Gift of Screws Tour Stats (updated)

Added a few new dates to the list of Tour Stats for Lindsey's Gift of Screws Tour.

REVIEW: Lindsey Buckingham - Last show of the Gift of Screws Tour... New York City

By: Stephen Rodrick
New York MagazinePhoto by: Michael Meyer

October 20, 2008

Lindsey Buckingham Tears Up, Plays Guitar With One Hand

Lindsey Buckingham is a certain type of Californian. Only seven years younger than Brian Wilson, he never hit the bloat phase, physically or musically. Now 59, he still sports sunken cheekbones and skinny jeans. Wearing a tight, black leather jacket last night at the Nokia, he resembled a louche Roman oracle. His music, particularly his fingerpicking guitar playing, has always been tightly wound, a neurotic style rooted in California’s cocaine-addled seventies. It has never packed the joy of the Beach Boys: Wilson’s orchestral masterpiece is the ecstatic "Good Vibrations;" Buckingham produced the beautiful but accusatory "Tusk."

Bliss eluded Buckingham well into his forties. He brooded over pressure from his occasionally insolvent Fleetwood Mac bandmates to give his best songs to them. His always-interesting, but weak-selling, solo projects were pushed back repeatedly. But that’s all over now. Buckingham is now married with three children. (They're prominently featured in the, yes, joyful video for “It Was You.”) He’s released two excellent solo records in two years, Under the Skin, and the new Gift of the Screws. Last night, he played about half his set from the two albums, tossing just enough Mac hits into the mix to keep the wolves at bay. The new songs center on his ethereal guitar playing and late-in-life serenity. Unlike most "happy" rockers, though, Buckingham has plenty of angst still in the tank. About halfway through the show, he launched into a monologue about the difference between his "big machine" work with Fleetwood Mac and "smaller machine" solo career. He discussed the left brain and the right brain, and the concept of esoterica. This brought a whoop from a fan. Buckingham grinned: "Yeah esoterica!"

Not that he left his arena-rock roots completely behind. His guitar playing ventured into the show-offy — at one point he played with just one hand — and whoever came up with the idea of a five-minute drum solo featuring the drummer playing his head like a coconut needs to be checked back into rehab. Still, Buckingham seemed grateful for the opportunity to play his songs without worrying about Stevie, Christie, John, or Mick. He closed with "Time Precious Time" from Gift of Screws, a lamentation about patience and wasted moments, and perhaps a nod to not being able to watch kids fathered in your fifties grow into adulthood. His guitar playing seemed to disappear into itself. This was the last night of his tour, and by the end of the song Buckingham had tears in his eyes. He mouthed the last word of the song — "remember" — smiled, and walked off into the darkness.

REVIEW: Lindsey Buckingham Brings His Big Love to Chicago

Photos by BARRY BRECHEISEN

Written by KEN KLOES
Photos by LAUREN MUCH
Lumino Magazine
Thursday, 16 October 2008

October 2nd was a night of many temptations. A much anticipated Vice-presidential debate was playing on the telly, Beck, Alanis Morrisette, and Weezer were in town, the Cubs and Dodgers playoff game were at Wrigley. If that still wasn’t enough, Lindsey Buckingham was playing an intimate show at the House of Blues. The large, but not sold out crowd, made their choice and showed up to see the guitarist of Fleetwood Mac fame confidently display a night of his guitar playing prowess.

On the eve of his 59th birthday, Lindsey and his band took over the stage appropriately opened up with “Great Day,” featuring two guitars seamlessly trading off riffs. Lindsey known for playing his guitar finger style can cover more ground on a fret board than the average guitar player.

Lindsey followed with “Love Runs Deeper,” also from the new album Gift of Screws. The soaring solo resonated off the great acoustics of the venue. Simple notes that rock with passion elicits comparisons to the classic musical mantra from the Fleetwood Mac mega hit “Go Your Own Way.” Many of the songs played tonight were showcased from the new album. Previously Buckingham’s solo work tended to be experimental in nature but this new release contains mostly songs that are easy to grab on to and in turn accessible.

