Review Stevie Nicks with The Pretenders Live in Portland February 28, 2017

Stevie Nicks in Portland: Fleetwood Mac hits and gold dust memories
by David Greenwald
Oregonlive.com

Photo: David Greenwald - Check out the 45 photos in the gallery

"This is a journey," Stevie Nicks said on Tuesday night. "This is a trip. I'm just asking you to come with me."

From the days of "Fleetwood Mac," Nicks has had fans who would follow her anywhere. But at her Moda Center tour stop, she was looking for indulgence: an evening of storytelling and memories accompanying rare, revived tracks from across her band and solo career, some gathered on 2014's "24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault."

"This is a journey," Stevie Nicks said on Tuesday night. "This is a trip. I'm just asking you to come with me."

From the days of "Fleetwood Mac," Nicks has had fans who would follow her anywhere. But at her Moda Center tour stop, she was looking for indulgence: an evening of storytelling and memories accompanying rare, revived tracks from across her band and solo career, some gathered on 2014's "24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault."

Nicks didn't skimp on the hits, including Fleetwood Mac staples: "Gypsy," "Gold Dust Woman," "Rhiannon" and finally, "Landslide." But she was more excited to share songs such as "Crying in the Night," a soaring, harmony-bright Buckingham/Nicks track she hadn't performed ever until this tour. It would've been a No. 1 hit if she'd given it to the Eagles.

Nearly every song came with the background behind it, and the storytelling was as compelling as the music. Nicks has always deeply inhabited the characters in her songs, and along with her indelibly witchy popular image, perhaps been too convincing as a bohemian spell-caster. The minutes with Nicks, human being, were surprising and often hilarious: she lacks, say, Cher's comic timing, but she was nearly as amusing--and much more sincere.

"I used to drop by his house, only after calling, of course," she said of politely visiting Tom Petty, whose work inspired her solo debut, "Bella Donna." "I wanted to make a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers record, from a woman's perspective."

She picked up Petty duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" after their mutual producer, Jimmy Iovine, got serious and told her she didn't have a single. Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, who delivered a ferociously punk opening set, took the stage with visible joy to step into Petty's shoes for the song, and the two singers barely made it through without laughing at each other's moves.

And Nicks remembered the pre-fame days she spent waitressing and waiting for her musical breakthrough: it came for her and Lindsey Buckingham with Fleetwood Mac, and she sang "Belle Fleur" about the about the black limousine that whisked her away to rock fame and fortune. Making "Bella Donna" on her own a few years later meant convincing Fleetwood Mac she wasn't going to break up the band.

"Get it through your head!" she said, remembering the conversation.

She also paid tribute to the late Prince: after his "Little Red Corvette" inspired Nicks to write "Stand Back," she called him up for his blessing and 15 minutes later, he was at the studio to help record. On Tuesday night, the result--like so much of Prince's work--was remarkably current, a pulsing synth-rock freight-train that might've graced (or just inspired) 2011's '80s-reviving "Drive" soundtrack.

"Every time I sing that song, Prince is standing right there with me," she said.

On "Edge of Seventeen," she showcased his image on the video projections behind her, the song concluding with a nod to Prince's "When Doves Cry."

Hearing the Fleetwood Mac material apart from the band's gravity let it orbit in intriguing directions: "Gold Dust Woman" went through the heaviest transformation, gaining psychedelic weight to the point of stoner-metal. As the band went into a guitar break, Nicks head-banged, and a puff of cannabis smoke floated through section 122.

Among other revelations: it took the "Twilight" movies and their inspirational (!) teen vampire romance to lead Nicks back to the music industry after almost a decade away. She sang "Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)" with a visual of rippling water and a full moon behind her--if this music thing doesn't work out, Nicks has a future in fantasy screensavers.

But for every behind-the-scenes moment, Nicks also gave us the comforting familiar: costume changes, tambourines and spin moves, and the captivating voice whose quivering wisdom the 68-year-old Nicks has only grown into.

"You have to believe in your heart," she advised. On Tuesday, it was easy to believe in hers.