Review: Stevie Nicks - Canberra, Australia "Nicks was very engaging on stage"

Stevie Nicks Live in Canberra 

AIS Arena, Canberra December 7, 2011 

By: ZOYA PATEL 

Faster Louder 

Published by nickslive.blogspot.com @Nickslive for Fleetwood Mac News and Reviews: 

Stevie Nicks proved that beyond a doubt, she’s still got it.

There are few events in Canberra that draw a crowd of several thousand, with representatives from across generations, occupations, suburbs and sub-cultures, but Stevie Nicks’ solo show at AIS Arena was definitely one of them.

The atmosphere at the AIS was humming with electricity. By the time the esteemed songstress herself took to the stage, the crowd were literally jumping with excitement, leaping to their feet to greet Nicks with a standing ovation.

Immediately launching into a rendition of classic hit Stand Back, Nicks proved that she still has the husky voice and sultry moves of her youth, delivering the crowd favourite with gusto.

What ensued was a mixture of old hits, Fleetwood Mac favourites and tracks of Nicks’ new album In Your Dreams, co-written with Dave Stewart who appeared on stage intermittently to play guitar during his songs.

Full Review at Faster Louder

Hit Fleetwood Mac single Dreams sparked a riot of cheering, and was delivered with the same swoony vocals and ethereal guitar as Fleet Mac fans love and expect. Nicks introduced each song with a lengthy explanation of how it was written and why it was important to her, charming the audience with her banter and wry humour.

New song Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream) was inspired by the Twilight films, and unfortunately, the rather cliché lyrics were reminiscent of the film’s dialogue. 

Although the sound was spectacular, and Nicks was very engaging on stage, the overall performance seemed slightly rehearsed and unoriginal in parts. The use of a video backdrop on the stage was distracting at times, especially during songs like Moonlight or Soldier’s Angel, where entire videos were shown.

Just when the atmosphere seemed to lag, however, Nicks pulled out the ultimate Fleetwood Mac favourite, Landslide to tumultuous applause. With a shimmering spotlight and the accompaniment of a single acoustic guitar, Nicks crooned her way through the classic flawlessly.

As the set began to near an end, the band left the stage as one, leaving only the drummer and percussionist on stage. What followed was a lengthy, impressive drum solo, with each drummer alternating before combining their efforts to make the floor jump with a massive finale. Having geared the crowd up, by the time the final thud was over, the cheering was practically drowning out the drums, and Nicks reappeared on stage to screams of delight. 

For the finale, Nicks performed Edge of Seventeen, belting the song out with energy, and bringing members of the crowd to their feet to dance.

Despite the lengthy crowd banter, and the slightly strange structure of the set –with slower songs cutting off the energy of the audience, just as excitement was building, and the often lengthy bouts of audience banter seemingly exhausting the crowd at times – Stevie Nicks proved that beyond a doubt, she’s still got it.