Review: Mick Fleetwood Blues Band - Solana Beach, CA livestream event

Mick Fleetwood Blues Band Featuring Rick Vito
Belly Up Tavern - Solana Beach, CA - June 10, 2014

The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band came alive last night via livestream direct from Solana Beach, CA, the second night at the Belly Up. The livestream of the second show provided by Suretonelive and Cinsay and broadcast world wide online in HD via suretonelive.com and Fleetwood's on Front St. Facebook Page was an exceptionally well produced event with superb visuals and sound.  The online event kicked off about an hour before the show began with Carl Stubner, Chairman of Suretone Entertainment, who has worked with Mick for over 21 years, speaking about how the livestream came together, giving a bit of history on Mick and the Belly Up Tavern and interviewing Mick, Rick and a number of other key people involved who have helped put together this project, a first ever for Suretonelive.

The show was filmed from every angle imaginable by an 8 camera setup which really gave you more than a fly on the wall experience, and I would argue was even better than being in the venue itself. Cameras seemed to be roaming all over the venue and stage capturing the group from every angle possible from up close to wide angle shots of the whole stage. It was really well choreographed as you hardly caught a glimpse of the other cameras unless deliberately shown.  The livestream player was interesting too... during the show, right from within the video player, you could purchase VIP Fleetwood Mac tickets for this fall or Fleetwood's on Front St. merchandise and they also had give-a-ways of the Rumours 2LP/CD Box set for tweeting out the hashtag #MFBBlive. If you shared the live show from the Fleetwood's on Front St. Facebook page to your own page you were entered to win tickets to one of Fleetwood Mac's shows in your city.

The show itself was over two hours long and uninterrupted. Just great music from Mick Fleetwood and his Blue Band featuring Rick Vito... Rick is amazing live! Lot's of energy! What a showman and guitar player. Mick of course is always fun to watch and listen to. He never disappoints. Mick spoke a few times during the course of the show thanking everyone online and at the venue for being there and seemed really excited that he was involved in the first ever livestream music event put on by suretonelive. He said hello to his 97 year old Mother who was at Fleetwood's restaurant on Maui watching the live feed.  Filling out the Blues Band were Lenny Castellanos and Mark Johnstone, who brought much to the sound of the group and were grooving right along with Mick and Rick. Visually, the show was stunning to watch online. The lighting was colourful and it was clear... The sound, if you had great speakers connected was perfect!  They really did do a great job with this livestream and apparently from what they said just prior to the show, it really wasn't planned that far in advance and it all came together rather quickly... So well done to both Suretonelive and Cinsay for bringing the musical experience to the people who couldn't be there!  And thanks to Mick, Rick and the band for a really entertaining night.

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The Band:
Mick Fleetwood: Drums
Rick Vito: Guitar, Lead Vocals (except where noted)
Mark Johnstone: Keyboards, Harmonica, Vocals
Lenny Castellanos: Bass, Vocals

The Setlist
01. Looking For Somebody
02. Fleetwood Boogie
03. Oh Well
04. My Baby's Hot
05. Rollin' Man/Voodoo Woman
06. Love That Burns
07. Eyesight To The Blind (lead vocal by Mark Johnstone)
08. Black Magic Woman

(semi-acoustic mini-set: Rick on hollowbody guitar; Mick on cocktail set. Mark Johnstone on harmonica)
09. Black Crow Blues
10. When We Do The Lucky Devil

(back to electric)
11. When The Levee Breaks (yes, the Memphis Minnie song that Led Zeppelin covered)
12. World Turning (with a King Paris type intro & "Rollin' & Tumblin'" teases by Rick during guitar solo...Mick solo...no vest, just drums & voice, joined by Paulino Marcelli on cocktail set, double drums to end song!)
13. Rattlesnake Shake
14. You Can't Judge A Book By Looking At Its Cover (Willie Dixon cover)
15. Shake Your Moneymaker/Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On
{encore}
16. Stop Messin' Round
17. It's All Over Now (the Bobby Womack song made famous by the Rolling Stones)
18. Carol (Chuck Berry cover)
19. Albatross

Thanks to chiliD from The Ledge for compiling the setlist

Here's a video clip from the June 9th show performing "Albatross".