While “Trouble” was playing, if you closed your eyes you could swear that you were at a Fleetwood Mac concert with Christie McVie and Stevie Nicks were singing backup. It was blatantly obvious how much influence Lindsey had on the sound of his former breakout band and intermittent touring mates. All night long easily recognized Mac songs were mixed in with Lindsey’s own pieces keeping the attentive crowd guessing and eager for the next selection.

Mid-concert, while introducing “Big Love,” Lindsey shared a little insight that when he wrote the song most of the people around him were all in screwed up relationships, hurting themselves with drugs and booze in Malibu. It was a volatile time and he was glad to have lived through it and persevere. He now has 3 children with his beautiful wife Kristen, whom he introduced and called out onto the stage.

Always the performer, after finishing yet another well crafted song, Lindsey could be found at the front of the stage hugging his guitar and soaking up the adulation from the enthusiastic and polite middle aged audience. An experienced showman, he knows how to give the people what they came to see. His solos were performed in a trance, emphasizing simple yet powerful riffs packed with passion and musical intensity.

An unexpected highlight of the night was of all things the drum solo, which was entertaining to say the least. Half way through, the percussionist cut his ring finger on the drum he was beating with his bare hands. If you didn’t see him sucking on his finger between beats or showing the drum tech his bleeding appendage you wouldn’t have known that something was amiss. A true performer, he carried on and only bandaged up after he was done.

The show was beginning to take on a special character as they continued with “I’m so Afraid,” featuring an epic solo that had just a hint of Pink Floyd in it. Lindsey held a single note for what seemed like forever…long, intense, passionate…a holy shit moment. Follow that with a goose bump-raising rendition of “Go Your Own Way,” where Lindsey leaned into the front row and let them touch his guitar as he played the signature solo with all he had, now the house was rocking!

The band consisted of Neale Heywood on guitar, Walfredo Reyes who comes from a family of percussionists on drums, and Brett Tuggle, whom Lindsey referred to as the genius of the band, on guitar, bass and keyboards. Lindsey was clearly grateful for the musician’s life he leads and once again proved his commitment and passion to playing music from the depths of his being.

Lindsey Buckingham closed the show with “Time Precious Time,” a mind-blowing finger picking piece that demonstrated yet one more time why this artist is timeless. In the end, no one seemed to be disappointed in the choice of entertainment for the evening.

Gift of Screws Tour Stats

Based on only 7 dates reported so far, Lindsey's Gift of Screws Tour is shaping up to exceed his last tour in terms of averages.

On the 2006/2007 Under The Skin Tour the average attendance based on 35 dates reported was 884. Average capacity was 1,373. Average gross was $35,245. Attendance percentage was 64%.

Current tour stats posted below:

REVIEW: Lindsey Buckingham’s rock ‘n’ roll heart shines in Northampton

Lindsey Buckingham: A Chip Off The Old Fleetwood Mac"
By SHERYL HUNTER
The Courant
October 16, 2008

But for now, as he tours in support of his latest solo effort, the rocking Gift of Screws, Buckingham is playing smaller, more intimate places like the Calvin Theatre in Northampton, Mass., where he performed Tuesday night.

But the size of the venue did not matter to the 60-year-old musician, who admitted during the show that his solo work, while bringing him great satisfaction, has been “more esoteric” than his Mac output and, as a result, has reached fewer ears.

Buckingham turned in a two-hour performance that touched on all stages of his career with an intensity and passion that cemented his status as one of rock’s enduring iconic figures. He and his tight three-piece band played loud and hard, tearing through old classics and also showcasing plenty of material off the new album.

They got the night off to a strong start with two new songs: “Great Day” and “Love Runs Deeper.” During the latter, Buckingham swapped harmonies with guitarist Neale Heywood and guitarist-keyboardist Brett Tuggle.

Two of his biggest solo hits, “Trouble” and “Go Insane,” followed. But it was “Tusk,” with Buckingham’s oddball shrieks and Walfredo Reyes Jr.’s drumming, that brought the first of the evening’s many standing ovations.

Buckingham performed more Fleetwood Mac hits during a three-song solo acoustic set that opened with “Never Going Back Again,” followed by an aggressive version of “Big Love.” He introduced that song by saying it was the last single he recorded with Fleetwood Mac before leaving to “regain my sanity.”

