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Stevie Nicks cast a spell over Detroit audience at Little Caesars Arena
The Queen of Rock and Roll put on one epic show
by: Jack Roskopp
“There’s just something that’s so rock and roll about Detroit City,” said Stevie Nicks at the top of her headlining show at Little Caesars Arena Tuesday night.
She is certainly right about that statement, and rock and roll she did deliver. As the first woman to ever be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (once with Fleetwood Mac and again as a solo artist), she lived up to her title as Queen of Rock and Roll.
Dressed in all black and her signature shawls, Nicks tore through her back catalogue of hits, which included Fleetwood Mac hits (”Dreams,” “Gypsy,” “Gold Dust Woman”) as well as songs from her solo career.
The best part was that she introduced almost every song with a little story or anecdote, and man were they entertaining. She told stories of her time before joining Fleetwood Mac, how she and Lindsey Buckingham were dirt poor until they joined the band and her friendship with the late Tom Petty.
She even encouraged the audience to get out and vote (it was election day, after all), and how she didn’t actually vote in election until recently, and to not be dumb and stupid like she has been all her life with not voting. For the amount of young people in the crowd last night (all dressed as her, of course), it was a needed message.
I’ve seen Nicks a few other times while she was on tour with Fleetwood Mac, and she never talked this much when she was with the band. That’s probably because Fleetwood Mac has so many songs to get through in their setlist, so it was kinda great that she could be a bit more intimate, even while playing at a packed arena.
But it was all about the performance for Nicks. At 75-years-old, she still sounds amazing. The highlights, of course, was when she performed Fleetwood Mac hits. “Dreams” and “Gypsy” were ethereal, while “Rhiannon” during her encore was as witchy as ever. It was like she cast a spell over the entire audience.
She also added some covers to her setlist. “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield was a welcome surprise (also her story before she played the song was delightful as ever), and a cover of “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was a beautiful tribute to her late friend.
Speaking of tributes, she closed out the show with her most famous song, “Landslide,” and dedicated it to Christine McVie, her best friend and Fleetwood Mac bandmate who died almost a year ago. Images of Nicks and McVie played on the screens in the arena while Nicks warmly sang the lyrics “Children get older, I’m getting older, too.” As a lifelong Fleetwood Mac fan, I couldn’t help but get emotional.
Nicks told the audience right before the show ended how this tour has helped her deal with the immense grief of losing McVie, and it was the perfect note to end a wonderful night of music on.
“Join the peace train,” she said at one point during the show, and it was a perfect reminder for what’s going on in today’s world. Long live rock and roll, and long live Stevie Nicks.
Stevie Nicks (Live) 4K - Opening Songs - 11/7/23
Stevie Nicks in Detroit: Storyteller, showstopper singing Fleetwood Mac and solo hits
By Edward Pevos
DETROIT - She has one of those voices you have to hear in person to get the full appreciation for. Stevie Nicks performed both Fleetwood Mac hits and songs from her solo catalog at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Tuesday, November 7.
She took the stage at 8:25 p.m. to a loud applause, performing “Outside The Rain,” a deep cut, before smoothly mashing into “Dreams,” performing it just the way fans remember the song when it was released in 1977. After hearing the 75-year old’s strong, signature vocals on this Fleetwood Mac classic, fans knew they were in for a special evening.
Nicks didn’t just perform, she was a storyteller, giving fans some history behind many of the songs she performed. Like how she didn’t have a lead single for her “Bella Donna” album until Tom Petty offered her “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” to record. And she says she had the choice to do it with or without him. You know how that turned out.
Nicks also performed a cover of “For What It’s Worth,” a song written by Stephen Stills and made famous by Buffalo Springfield. Nicks told the crowd she said when she was younger that she would record it when she became a rock star. She put it on her 2010 album, “In Your Dreams.” She says she always had thought the song was political, but says it is actually about the Sunset Strip curfew riots.
Nicks also paid tribute to the late Petty with a strong rendition of “Free Fallin,’” showing pictures of the two together throughout the years.
Nicks had two showstopping moments in the evening with extended versions of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” and one of her solo hits “Edge of Seventeen.” Both were mesmerizing from start to finish.
She also told the crowd there is just something about performing in “Motown.”
“I have to say that in all the years I’ve been doing this, I always remember being in Detroit many, many times to play. I don’t know whether it’s Detroit City, like the song, or cars, I don’t know. It’s just something in the name of Detroit that’s just really special and rock and roll. I’m so happy that I’m here still standing and alive.”
The setlist also included solo hits “If Anyone Falls” and “Stand Back” as well as Fleetwood Mac staples “Gypsy,” “Rhiannon” and “Landslide.” In all, she performed 17 songs in two hours with plenty of storytelling. Nicks voice is just as strong as ever and she delivered a memorable night of music.
“You have been patient listening to my long stories and I love you for that so much, really. I will take that home with me tonight.”
Stevie Nicks celebrates long career, absent friends at Little Caesars Arena
By GARY GRAFF
Stevie Nicks called to “get this party started” early on during her concert Tuesday night, Nov. 7, at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.
What the presented, however, was a bit of a wake — albeit a celebratory one.
Nicks, at 75 and nearly 50 years into a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted recording career, put absent friends front and center during her two-hour show. Tom Petty was particularly top of mind; Nicks and her eight-member band entered the stage to his “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” and Petty, who passed away in 2017, was part of a parade of stars (her ex-boyfriend Don Henley, occasional tour mate Billy Joel, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and others) featured on the curved rear stage video screen as she played their 1981 hit collaboration “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”
An emotional encore cover of Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” meanwhile, was accompanied by another photo show, this time all of Petty, his Heartbreakers and Nicks with him and them. In image of Prince, who died during 2016, appeared during “Edge of Seventeen.”
But perhaps the most moving was the show-closing rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” a tribute to Nicks’ late bandmate Christine McVie — who passed last year — that was also accompanied by a three-hanky reel of vintage images of the two together.
The undercurrent of mortality was poignant but hardly a drag on a show that also celebrated Nicks’ long career and continuing potency as a performer. Wrapped in a series of shawls — including the original one she sported on the cover of her 1981 solo debut, “Bella Donna” — Nicks was a commanding presence even when standing stock still, her voice finding melodic variations in the 17 songs from her solo and Fleetwood Mac catalogs. She’s aging with grace, but her capable delivery of rockers such as “Fall From Grace,” “Wild Heart,” “Stand Back” and “Rhiannon” assured fans — many dressed in Nicks’ flowing Welsh witch attire — that she’s hardly bowing to the years.
The support was there, too, particularly from longtime guitarist and music director Waddy Wachtel — spotlighted during numerous solos including a lengthy prologue to “Edge of Seventeen” — and backing vocalists Lori Nicks (her sister-in-law) and Sharon Celani.
The show was part “Storyteller” as well, with Nicks offering lengthy and insightful remembrances of working with Petty on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and her fan experience with Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” which she covered during the show. Nicks is also using this year’s tour to perform the 1985 track “I Sing for the Things” for the first time, and she dedicated “Soldier’s Angel” to current war in Ukraine, with video images of the struggle and of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Nicks didn’t delve deeply into politics, however. “You came her for peace — that’s what I’m trying to give you,” she explained before the song. “We just sing this for peace.”
Nicks demonstrated admirable self-awareness at the end of the night, telling the Little Caesars crowd that “you have been sweet and you have been patient and you have listened to my long stories, and I love you for that.” She could rest assured the feeling from fans was mutual.
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