Reviews Fleetwood Mac Live in Brisbane, AU Nov. 10, 2015

Review: Fleetwood Mac, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, November 10, 2015
Noel Mengel
The Courier-Mail

Photo: Marc Robertson

WELCOME back Chrissie.

Not that Fleetwood Mac didn’t play great shows in Christine McVie’s years out of the band. But her return for this tour brings so many big songs back to the party — from You Make Loving Fun to Say You Love Me and Everywhere.

Naturally this first Brisbane Entertainment Centre show last night was sold out — there are a few tickets left for a second tomorrow night.

You know what you are going to get, two-and-a-half hours, mostly of hits, plus some album favourites like Gold Dust Woman.

Yet the addition of Christine’s songs, lead vocals and harmonies lifts the night to another level from their tours without her.

Mick Fleetwood and John McVie remain a powerhouse rhythm section, Lindsey Buckingham ensures the energy levels never flag despite this being show No 114 of a world tour, and Nicks’ voice remains a thing of crystalline wonder, from Dreams to Rhiannon, Sara and Landslide.

It’s a beautiful and tasteful visual production, but with this many big songs, they could play by torchlight and still hold our attention.

As Buckingham reminds the audience they put all their personal dramas out there in their songs. It sure beats singing about moon, June and the lesser concerns which can fill the charts for a week and are just as soon forgotten.

It is a long concert, close to three hours on stage, and at one point they even have a false start to Tusk, which not only shows they are human but only seems to fire up Buckingham further.

After such a long time on the road, you might imagine a band going through the motions. But not at this show, and on stage it’s Buckingham who stokes the intensity with some searing lead work and his virtuoso solo turn on Big Love.

Fleetwood grins from ear to ear during his party piece on World Turning, and by the time the 10,000 plus crowd is singing along with Don’t Stop, it doesn’t feel like this is goodbye.

The old hurts might be way in the past but they still have something to say: the word is that a new album is already recorded and set for release in 2016.

Review: Fleetwood Mac, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, November 10, 2015

by: Simon Holt

Sydney Morning Herald

About 30 seconds into a song called Tusk, Fleetwood Mac stumbled. Like someone who'd lost their place on a page in a book, the band stopped.

"We're going to say we're not perfect, and we're going to start that one again, OK?" lead guitarist Lindsey Buckhingham said.

Until then, a full house at Boondall wanted badly for the show to be great. But it wasn't. It was pedestrian at worst, ordinary at best.

One of the world's greatest bands seemed to be going through the motions, playing like it was the 114th concert on a long two-year roadtrip.

Chart-toppers Rhiannon, Everywhere and Dreams had all been rolled out, and it was Fleetwood Mac. They had to be brilliant, right?

There was nothing horrible about the first few songs – it was certainly no Meat Loaf moment.

There was just no sparkle – at least not until the second the band hiccupped.

When the group hit silence – a musical brick wall – something magic happened.

It was like they'd been given a wake-up call, a nudge to say they were slightly off their game, an embarrassing kick in the guts.

Full Review at Sydney Morning Herald