Buckingham frequently dazzled with his guitar technique, a self-taught, finger-picking style capable of unique sounds, whether taking an extended, wailing solo on “I’m So Afraid” or playing the catchy new single “Did You Miss Me.”

The crowd’s loudest cheers were saved for old favorites like the set-closer, “Go Your Own Way,” off the mega-selling “Rumours” album. Buckingham encored with a three-song set that ended with the lovely new “Treason.”

That was supposed to end the night, but Buckingham, acknowledging one fan’s constant pleading, returned to play “Bleed to Love Her.”

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Lindsey Buckingham’s rock ‘n’ roll heart shines in Northampton

The Republican Entertainment Desk
By Kevin O'Hare
October 14, 2008
Masslive.com

NORTHAMPTON - Lindsey Buckingham has got his rock ‘n’ roll heart pumping again.

The phenomenally talented guitarist from Fleetwood Mac, released a relatively quiet solo disc called “Under the Skin,” in 2006 and his subsequent tour was colored in some of those more subdued tones.

He’s back with the more rockin’ follow-up, “Gift of Screws” which brought renewed vigor to his performance before a crowd of approximately 800 fans at the Calvin Theatre Tuesday evening.

Prior to 2006, it had been 14 years since Buckingham’s last solo release and he appears to be enjoying the opportunity to do some artistic exploration with these shows before he embarks on a planned reunion with Fleetwood Mac next year.

Backed by a small but superb band which included Neale Heywood on guitar, Brett Tuggle on guitar, bass and keyboards and Walfredo Reyes, Jr. on percussion, Buckingham mixed songs from throughout his solo albums - with an obvious emphasis on the latter pair - as well as mixing in some Fleetwood Mac classics.

Dressed in a black leather jacket, he opened the night with the new album’s drum-thumping “Great Day,” which was co-written by his son Will a couple of years back when Will was all of eight-years-old.

With three guitars soaring and no bass, the band nevertheless delivered a huge sound on the harmony-filled “Love Runs Deeper,” before Buckingham stretched back to 1981 for “Trouble.”

An early highlight was a breathtaking blast through “Go Insane,” which found Tuggle switching between bass and keyboards, before blue lights washed the stage as a moody preamble to a dramatically re-worked version of one of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits, “Tusk.”

One of the oddest songs in the 20-song, two hour performance was the title cut from the new album. With its bizarre sound effects and Buckingham screaming a times, it was certainly hard to envision that the song actually can trace its roots back to an Emily Dickinson poem.

Mid-set standouts included “Never Going Back Again,” which found Buckingham playing with the phrasing and the melody; “Big Love,” one of the last songs Buckingham did with Fleetwood Mac before taking a break from the group in the late 1980s “to get my sanity back;” the shimmering “Under the Skin;” and the hook-filled “Did You Miss Me,” which his label has been promoting as the single from the current disc.

While the band was definitely tight, that did not stop the troupe from opening up into some improvisational splendor as during the richly atmospheric “I’m So Afraid,” which started slow and built to a loud, extended, frenzied guitar blast at the end.

As the night wore down, Buckingham and company delivered such familiar fare as Fleetwood Mac’s mega-hit “Go Your Own Way,” from the “Rumours” album, and encores highlighted by “Second Hand News;” the beautiful ballad which closes the new album, “Treason;” and a final, audience request “Bleed to Love Her,” which he played solo acoustic.

REVIEW: On his own, Lindsey Buckingham’s style still evolving

CONCERT REVIEW:
By Jon Fassnacht
Reading Eagle

For two hours Friday night, the Sovereign Performing Arts Center could have been called Buckingham’s Palace.

Lindsey Buckingham, best known as Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist and male voice, shared a love fest with a fiesty crowd in Reading.

There were standing ovations following nearly every song. Many were moved to stand up and dance in front of their seats. And there was one gentleman who bellowed “We love yoooooooouu!” about 50 times during the evening.

