REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Brisbane "Fleetwood’s wearing well"

FLEETWOOD MAC
Brisbane Entertainment Centre Review:
By: Noel Mengel
The Courier Mail

FLEETWOOD Mac have survived bustups, missing band members, messy affairs and complete musical makeovers in their 40-year career.

They aren’t letting a little thing like a year spent on the road slow them down either.

The band played the first of two Brisbane Entertainment Centre shows last night, playing for 2½ hours and packing the set with songs from their Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk albums.

It’s an odd mix but the contrasts are what made them strong: the two veterans of the British blues boom, with Stevie Nicks’s ethereal spirit contrasting with Lindsey Buckingham’s intensity.

Sadly keyboard player Christine McVie has retired and her songs are missed, while Mick Fleetwood is returning in February with his blues band to play tunes from the band’s pre-1975 history, mostly absent here.

The format isn’t much altered from their set at the same venue five years ago, with room for solo excursions, plus loads of Buckingham’s guitar solos.

Somethings you expect: Stevie in black, Lindsey lean in leather jacket, John McVie in his cap.

Some things are a surprise: the aggression that Buckingham brings to songs like The Chain, Nick’s exquisite delivery of Landslide. Plus, they can always kick the show into high gear anytime they want to drop the big bombs, songs like, Rhiannon, Sara, and Go Your Own Way.

As Buckingham explained, there were a lot of emotional opposites in songs like Second Hand News.

The old hurts that produced songs like that might be way in the past, but the songs themselves have weathered well.

Fleetwood Mac play the Brisbane Entertainment Centre again tonight.