Follow The Shawls... Stevie Nicks Live in San Francisco Dec 15, 2023

‘I feel like I’m home’: Stevie Nicks conjures the magic for S.F.

By Tony Bravo

SFChronicle

Photo: Dana Jacobs

If you’re trying to find the path to a Stevie Nicks concert in any city, just follow the shawls.

The singer’s trademark accessory was in abundance Friday, Dec. 15, at San Francisco’s Chase Center, along with peasant skirts, top hats and lace as fans dressed in homage to the rock ’n’ roll queen and fashion icon.

“I dressed as Stevie Nicks for Halloween two or three years ago, then my brain chemistry changed and I never stopped,” said Emma Sullivan, who was bedecked in layers of black velvet and Victorian chokers. 

Sullivan attended Nicks’ last concert of the year with her equally festooned sister Ysabel. The San Francisco siblings remember listening to Nicks’ music — both her solo albums and hits with Fleetwood Mac — with their parents as children. But for them, Nicks’ appeal is more than just nostalgia. 

“She’s a queer icon, a feminist icon,” said Ysabel Sullivan, “and I connect with the spiritual and darker aspects of her music.”

For fellow San Franciscan Warren Sinclair, his fandom also goes beyond an appreciation of her music. 

“It’s the closest thing to a religious experience in my life,” said Sinclair, who was attending his 20th Nicks concert in two decades. “Each one is as magical as the first time.” 

Nicks, nicknamed “White Witch” by loyal followers, also seemed to be feeling the magic for the two-hour show.

Wearing a black velvet jacket over a black ruched skirt with her long blond hair curly and loose, Nicks had a youthful glow under the stage lights. But she did not shy away from mentioning her age — she proclaimed she’s 75 several times — or her “fairy grandmother” status during the show. 

Throughout the night, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame singer also referenced her deep local roots. Nicks’ family moved to the Bay Area when she was a teenager, and it was during her senior year at Menlo-Atherton High School that she met future musical partner Lindsey Buckingham. The two later attended San Jose State University together before dropping out to pursue music, forming bands Fritz and Buckingham Nicks before finding success with Fleetwood Mac. 

Nicks told the audience that while she lived in the Bay Area for only about seven years, her connection to the region remains strong.

“I feel like I’m home,” she said in the first of many stories she shared between songs. 

Nicks said being back in San Francisco brought back memories from earlier days, including the time she performed at the Fillmore in “1969 or ’70,” she said, with Buckingham and their band Fritz. 

“This guy is heckling me, ‘Hey baby, what you doing?,’ and guess who walks onstage — Mr. Bill Graham,” Nicks recounted, referring to the legendary San Francisco concert promoter. “He stomps out on the stage, and I’m not sure who he is but I know he’s someone … He went, ‘I want you to get out of my f—ing Fillmore and never f—ing come back to this building ever. And if I ever see you come back, I’ll kill you!’ ”

Friday night’s concert, rescheduled from March due to a band member’s COVID illness, closed Nicks’ 2023 leg of her tour before she goes on the road again in February. The crowd spanned generations, with fans in their 70s and 80s mixing with children, at least one of whom was carrying the special edition Stevie Nicks Barbie that was released earlier this year. 

Nicks opened the concert with 1981’s “Outside the Rain” from her first solo outing “Bella Donna,” then immediately transitioned into Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” from the band’s 1977 album “Rumours.” 

In recent years, Nicks, like many singers her age, has dropped some of the high notes from her songs, but they’re not too missed under the enveloping musical direction of her longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel. Her voice has become richer and gained color, with her signature vibrato matured into a warmer timbre.

One of the concert’s recurring themes was Nicks’ homages to her late friend and sometimes collaborator, Tom Petty. On the Petty-authored “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” she dueted with Wachtel in Petty’s place, tearing ferociously through the lyrics. Later, she covered Petty’s “Free Fallin’ ” with a soaring freedom in her voice. 

Her versions of her Fleetwood Mac classics “Gypsy” and “Gold Dust Woman,” plus her solo hit “Edge of Seventeen,” were expected crowd pleasers. But to many, her lesser-known 2011 “Soldier’s Angel” was a surprise. 

She introduced the song by referencing the war in Ukraine, saying, “If I was a guy and wasn’t 75, I’d go” fight for the country, she said, before launching into a performance accompanied by images of the conflict, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the country’s flag. 

Although Nicks didn’t change costumes during her performance, she did switch out shawls a number of times, reentering to roars when she sang her solo hit “Bella Donna” draped in the original purple shawl from the album. 