Buckingham recently celebrated his 60th birthday, but he doesn’t look or sound anywhere near that old. His guitar playing continues to evolve, a unique style that melds delicate finger-picking with the amplification and noisy chords of electric guitars.

He and his three-piece backing band are promoting his new album, “Gift of Screws,” a title that Buckingham said isn’t as nasty as it sounds, coming from an Emily Dickinson poem.

He played a healthy selections of songs from the new album, and all of them were very well-received. It was clear that those who attended weren’t there to just to hear some Fleetwood Mac songs.

But Buckingham was more than happy to delve into his more-popular and lucrative gig as one-fifth of one of the most popular bands in history.

About half of the set’s 19 selections were songs Buckingham wrote for and performed with Fleetwood Mac. Save for acoustic renditions of “Never Going Back Again” and “Big Love,” the songs were aggressive, loud and fresh, climaxing during the final three songs of the main set.

“World Turning” started slowly before building to its forceful conclusion, which led to an Alfredo Reyes drum solo, during which he did his best John Bonham/Animal impersonation, playing everything with his hands. “I’m So Afraid” followed, featuring a mammoth Buckingham solo, leading into “Go Your Own Way.”

Buckingham said the group of musicians has been touring together for only a few years.

“As we keep touring, things keep evolving and it just keeps getting better and better for me,” Buckingham said.

The guitarist clearly was enjoying his time here, frequently mugging for the crowd and saying multiple times that he’ll be back.

“We should set up a residency here,” Buckingham said. “The Reading tour.”

PHOTOS: Lindsey Buckingham Birds Eye View of Salt Lake City Show

Seriously, these photos are up there with some of the best live shots taken of Lindsey Buckingham on this tour that I've seen - and quite possibly the last tour as well! Well done!!

View tons more here: Neeta Lind

REVIEW: Lindsey Buckingham Live in Chicago - Gift of Screws Tour

Lindsey Buckingham Live in Chicago October 2, 2008
by Vern Hester

Windy City Times

When Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, nobody could expect much. Doe-eyed, fresh-faced and hippiefied Buckingham/Nicks had already released an album that went nowhere while the Mac—a British blues band— was seemingly on its last legs. The success of Nicks' witchy Rhiannon caught everyone by surprise but the sleeper 1975 smash Fleetwood Mac prepared no one for the monster 1977 album Rumours. The rest is history ( including breakups, diva attitudes, drugs, divorce, infidelities, booze, jealousy, and an unbroken string of sellout tours and multi-platinum albums ) , but a distinct history nonetheless. In retrospect, no one has had the legs that the Mac has had, and now that Nicks' charm has curdled into schtick it's as plain as day how much Buckingham brought to the table of L.A. rock. After one listen to ‘79's Tusk or his out-there rave-ups on ‘80's Live, it was obvious that the man was a demented wizard or possessed by aliens from another galaxy ... or both.

Part ferocious bluesman, part nutty professor and part post-summer Beach Boy, Buckingham was the wild card that gave the Mac its idyosyncratic flavor and bite. While Nicks kept a higher profile, Buckingham—the other dominant personality in the band and, by far, the most creative—released solo albums of such wayward personality and oddball charisma that he seemed at times, well, nutty. Granted, Go Insane had the clicking heart of Oz's tin man, but Buckingham's studio tinkering took years and could only be called obsessive. ( If the idea of a grown man, albeit a very rich one, tapping out the percussion for a song with two pencils on a box of Kleenex on his bathroom floor with a $20,000 mircrophone dosen't strike you as “obsessive,” I don't know what will. ) As a result, there's a certain closed-in quality on his projects that feels airtight and joyless. A decade of happy matrimony and a brood of his own kids seem to have put some rosiness back in his cheeks and opened up his music by degrees.

His new Gift of Screws, like his four previous solo efforts, is bullish on personality, shot through with a punchy eccentricity, but surprisingly quirk free and emotionally direct. The tone of Screws is a regret-free wistfulness that sounds almost nostalgic. The opener, Great Day, is equal parts syncopated percussion and clenched vocals spiked with jagged guitar blasts. Love Runs Deeper and Gift of Screws have an even bigger assault—there's no way that the Mac could contain this fury. The obvious gem here is Did You Miss Me?—a lilting valentine of such fragmented aching that it sounds like the oncoming of autumn.

