large screen behind the band – and gooey speechmaker. 

Full review and photo gallery at Pitch.com

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in St. Louis, MO - March 27, 2015

Fleetwood Mac gives fans what they want at Scottrade Center concert

By Kevin C. Johnson
St.Louis Dispatch

It only makes sense Fleetwood Mac would open its sold-out concert at Scottrade Center Friday night with “The Chain,” featuring the key lyric: “Chain keep us together.”

After years full of ups and downs, as singer and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham pointed out, “we’ve grown and prevailed through the good and the bad.”

And these days the band is prevailing with returning keyboardist and singer Christine McVie, making this late-career run of the band, on its “On With the Show” tour, a must-see (16,000 fans attended at Scottrade Center). She’d been out of the fold for 16 years.

McVie’s return reunited Fleetwood Mac’s most popular lineup — Mick Fleetwood, Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, John McVie and herself.

Backbeat - Photography
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Christine McVie’s presence was welcome, as evidenced by the applause she got with the opening line of “You Make Loving Fun” (missing from the band’s 2009 show at Scottrade Center), allowing songs such as that and “Everywhere” and “Little Lies” into the setlist again.

Buckingham told the crowd McVie’s return presented a “profound, prolific and new chapter in the story of this band, Fleetwood Mac,” while Nicks reveled in girl power being restored to the band.

McVie did come off second fiddle to Buckingham and Nicks, undeniably and not surprisingly. But her presence was an important one, and she held up her role well.

Photos by Jeff Curry
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Over a lean and briskly moving two hours-plus, the great Fleetwood Mac offered fans exactly what they wanted, which was nothing but a barrage of hits including “Go Your Own Way,” “Don’t Stop” and “Never Going Back Again,” performed to perfection with perhaps a few backstories thrown in — including a lengthy one from Nicks about the day she received a call from McVie saying she wanted to come back.

“Dreams,” “Second Hand News,” “Rhiannon” and “Everywhere” kept the show’s early going moving, and the pace never let up. It’s to the band’s credit it could afford to stack hits throughout the entire set without wedging in any filler.

Zach Dalin Photography
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“Tusk” was the percussive delight it always is; “Big Love” was a quick reminder of the power of a solo Buckingham on guitar; and Nicks brought her requisite twirl to “Gypsy.” The psychedelic
finish to “Gold Dust Woman” was appropriately trippy, while Fleetwood on drums is a whole other trip. He was like a beast trying to fight its way out of its cage.

During a middle portion of the show focusing on Nicks and Buckingham, Nicks had a quick emotional moment during the still-exquisite “Landslide” and acknowledged it at song's end.

Fleetwood addressed the crowd at the end of the night, after encore songs “World Turning,” “Don’t Stop” and “Silver Springs,” telling everyone to love each other in this crazy world, and concluded with: “Remember, the Mac is definitely back.”

Truer words couldn’t have been spoken.