For her encores, she sang Fleetwood Mac hits “Rhiannon” — complete with streamer-laden tambourine — and closed with “Landslide,” which she dedicated to her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie, who died last year at age 79. 

Before exiting the stage, Nicks said that she loves San Francisco and can’t wait to return. 

As the crowd exited Chase Center, a sea of gold sequins, fringe and leather moved through Thrive City just outside the stadium, where a few fans continued to twirl in their shawls. 

Dave Stewart and Stevie Nicks Potential New Project In The Works

 

Dave Stewart teases new project with Stevie Nicks: ‘I can’t talk about it, but it’s interesting…’

Dave Stewart might be best known for his work as one-half of Eurythmics with Annie Lennox, but in a decades-spanning career he’s worked with the biggest names in music. 

From Anastacia, Geri Halliwell and Katy Perry, to Joss Stone, Bryan Ferry and Mick Jagger, his list of collaborators is varied and impressive, and in 2011 he teamed up with Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks on ‘In Your Dreams’ – her first solo album in a decade. 

Three years later, they reconvened to record ‘24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault’, and speaking in RETROPOP’s December 2023 edition the musician hinted there’s more to come. 

“She has called me about something that I can’t talk about, but it’s interesting,” he teases, before musing on the success of his various collaborations.  

Read more at Retropop

Charlotte summer music fest Featuring Stevie Nicks

 

Post Malone, Stevie Nicks to headline Uptown Charlotte summer music fest

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Post Malone headlines a list of 40-plus artists that will be featured during a big summer music fest next year in the Queen City.

The three-day Lovin’ Life Music Fest will be headlined by Post Malone, Stevie Nicks, and Noah Kahan, which runs May 3-5th in Uptown, Charlotte. Tickets on sale now.

Ticket information

Stevie Nicks Live in Phoenix Review "It may have been the strongest solo set I’ve ever seen her play."

Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks in Phoenix: The soundtrack of your life sounds better than ever

 

 

By: Ed Masley

Photos: Joe Rondone

AZCentral

Nearing the end of the downtown Phoenix concert on his co-headlining tour with Stevie Nicks at Chase Field on Friday, Dec. 8, Billy Joel paused to reflect on the apparent incompatibility this tour may represent to certain fans on both sides of the aisle.

Even Joel didn’t get it at first. Or so he led us to believe.

“I couldn’t understand the package, as they say,” he recalled after thanking his costar for doing the tour. “OK, Stevie Nicks. And Billy Joel. OK. Why?”

That got a great reaction. Lots of laughter. Then he answered his own question with a shout of “Because it sells tickets, for Christ’s sake.”

This is true. It does sell tickets.

Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks: The soundtrack of your life

But it also makes a lot of sense on levels that go well beyond the ticket-buying super-power that Venn diagram suggests.

They both had massive pop hits in the ‘70s and ‘80s, so regardless of which artist is the bigger draw for you and yours, the other one will also play a lot of songs that occupy a sweet spot on the soundtrack of your life.

You know what came out the same year as Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”? Billy Joel’s “The Stranger.” Think about it. Two career-defining albums all but guaranteed to satisfy the same nostalgic urges.

And Joel and Nicks both know how to work a room, packing a setlist with crowd-pleasing classics while establishing a conversational rapport that draws you even deeper into who they are and what they represent.

Is Nicks a bit more heartfelt? Sure she is. Is Joel a bigger goof? Of course he is.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

And there was no mistaking the camaraderie between them when Joel made an early appearance during Nicks' set to sing Tom Petty's part on "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around,” doing his best to channel Petty in both phrasing and inflection, then hugging it out with Nicks before he left the stage.

It was an easy highlight of the night.

Stevie Nicks was in excellent voice throughout her 90-minute set

Although this is a co-headlining proposition, someone had to go on first, and that task fell to Nicks, who more than rose to the occasion at the helm of a fantastic backing band with longtime musical director Waddy Wachtel often dominating the proceedings on guitar, from “Fall From Grace” to the cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worh” and “Edge of Seventeen.”

His slide work, in particular, was consistently brilliant.

And Nicks was in excellent voice throughout her roughly 90-minute set while rocking an impressive assortment of shawls. That voice has deepened through the years, but Nicks is enough of an artist that she’s learned how to harness the power of the voice she has in 2023 and apply it in intriguing ways to classics she recorded in her 20s.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t wild about her messing with the melody to “Dreams” when she first started reimagining those early songs to suit her changing vocal range, but the “Dreams” we heard in Phoenix felt like the way it should be sung. At least in 2023.

