REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Salt Lake City

FLEETWOOD MAC CONCERT REVIEW
Salt Lake Magazine
BY DAN NAILEN

I don't know what the magical spark is that makes one arena-sized tour thrill an audience while another feels cold and impersonal, but the four members of Fleetwood Mac certainly have it.

The band's show Wednesday at EnergySolutions Arena was certainly an impressive production, full of giant video screens, massive moving light rigs, three backup singers and two extra musicians. But it was the undeniable chemistry between the four remaining Macs—Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie—that made the show feel more intimate than oversized.

The band's history of breakups and makeups is oft-told, but after nearly 40 years playing music together in various incarnations, it's clear that the four partners have a musical connection that is rare in any genre. And the interpersonal connections between former lovers Nicks and Buckingman and long-time musical compadres Fleetwood and McVie are palpable still, after all these years.

Wednesday's concert made clear that Buckingham remains a mad musical genius; Fleetwood even said as much when he introduced his fellow band members, calling the incredibly skilled guitarist and writer the band's "mentor." His songs dominated the set, and his searing solos that accompanied nearly every song elicited random rounds of cheers as slack-jawed fans watched his fleet fingers pummeling the strings in extreme close-up, thanks to those giant video screens.

Nicks, though, was clearly the audience fave, and with good reason. She's a one-time Salt Laker who introduced "Gypsy" with a story about her years in Utah and how Salt Lake City was the destination on the very first Buckingham/Nicks road trip when the started playing together in the Bay Area in the mid-'60s. Her gruff voice and ethereal dancing-gypsy vibe remain in fine form, although her regular departures from the stage for a dress change was more noticeable on this tour than past gigs in Salt Lake.

The relationship between Nicks and Buckingham remains the centerpiece of Fleetwood Mac in most fans' minds, and even though they are long past their time as a couple, the energy between the two as they sang songs once written for, to and about each other was obvious. As was their affection when they re-emerged on stage hand in hand for each of the two encores.

Fleetwood Mac is calling this jaunt the "Unleashed" tour, and both Buckingham and Nicks noted early on that since there was no new Mac album to play, they were just going to "have some fun" and play the hits. And that's just what they proceeded to do, delivering 22 songs in three mostly incredible hours. I don't know how they could have fit Christine McVie's songs into the set if she still toured with the band.

The concert opened in a deluge of classics, and it didn't take the band long to get warmed up. Opener "Monday Morning" led straight into "The Chain," "Dreams," "I Know I'm Not Wrong" and "Gypsy" before Nicks left the stage for the first time for Buckingham's experimental take on his solo "Go Insane."

The show's second segment might have been the best, with the band ripping through "Rhiannon," a joyfully snarky "Second Hand News," "Tusk," "Sara" and Buckingham's haunting, solo take on "Big Love." Then it was just Nicks and Buckingham doing acoustic duets of "Landslide" and "Never Going Back Again."

Nicks introduced "I've Always Been a Storm" by saying the band decided at its January rehearsals for this tour that they wanted to play one song that had never been performed on stage before. Turned out to be a fine choice, as was a duet between her and Buckingham on Christine McVie's "Say You Love Me."

The main set ended with a roaring one-two punch of Nicks' solo hit "Stand Back" and the still-potent "Go Your Own Way." But even after more than two and a half hours, the band wasn't done. Their two encores included "World Turning," which evolved into a lengthy Fleetwood drum solo, the buoyant "Don't Stop" and ended poignantly with NIcks' "Silver Springs," nearly three hours after the first note.