Buckingham's packed Oct. 2 show at House of Blues put Screws and all of his music in a different context. Without the safe confines of a cushy studio, Trouble, Did You Miss Me? and Big Love were more plaintive and earthbound. Mac staples Never Going Back Again and World Turning got reworked and turned on their heads—the latter even flipped backwards and almost unrecognizable. A positively fierce Tusk shook the rafters in a way that the Mac never could muster but I'm So Afraid tipped the show in another direction. Buckingham sank into it with a steady conviction, but where the Live version was a weighed-down snarling affair of shrieking pain and fury, his guitar solo here was nimble, fleet and even transcendent. Shorn of its danger and pain, he turned it into something almost hallucinatory and light.

If Buckingham can live through the uber-fame of the Mac's ongoing existence, live a new life and do it without the bitterness and artistic slop that tends to cling to rock megastars, then I guess there's hope for all of us.

REVIEW: Lindsey Buckingham Live in Toronto "Music Hall turns into Buckingham Palace"

Music Hall turns into Buckingham Palace
By JANE STEVENSON
Toronto Sun

Lindsey Buckingham's career is two halves of the same whole.

There's the singer-songwriter-guitarist with the more "commercial venture," as he called legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac last night during a solo show at The Music Hall.

And then there's his more "esoteric, left side of the palette" solo career -- again his words -- whose discography was most recently expanded by the mid-September release of the rock-oriented Gift of Screws, which actually boasts a catchy first single in the form of Did You Miss Me which was included in his set list.

The 59-year-old guitar virtuoso managed to show off both sides of his impressive 35-year-plus career in equal and crowd pleasing measure during a lively two-hour show which saw him backed by a crack three piece of bass-keyboards-guitar (Brett Tuttle), guitar (Neale Heywood) and drums (Alfredo Reyes). Opening with the new songs, Great Day and Love Runs Deeper, Buckingham hit his stride vocally with the older solo tracks, Trouble, and Go Insane, but it was the Fleetwood Mac songs, Tusk (complete with blue strobe lights) and I Know I'm Not Wrong, that really kicked the show up another notch and standing ovation after standing ovation started to come his way.

The singer-guitarist was also an engaging solo performer during a standout acoustic set made up of the beautiful Never Going Back Again, the dramatic Big Love and the intense Shut Us Down.

Often Buckingham stood with his head back, his eyes closed and his mouth wide open while he played, seemingly lost in his own world while he freely exposed his emotions.

As Tuttle described him: "He's a champion of music and a champion of songs."

And when he talked about the tumultuous time in his life that he wrote Big Love, just before he left Fleetwood Mac for a time in the '80s "to get my sanity back," he admitted the lyrics of "looking out for love," have now been put firmly in the past after meeting his wife eleven years ago with whom he now has three kids.

The biggest applause often came for Fleetwood Mac songs like World Turning -- which featured one of the strangest drum solos I've ever seen by the nonetheless talented Reyes -- Come (not a great song but completely elevated by Buckingham's awesome playing), I'm So Afraid, Go Your Own Way and Second Hand News, the last two which saw people finally streaming to the front of the stage to clap and sing along and even touch Buckingham's guitar strings.

And when Buckingham did his long band introductions, it was clear he had a genuine affection for the trio, particularly Heywood who he's known since his "crazy Malibu days."

"I'm having flashbacks of Gary Busey and Nick Nolte -- it's a strange crowd there," joked the slim and youthful looking Buckingham, dressed in a black leather jacket, black shirt, jeans, and black cowboy boots.

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
The Music Hall
October 8, 2008
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5

PHOTOS: Lindsey Buckingham Live in Indianapolis - October 5, 2008

Lindsey performed at the Murat Egyptian Room in Indianapolis, In on October 5, 2008.

All pictures by: Steve Mitchell

PHOTOS: Lindsey Buckingham Live in Tulsa, OK at Brady Theatre

Tulsa, OK
Brady Theatre
September 26, 2008
Photo Credit:
Jeremy Charles Photography

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