It was a powerful performance, rocking with conviction in all the right places.

Because Nicks' image tends to leave a lot of writers searching for more synonyms for haunting and mysterious, we rarely hear about how much a song like “Gold Dust Woman” rocks in the hands of her latest collection of backing musicians.

But in Phoenix, “Gold Dust Woman” was an epic 12-minute rendition that used the Fleetwood Mac recording as a starting point and went off on a far more psychedelic journey that built to a fiery climax that was both majestic and intense. It was a highlight of her 15-song Phoenix setlist.

When Stevie went solo:How Stevie Nicks fueled her solo career with 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around'

Stevie Nicks honored the memory of her mother, Tom Petty and Christine McVie

She took the stage to a recording of Tom Petty doing “Runnin’ Down a Dream” and set the tone for her performance with a dramatic rendition of “Outside the Rain,” which segued seamlessly into “Dreams,” the hit she took to No. 1 with Fleetwood Mac.

That was the first of several Fleetwood Mac songs in a set that found her signing off with two selections she wrote for the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album that introduced the “Rumours” lineup, “Rhiannon” and “Landslide,” the latter of which was accompanied by vintage photographs of Nicks and the late Christine McVie.

She also made her way through countless highlights of her solo years, from the pulsing synth and slide guitar of a “Stand Back” that appeared to have a harder edge than the recording, to the a cappella break of “If Anyone Falls.”

And the heartfelt nod to her friendship with Petty, whose image flashed across the screen as she sang “Free Fallin’,” was exactly as sweet as she meant it to be.

It was after “Dreams” that Nicks reminded everyone that she was born in Phoenix.

“As soon as I get here, I think I’m gonna miss the ocean,’” she said. “And I get here and I don’t miss the ocean.”

As Nicks was preparing to finish her encore with “Landslide,” a bittersweet highlight of that first release with Fleetwood Mac, she dedicated the song to her brother, Christopher, with whom she shared a home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, for 25 years.

It’s as emotional a song as you could ever hope to hear. And after bringing her performance to a vulnerable finish with that undisputed classic, she talked about having met McVie in 1975.

“It’s kind of an empty world without her,” she said.

Then she teared up while recalling the words of her mother, Barbara Nicks, who died in 2012.

“And I want you to also know that my mom always used to say to me, ‘When you are hurt, you run to the stage.’ And I run to the stage every night.”  

It may have been the strongest solo set I’ve ever seen her play.

Stevie Nicks was a tough act to follow. But Billy Joel managed

Stevie Nicks Made History at KIA Forum Los Angeles

Stevie Nicks Weaves Memories + Music with Emotional Concert at the Forum in LA — and Makes History in the Process

 

By Adrian Garro

Rockcellar

Photos: Ashley Osborn 

A decoration on one of the pillars outside the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Dec. 2 highlighted the many tours that have brought Stevie Nicks to the venue’s stage over the years.

After an incredible, sold-out evening this past Saturday evening, Nicks has now played the Forum 25 times — the most concerts put on at the venue by a female artist, according to the facility itself.

From her (many) tour stops at the Forum with Fleetwood Mac to her own robust solo career and beyond, Nicks knows the Forum more than most. Throughout her two-hour concert, you could feel the comfort and familiarity she felt as she dazzled her adoring audience with a mix of solo hits and favorites and the Fleetwood Mac classics that made her one of the most beloved singers/entertainers in history.

“I sing and I dance around my apartment, my house, and I do it because it makes me feel like I’m 25 and that’s good — because I’m not,” Nicks cracked at one point, one of her many moments of amusing banter between the 17 songs she and her band performed.

Stevie has been on the road for parts of the past two years or so, either on headlining dates, appearing at festivals or on a co-headline bill with Billy Joel. This Los Angeles stop was a headlining show, which afforded Nicks the chance to take her time and really dig deep — both in terms of the songs she sang and the thoughtful stories and anecdotes she provided between them. It effectively made the Forum feel much more intimate than it already does as if we were all gathered around a storytelling session with one of the greats.

Helping to create this atmosphere of warmth was an audience featuring quite a few women in obviously Stevie-inspired outfits, head-to-toe shawls, scarves and the general style that she has proudly and unapologetically shown off for decades.

Support for the night came from Ingrid Andress, a Nashville-based singer/songwriter with a few Billboard hits and four Grammy nominations to her name. Andress, who wore a Slipknot shirt that she’d modified into a fashionable performance outfit, was a revelation, performing on piano and on vocals accompanied by a guitarist.

