(VIDEOS) FLEETWOOD MAC in OTTAWA & UNIONDALE

[new on youtube]

March 13, 2009 - Uniondale, N.Y. (Nassau Coliseum)

March 23, 2009 Ottawa, Canada (Scotiabank Place)



(Wow! Is it just me, or does this crowd seem a little calm?)

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Finally Landed in Ottawa Last Night

BY LYNN SAXBERG, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

OTTAWA — Fleetwood Mac finally landed in Ottawa last night, a couple of decades past their heyday, but didn’t take long to remind an audience of 14,000 why they were everyone’s favourite band way back when.

So what if the configuration of the group wasn’t exactly the same as it was in the late 70s. The concert was still an unabashed nostalgia fest, consisting largely of songs from the band’s golden days. “There’s no new album to promote … yet,” Lindsey Buckingham teased the crowd early in the evening. “This time we said ‘Let’s just go out and have fun.’ Let’s do the songs we all love and hopefully that’s the thing that you love as well,” he added.

Sure enough, the veteran musicians looked like they were having almost as much fun as the fans who packed Scotiabank Place. A rock-solid version of Monday Morning immediately established a groove that was heavier than expected from the soft-rock superstars. Bass and drums blazing, it was a potent reminder of the awesome power of the rhythm section that provides the band’s name, that of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie.

However, as the concert unfolded, over the next two-plus hours, it became clear that Fleetwood Mac is, at its heart, a Buckingham-Nicks project. Singer-guitarist Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks traded lead vocals, and shared the duty of chatting with the audience. There were small signs of warmth between them but few actual sparks. Even when Nicks put her head on Buckingham’s shoulder, no one was fooled.

To fill in a bit of Mac history here, singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist Buckingham were lovers when they first joined the band in the mid-70s, and many of the songs on the classic 1977 LP, Rumours, were inspired by their break-up (as well as the divorce of McVie and his wife, singer Christine, who chose not to take part in this reunion tour). As Buckingham said last night, those were “complex and convoluted times.”

Rumours was a landmark album, ample proof that complicated emotional situations make for the best songs. Although relationships can go sour, the best songs stand the test of time. With every selection from Rumours, including The Chain, Dreams, Second Hand News, Go Your Own Way and Don’t Stop, the band dug in, rocked out and had no problem reclaiming the original passion of the times, to the delight of the audience.

Both Buckingham and Nicks were in fine form, ageless in appearance, their voices as strong as ever. Nicks wore her blond hair long and sleek, had scarves hanging from her microphone stand and twirled her shawl on stage, her voice haunting. Buckingham dazzled on guitar, exploring the softer side during an acoustic version of Never Going Back Again but then working up to some full-out electric soloing for Go Your Own Way.

Backing the core quartet on stage were a couple of extra instrumentalists and a trio of female backing singers.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Ottawa

By SHANE ROSS - Sun Media

OTTAWA - Not they don't still look pretty darn good, but listening to Fleetwood Mac and wondering who's sleeping with who just doesn't have the same appeal as it did 30 years ago.

Did Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood get it on before the show? Who cares? Probably not even Lindsey Buckingham.

He's already told her to go her own way. She went.

But she's back, again, still sexy at 60. They were all back last night at Scotiabank Place. All except Christine McVie, who declined to join her ex -- bassist John McVie -- and the four other bandmates for the tour, which kicked off March 1 in Pittsburgh and heads to Montreal tonight and Toronto on Thursday.

That left Nicks as the only woman in the band that became known in the 1970s as much for their tangled love lives as their chart-toppping hits.

"As you know, Fleetwood Mac has a convoluted and emotional history," Buckingham wink-winked to the 14,000 fans last night.

Yes, we know. Their 1978 Grammy-winning album, Rumours, filled us in. Stevie-Lindsay, Mick-Stevie, John-Christine, Christine-lighting guy-etc. It's what gave songs like Go Your Own Way, Second Hand News and Dreams an almost voyeuristic feel.

Teenage imagination, run wild.

Anyway, time heals all wounds. As Buckingham said last night, "We take breaks, long breaks, and every time we reconvene it's a little different. This time, we just said let's go out and have some fun."

They stuck to the plan last night. On drums, Fleetwood -- the ponytail, so prominent on the Rumours album cover, now grey -- sported a perma-grin. Buckingham teased the crowd by hinting at an upcoming album. "With no album to promote -- yet," he said, "we thought we'd sing the songs we all love."

And Nicks was warm and engaging in her black top and grey skirt -- and later, ruby dress and gold shawl, and even later, black dress and top hat -- that flowed when she swayed and twirled in that familiar hippie-like dance.

Proof of the reconciliation was in the encore. Stevie's Silver Springs, which reportedly caused a row when Mick cut it from Rumours, was the closer last night. Apology apparently accepted.

So while there may not have been much sexual tension on stage last night -- Stevie did lay her head tenderly on Lindsay's shoulder at the end of Sara -- there was plenty of good music. The songs stand up on their own, without the "convoluted history."

They sang most of their greatest hits last night, but not all. They couldn't, not without Christine. Over My Head, You Make Lovin' Fun, and Little Lies wouldn't be the same without her distinct lead vocals. Nicks and Buckingham attempted Say That You Love Me, which was sung by McVie on their self-titled album, but it didn't sound quite right. Nicks fared better on the second verse of Don't Stop, which was McVie's. But, hey, if Bill Clinton could sing it during his 1993 presidential campaign, anybody can.

Regardless, Nicks and Buckingham sing vocals on enough Fleetwood Mac hits to easily fill out a three-hour concert. If it was Nicks, instead, who wasn't there, they wouldn't have attempted Rhiannon, Gypsy and certainly not her solo hit, Stand Back.

And that was a pretty good tradeoff.