THE PERFORMANCE WAS TOP NOTCH (DALLAS OBSERVER)

Last Night: Fleetwood Mac at the AAC

By Darryl Smyers

Dallas Observer

Fleetwood Mac

American Airlines Center

April 30, 2009

Better Than: Seeing a Fleetwood Mac cover band at an AARP Convention.

Seemingly every MILF in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area made their way to the American Airlines Center last night to catch a truncated (but still powerful) version of Fleetwood Mac. The legendary rock act brought out 23 chestnuts spanning the band's four decade career, even throwing in a couple of numbers from solo efforts from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

The nearly three hour show thrilled the homogeneous collection of forty and fifty-somethings, about 75% of whom were women sporting outfits that hadn't seen the light of day since Bill Clinton was getting his first Lewinsky. I'm happy that these folks were getting in some good cardio work by dancing throughout the show, but after seeing an octogenarian tumble to the floor (sadly spilling her red wine) it was obvious that some folks should have called it a night way before the encore.

Regardless of any audience shenanigans, the performance was top-notch. Lindsey Buckingham is still one of the most talented guitarists working in the rock/pop field. His finger picking style, best exemplified on songs such as "Never Going Back Again" and "Big Love". The set list featured several interesting choices, including three from my personal favorite Mac album "Tusk." Stevie Nicks explained that the band wanted to unearth some songs that it hadn't performed on previous tours.

Even though keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie decided not to join the band for this tour, Nicks and Buckingham did a nice job substituting on McVie's "Say You Love Me." Even more intriguing was the choice of "Oh Well," a song that predates Nicks and Buckingham even joining Fleetwood Mac. Of course, the hits keep the crowd happy and band didn't fail to deliver such 70's standards as "Dreams," "Rhiannon," "Landslide" and "Gold Dust Woman." And despite Nicks' wardrobe changes, the band looked great and played marvelously.

Critic's Notebook: Random Note: Why do folks begrudge a guy who simply needs to go to the bathroom? The grandpa and grandma at the end of row N just about had a cow when I asked to get by. I think the old coot purposely kneed me in the shin when I came back.