She, too, told stories between songs (“I have four siblings and we were all homeschooled for a bit, so if you think I’m weird — that’s why”), raved about the thrill of opening for Stevie Nicks and turned in the sort of performance that clearly won her a nice chunk of new fans and set the tone for Nicks’ headlining set.

Nicks made it abundantly clear that performing is where she feels the most at ease, even at age 75. At one point she quoted her mother, saying, “My mom used to say to me, ‘Stevie, when you’re hurt, you run to the stage.’ And this has been very hard for me, with the loss of Christine. So, I run to the stage, and I basically run to you. And I thank you for making me better, every single time I come on stage. Thank you so much, you’re always in my heart.”

As Stevie explained, her current tour was put together as a means of coping with the loss of her dear friend and longtime Fleetwood Mac band mate, Christine McVie, who passed away in November 2022. Throughout the show and especially during the encore finale “Landslide,” photos of Stevie and Christine from all eras of their time together flashed on the screen behind the stage, the songs taking on a eulogistic tone with the emotions clearly being expressed by the singer.

The early days of Fleetwood Mac after she and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band, she explained, provided steadily increasing paychecks as the group became more successful — a far cry from her previous experiences being “cut off” by her family after moving to Los Angeles in pursuit of a music career. As the paychecks grew in volume and finances became more stable, though, Stevie said she found herself sometimes going to her bedroom, stripping her mattress off the bed frame, placing it straight on the ground and lying down on it as a means of keeping herself grounded despite her world expanding in all directions.

“I’m still Stevie, I’m still me,” she recalled saying to herself in those grounded moments. “It all has to do with the gypsy in me, I guess.”

These were the sorts of stories that made up a good portion of her set, each more entertaining than the last. Just as there were visual tributes to McVie, there were also notable moments of homage to the late Tom Petty — with both Nicks’ collaboration with him on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and a beautiful cover of “Free Fallin” in the encore, photos on the screen reflecting various live performances they’d given together over the years.

From start to finish, this was as meaningful and expressive a concert as one could expect. Throughout, Stevie’s voice sounded pristine — so much so that some in the crowd said things like, “She’s amazing, there’s no weakness in her voice whatsoever.”

Stevie Nicks has helped soundtrack the lives of millions — and this show demonstrated that as important as her music may be to her audience, it’s that same audience that is just as crucial in keeping her spark alight.

Or, as she said more succinctly during “Edge of Seventeen”:

“I just want you to know that this is what I sing for.”

Stevie Nicks’ set list:

Outside the Rain

Dreams (Fleetwood Mac song)

If Anyone Falls

Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around

Fall From Grace

For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield cover)

Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac song)

Wild Heart

Bella Donna

Stand Back

Soldier’s Angel

Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac song)

I Sing for the Things

Edge of Seventeen

Encore:

Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty cover)

Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac song)

Landslide (Fleetwood Mac song) 

Review Stevie Nicks San Diego Nov 29, 2023

One night with Stevie Nicks entranced audiences with her mystical vocals, lost loves and ‘Dreams’

by Katerina Portela

The Daily Aztec

Magical.”

That is the word that best conveys the feeling in the air on the night of Nov. 29 when Stevie Nicks performed in San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena.

The crowd gathering before the concert was an ebb and flow of glitter, draped in beaded scarves and dark hats — a reflection of Nicks’ own iconic style. 

A remarkable range of ages was present that night, from Nicks’ older white-haired fans to newer fans running in flowing dresses, all of whom contained the same excitement to see the so-called “White Witch.” 

“When did I become a Stevie fan? I’ve been a fan my whole life!” said Denise Hughes, attendee and SDSU alumni. “Well, I was born in 1980, so you could say I became a fan in 1982!”

Former frontwoman of Fleetwood Mac, one of the biggest bands of the ‘70s and ‘80s, Nicks launched her solo career with her album titled “Bella Donna” in 1981. The album and her following work established her as both an extraordinary frontwoman and a platinum-album-selling solo songwriter and performer. 

After such an illustrious career, Nicks shows no signs of slowing down as she continues to write new music and perform today.

“I love Stevie’s independence,” said fan Hillary Addelman. “(I love) that she’s a woman with a vision and that she branched out with Tom Petty and other musicians, following her own dream. If it’s anything like her last concert, her storyline that goes with every song of hers makes it an intimate experience. It’s not just a song, it’s a story.”

