FLEETWOOD MAC REVIVES A TIRED ROCK FAN

A reporter finds a recent Fleetwood Mac concert to be much more tame -- and enjoyable -- than the rock shows of the '70s

By KEVIN HELLIKER
WSJ.Com

CHICAGO: Back in the 1970s, a family friend in the arena business gave me passes to nearly every rock concert in Kansas City, making me the envy of my teenaged peers -- until the moment arrived when I couldn't take it anymore. Arrogant performers and their out-of-control worshipers had turned even the free-of-charge concert into punishment. 

But recently my wife, not knowing about this boycott, presented me with two tickets to the Fleetwood Mac concert Thursday night in Chicago, near the start of the group's multi-city tour. Having frowned at the gift, I owe her an apology.

The experience was sprinkled with Rip-Van-Winkle moments, even before the band appeared. When did everybody get so old? And so courteous? At a Styx concert in the '70s, a long-haired dude, impatient in the restroom line, took a swing at me for refusing to use the sink as a urinal. But in the crowded restroom Thursday night I heard only, "Excuse me."

When the band appeared -- very nearly on schedule -- the crowd did not go wild, at least by '70s standards, and that worried me, especially in light of a few empty seats in the upper reaches of the Allstate Arena. Back in the '70s I'd heard Stephen Stills, clearly furious about having filled only half the hall, spew contempt toward those of us who had bothered coming. Those temperamental artists.

But from the first to last moments of a two-hour set, the four remaining members of Fleetwood Mac -- Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie -- expressed what appeared to be heartfelt gratitude toward the sizeable audience they'd drawn. And they gave the crowd what it wanted: a complete dose of nostalgia, from "Rhiannon" and "Landslide" and "Gold Dust Woman" to "World Turning" and "The Chain" and "You Can Go Your Own Way."

I'm no music critic, but the band members looked and sounded great. Mr. Buckingham, always a masterful and eccentric guitarist, played the electric without a pick, sharper and faster than ever. And at age 60, Ms. Nicks showed once again that adding shawls and top hats to her long-dress-and-gloves attire can be more provocative than baring flesh a la Madonna. 

After two encores, Mr. Fleetwood bent his tall frame into a bow and said, "We are so blessed that you came."

REVIEW: Nicks is at an age where her voice is robust and layered

Chicago Sun Times
BY MARK GUARINO

The grab-n-go revenue stream of aging rock bands is the greatest-hits tour. You spend the first half of your life creating groundbreaking hits; then you spend the second half performing them each time a new wife requests alimony or Bernie Madoff made off with your fortune.

Fleetwood Mac's current revival on the tour circuit has those hallmarks -- it is the Anglo-American band's first since 2003, when core members Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood reunited for a new album that was surprisingly very good.

Their return is not featuring any of those songs, only hits from their blockbuster albums of late 1970s: "Tusk," "Rumours" and "Fleetwood Mac." Thursday night at the Allstate Arena, the first of two consecutive nights, Buckingham admitted there was "no new album -- yet" and the two-hour show would concentrate on "things we love and hopefully stuff that you love, as well."

It was a love affair to last. Unlike most outings like these, the band steered through its hits with interest that went well beyond professional courtesy. While the last tour was more like a revue, with secondary players crowding out the band, this outing was nicely subdued, with even the clownish Fleetwood kept in check.

Forty-one years past its earliest incarnation, the band wisely chose not to dwell on the same old references. Instead, it let the body of work stand on its own ground. At 60, Nicks is at an age where her voice is robust and layered with lovely textures; she sang "Landslide," as a blues song, tarnished but with strength.

She and Buckingham sang lead vocals together on many songs, harmonized sweetly on others, but made the unfortunate decision to trade vocals on "Say You Love Me." Their reconstruction did not suit their voices, and the interchange was strained.

The night belonged to Buckingham, who injected paranoid intensity into every guitar lick, whoop, holler, growl and foot stomp. His peers may have been knighted early in their careers for their guitar flash and mastery, but at age 60, Buckingham has emerged as the only one who still carries it forward with sparkle and commitment.

He elevated even his own revenue generators when the night's highlight became a pairing of the band's lesser-known songs: "Oh Well" and "I'm So Afraid." Played back-to-back, they built into an emotional purging of volume and odd detouring. As Buckingham stalked the width of the stage, he injected an edge-of-cliff abandon into his playing, yet maintained a remarkable technique.

Near the end, his body worked in convulsion over his instrument until he stopped to skip back to his spot -- a concluding image that was peculiar but well-deserved.

Mark Guarino is a Chicago-based journalist. Visit mark-guarino.com.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Guitarist Played Like His Graying Hair Was On Fire

Chicago Tribune
by: Greg Kot

Fleetwood Mac at Allstate Arena Lindsey Buckingham burns through nostalgia

The Fleetwood Mac set list Thursday at the packed Allstate Arena was straight out of the ‘70s, but Lindsey Buckingham was very much in the present tense on the quartet’s latest reunion tour.

The leather-jacketed guitarist played like his graying hair was on fire most of the night, throwing himself into the songs with a gusto that frequently erupted into manic howls and fleet-fingered, shrapnel-tossing solos. Buckingham pulled the 23 creaky songs out of the long-lost “Rumours” era and into the now, with enthusiastic assistance from drummer Mick Fleetwood.

With the stalwart bassist John McVie at his side, Fleetwood looked like he had just popped out of a Dickens novel, a towering, pony-tailed Fagin in knickers. For all the mugging and preening, he pounded the drums with maniacal glee, blending bluesy firepower with orchestral flair. The inventively propulsive drum parts on songs such as “Rhiannon,” “Go Your Own Way” and “World Turning” colored the arrangements with authority, and matched Buckingham’s passion.

Stevie Nicks was the only member of this revived version of the band’s classic ‘70s lineup (minus singer-songwriter Christine McVie, who retired from the business years ago) who wasn’t quite up to speed as the show began. Her voice has not only deepened, it has lost much of its flexibility, and her performances of “Gypsy” and “Rhiannon” fell flat. She re-accessorized continually with boots, dresses, shawls, scarves, tambourines and even a top hat as the show progressed over two-plus hours. Halfway through the set, she finally shook off the doldrums and audibly rose to the occasion on “Landslide,” accompanied only by Buckingham’s guitar.

“I’m getting older, too,” Nicks sang with soaring, if melancholy conviction. By the time she trotted out her solo hit “Stand Back,” she felt frisky enough to revive one of her trademark twirls.

But it all would’ve been little more than a quaint rehash of a bunch of golden oldies were it not for Buckingham. He started strong, pushing his voice hard on “Monday Morning,” and by the end of the set was finger-picking shrieking, gale-force solos from his instrument, reanimating Peter Green’s early Mac classic “Oh Well” and investing “I’m So Afraid” with scarifying intensity. Wired and still wiry, Buckingham looked like he could’ve raved all night with this rhythm section at his back.

Set list for Thursday at Allstate Arena:

1. Monday Morning
2. The Chain
3. Dreams
4. I Know I’m Not Wrong
5. Gypsy
6. Go Insane
7. Rhiannon
8. Second Hand News
9. Tusk
10. Sara
11. Big Love
12. Landslide
13. Never Going Back Again
14. Storms
15. Say That You Love Me
16. Gold Dust Woman
17. Oh Well
18. I’m So Afraid
19. Stand Back
20. Go Your Own Way

Encore
21. World Turning
22. Don’t Stop

Second encore
23. Silver Springs