FLEETWOOD MAC Un hommage au passé

FLEETWOOD MAC

au Centre Bell: Un hommage au passé

MARC-ANDRÉ LEMIEUX,

MÉTRO MONTREAL

Fleetwood Mac s’est rendu un magnifique hommage, hier soir, au Centre Bell. Sans nouvel album à promouvoir, le quatuor a revisité ses vieux classiques, au grand plaisir des 11 139 spectateurs, qui n’en demandaient pas tant.

Pendant un peu plus de deux heures, la formation a joué ses indémodables tubes, pour la plupart issus de la décennie 1970, plus particulièrement des opus Rumours et Tusk.

Stevie Nicks et Lindsey Buckingham sont montés sur scène main dans la main, histoire de faire taire les rumeurs de friction au sein de la formation. C’est avec Monday Morning qu’ils ont ouvert les célébrations.

Les membres du groupe ont peut-être vieilli, mais ils n’ont pas changé d’un poil. À l’aube de la soixantaine, Stevie Nicks porte encore la même crinière (une longue chevelure blonde) et chante de façon aussi charmante qu’à ses tout débuts : une désinvolture typiquement hippie qui se reflète non seulement dans sa voix, mais également dans sa gestuelle, qui consiste en de grands mouvements de bras dans les airs, comme on a pu l’observer pendant son interprétation de Gypsy.

Lindsey Buckingham fait quant à lui honneur à sa réputation de petit voyou. Vêtu d’un blouson de cuir noir et d’une paire de skinny jeans, le guitariste montre une fougue à faire rougir d’envie les musiciens qui n’ont pas la moitié de son âge. Sa prestation en solo de Big Love a sans contredit été l’un des meilleurs moments de la soirée. De leur côté, le batteur Mick Fleetwood et le bassiste John McVie demeurent beaucoup plus à l’aise en retrait.

Voilà sans doute pourquoi le concert d’hier présentait ce sympathique air familier, celui qu’on trouve dans les soupers avec de vieux amis.

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Loose Translation:

FLEETWOOD MAC at the Bell Centre: A homage to the past

Fleetwood Mac paid a splendid homage, yesterday evening, at the Centre Bell. Without new album to be promoted, the quartet revisited its traditional old men, with the great pleasure of the 11.139 spectators, who did not ask such an amount of of it.

During a little more than two hours, the formation played its indémodables tubes, for the majority resulting from the decade 1970, more particularly of the opus Rumours and Tusk. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are assembled on scene hand in the hand, history to make conceal the rumours of friction within the formation. It is with Monday Morning that they opened the celebrations.

The members of the group perhaps aged, but they did not change a hair. At the dawn of about sixty, Stevie Nicks still carries the same mane (a long blond hair) and sings in a way as charming as with its whole beginnings: an ease typically hippie which is reflected not only in its voice, but also in its gestural, which consists of great movements of arm in the airs, as one could observe it during its interpretation of Gypsy.

Lindsey Buckingham made as for him honor with its reputation of little scoundrel. Vêtu of a black leather jacket and a pair of skinny jean, the guitarist shows an ardour to be made redden of desire the musicians who do not have half of his age. Its service in solo of Big Love indisputably was one of the best moments of the evening. On their side, the beater Mick Fleetwood and the bass player John McVie remain much more at ease in withdrawal. Here undoubtedly why the concert of yesterday presented this sympathetic nerve familiar air, that which one finds in the suppers with old friends.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac - Montreal Nicks, Buckingham balance and complement each other

Fleetwood Mac's golden oldies are aging just fine

Bell Centre gig. Nicks, Buckingham balance and complement each other

Montreal Gazette
BY BERNARD PERUSSE

When Mick Fleetwood and John McVie formed Fleetwood Mac as a British blues band in 1967, they probably never envisioned that they'd be playing to adoring arena audiences, paying up to $150 per ticket, 42 years later.

And they certainly could not have foreseen, during that long-gone summer of love, that all the adulation would be directed at two Yanks they had yet to meet.

As any of the 11,000 fans at the group's Bell Centre concert last night will tell you, drummer Fleetwood is a muscular timekeeper and bassist McVie provides an unobtrusive, solid anchor of his own. But it's also clear that, at all times, virtually all the energy in the room emanates from - and comes back to - singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, the group's songwriters and its heart and soul.

If there was a defining moment in last night's hit-heavy show, it was when Buckingham completely took over Oh Well, a snarling 1969 rocker by original guitarist Peter Green that predates his and Nicks's presence in the band by more than five years. While Buckingham, undeniably the group's frontman, soloed away furiously, Fleetwood played the crazy-old-grandpa part for the benefit of the giant video screens.

Buckingham's prowess on his instrument simply isn't talked about often enough. Whether he's playing tasteful, economical phrases, as he did during ex-member Christine McVie's Say You Love Me, hammering out manic rock-flamenco note clusters in Big Love or fingerpicking the tasty folk-blues licks of Never Going Back Again, he's one of rock's most interesting players.

During his five-minute solo in I'm So Afraid, he made the instrument rumble, shriek and gasp, sending out shards of high-pitched squeals and hammering out repeated patterns. Unlike your average guitar god, Buckingham made no attempt to show how many different notes he could squeeze in per minute.

What makes a Fleetwood Mac show so satisfying, however, is the way Buckingham and Nicks complement and balance each other, in both their vocal blend and their approach to songwriting. For every Buckingham power-pop stomper like I Know I'm Not Wrong or Second Hand News came one of Nicks's earthier, more linear crowd-pleasers, like Gypsy or the sweetly nostalgic Landslide, which she sang in her long-familiar husky, lower register. (And, incidentally, how fantastic did she look?)

Buckingham spoke on stage of the emotional challenges that have defined the group's internal relationships over the years. But during Sara, Nicks crossed over to his side of the stage and he put his head on her shoulder.

Staged? Probably - but really, who cares? That affectionate gesture spoke of a hard-won victory that pretty much ensures that - to paraphrase the group - the chain will never be broken.