REVIEWS X 4: Fleetwood Mac Live in Toronto + 5 Things You Missed

Five things you missed at the Fleetwood Mac concert

Photo by Jack Boland - See more at Toronto Sun

Fleetwood Mac, Air Canada Centre, April 16

1. Four of rock’s biggest and most iconic personalities Or, at least, three of rock’s most iconic personalities and John McVie. The band’s exceedingly low-key bassist kept very much to himself for the balance of this two-and-a-half-hour marathon, only being thrown into the spotlight during the famously groovy outro of “The Chain.” Otherwise, he let his bandmates do all the heavy lifting, which was easy: Fleetwood Mac’s alluringly combustible blend of personalities is a large part of where the band gets their mystique. While the crowd basked in the warm glow of Stevie Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood also kept a relatively low profile, spending the balance of the show coolly turning out his trademark airy drum fills behind his massive kit. The running of the show was left to the leather-jacketed Lindsey Buckingham, who reeled off sprightly guitar lines and belted the band’s hits with McCartney-level stamina.

Check out No. 2 - 5 at The Grid



REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac at the ACC
BY BEN FISHER
Postcity.com

For the bulk of their 40-plus years in the music industry, Fleetwood Mac’s lofty status as rock gods stemmed directly from their lead vocalist, Stevie Nicks. These days, the still-touring group thrives, and probably would with or without her.

Their Tuesday night date at the ACC (Toronto) was a collective tour-de-force in which the band’s bold sound carried an impactful, fluid rhythm from all four members. The beats of drummer Mick Fleetwood were consistently in flow with John McVie’s bass, which meshed perfectly with the notes that launched off of Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar strings. But it was clear that Nicks’ airy style was strangely at odds with what was a powerful, high-energy show.

That it was Nicks who served as the weak link in the chain is less an indictment of the 64-year-old singer and more of a commentary on the continued excellence of the group as a whole, and a testament to Buckingham’s stellar vocals. The band was often at its strongest when Nicks was an afterthought.

Continue to the rest of the review at Postcity

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, April 16th 2013
By Spindle on 17 April, 2013

Stevie Nicks is timeless. This was confirmed to me last night while witnessing Fleetwood Mac perform live at the ACC. At 64, Nicks feels with the same tumultuously beautiful energy her younger counterpart invented more than three decades ago. Her love affair with Lindsey Buckingham still feels imminent with an energy that moved me as I watched her introduce "Without You" with an anecdote about how wild and stupid and in love they were before it all happened. Buckingham bookended their unrequited romance during a second encore of Say Goodbye from Say You Will by telling Nicks the song was for her.

The emotional intensity that still exists on stage had me wondering if I got to witness this display for the first time. And if not, how on earth they drudge up these seminal emotions night after night. Their performance was honest and intimate and took me right out of my 300 level nosebleed seat into a glimpse at the history of icons.

Continue to the rest of the reveiw at Spindlemagazine


Fleetwood Mac
A band that still enjoys performing together will sound like one
By KEVIN RITCHIE
Now Toronto
NOW RATING: NNNN

Early in last night's Fleetwood Mac’s concert, Lindsey Buckingham introduced a mini-set of songs from the California rock group’s 1979 album Tusk – the experimental follow-up to their mega-selling Rumours LP – by explaining that the band has always worked to subvert the formulas record execs insisted they submit to.

But after 35 years of ups and downs, an inescapable formula prevails: the Mac remains a band of highly distinct musical personalities that offers a little something for everyone.

Now that singer Christine McVie has retired, the dynamic has refocused on singer Stevie Nicks and singer/guitarist Buckingham’s tempestuous relationship. It’s familiar subject matter for many, yet clearly still vital, as the band filled their two-hour-plus set with a virtuosic energy that tapped into the biting sentiment simmering beneath their deceptively pretty harmonies.

A trio of Rumours hits was a warm-up for new song Sad Angel, a rollicking countrified tune tailored to play up Buckingham’s precision finger-picking – foreshadowing for his astonishing, five-minute solo during I’m So Afraid.

Clearly still basking in the recent critical re-appraisal of Tusk, they revived Not That Funny and Sisters of the Moon with pounding aggression. Nicks and Buckingham might sound huskier, their phrasing rougher, but their reverence for each other kept, oh say, a brilliant acoustic rendition of Landslide from careening into a phoned-in greatest hits trap.

If Fleetwood Mac has mastered another formula in their longevity, it is this: A band that still enjoys performing together will sound like one.

Fleetwood Mac Puts On A Concert for the 70’s
by: Craig Dubecki
Velvet Rope Magazine

A full house of likely three-generations of families, paid witness to an epic concert last night at the ACC thanks to Fleetwood Mac turning the clock back some thirty-five years!  It totally rocked! This was the closest to a “real” 1970’s concert that you will experience!  I’ve lost count of the number of major concerts I have seen.  Last time I checked it was well over two hundred.  A good percentage of them have been Classic Rock bands.  I cannot remember the last time I saw such an amazing “greatest hits” concert!  Fleetwood Mac, consisting of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks (Christine McVie being the only main member missing) entertained a very lively and connected crowd for over two-and-a-half hours.  They have never played or sounded better!

Growing up in the generation that spawned bands such as Fleetwood Mac, I always considered them to be more the sum of the parts.  In other words, no one shone over the other.  They had hit after hit and it was the “band” that stood out.  Last night, while the band certainly did shine as a whole, it became clear the individual talent that each had and how it has not been lost with the ages!

Continue to the full review at Velvet Rope Magazine