The love for Stevie Nicks had not been contained within the older generation, as the crowds of parents and children showed, but has passed down from generation through records spinning in growing households and children coming to share their parents’ love for Nicks’ music.

“Fleetwood Mac was how I woke up every morning, so I have my dad to thank for that,”  Addelman said. 

Review Stevie Nicks Live in San Diego November 29, 2023

Stevie Nicks spun an expertly calibrated musical web at her San Diego concert

BY GEORGE VARGA

San Diego Tribune

Photos: K.C. Alfred

The veteran solo star and Fleetwood Mac mainstay was engaging throughout her performance at SDSU’s Viejas Arena, which benefitted from an unusually clear and well-balanced audio mix in a venue long noted for its booming acoustics and slap-back echo.

Stevie Nicks has been in a select class since she sang and spun her way to stardom in the mid-1970s as a member of Fleetwood Mac. Five decades later, she has risen to an even more select class as her often-stirring Wednesday night concert at San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena reaffirmed.

Along with fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Bonnie Raitt, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry of Blondie and San Diego native Ann Wilson of Heart, Nicks is among the very few women artists who rose to prominence in the ‘70s who continue actively touring and recording in their 70s. Moreover, Nicks is the only one to be inducted twice, first with Fleetwood Mac in 1998, then as a solo artist in 2019.

That unique distinction could have allowed her to rest on her laurels at Viejas Arena, where Nicks last performed in 2018 on what appears to be the final tour by the now-dormant Fleetwood Mac. At 75, she could have easily just picked up her presumably hefty paycheck — the 8,000-seat arena was at near-capacity — and coasted through a low-gear, cruise-controlled show.

But the husky-voiced troubadour sounded like she still had some things to prove Wednesday, performing with palpable conviction throughout. And when she sang the refrain “I don’t want to stop now” as her 1981 hit, “Edge of Seventeen,” built to a mighty climax — 90 minutes into her nearly two-hour performance — it sounded more like a vow than an aspiration.

“Thank you so much for being a part of my life. I’ll see you again, I promise,” Nicks told the cheering audience when the song concluded.

That promise came true minutes later when she returned to the stage for three encores. But it’s likely Nicks was referring to a future tour, since she clearly was enjoying herself at least as much as her audience. The enthusiastic crowd included a significant number of women — younger, older and in between — whose concert attire paid homage to looks Nicks popularized back in the 1970s and 1980s, including leather and lace, top hats and enough capes and shawls to stock a store or two.

Accordingly, when Nicks briefly left the stage several times during her 17-song set, it was to exchange one cape for another. Her microphone stand was decorated with two black scarves, a trademark since her early “witchy woman” Fleetwood Mac days. To cheers, she happily modeled what she said was her original “Bella Donna” album-cover cape.

In her introduction to the 1982 Fleetwood Mac favorite, “Gypsy,” Nicks recalled how she and guitarist-singer Lindsey Buckingham — then her paramour — rose from obscurity to fame after they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975. The couple quickly went, she noted, from earning $200 a week, to $400, to $800, to $1,500, to $500,000 a year, and more.

“We got rich, fast!” Nicks affirmed. She added that, when she longed to relive her days as a struggling musician working as a waitress, she would “put my mattress on the floor.”

Nicks spoke freely between most of her selections, but it wasn’t the kind of quick, impersonal banter one often hears at concerts.

She warmly recounted first meeting and singing with Tom Petty on her 1981 solo hit, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” a collaboration instigated by Jimmy Iovine, her producer and boyfriend at the time. Prior to her potent version of the Stephen Stills-penned 1967 Buffalo Springfield hit, “For What It’s Worth,” Nicks encouraged her fans to vote in the next election.

“I myself never voted until I was 72,” she said. “I was busy! I was busy being famous ... I didn’t want to do jury duty.”

Accompanied by a polished six-man band and two female backing vocalists, led by guitar ace Waddy Wachtel, Nicks opened the concert with a pair of songs that served as a template of sorts for the evening.

The first was the moody “Outside the Rain,” a choice cut from her 1981 solo debut album, “Bella Donna.” The second was the 1977 Fleetwood Mac classic “Dreams,” which in 2020 became an unlikely internet hit on TikTok.

Both were delivered with skill and authority, as were Nicks’ subsequent selections. She wisely didn’t attempt to hit notes no longer in her reach, but infused each song with emotion and meaning. And she twirled just a few times, slowly. But when Nicks stretched out, as she did on an extended version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” that surged with power, her vocal intensity was palpable.

She was equally compelling performing deep solo album cuts, such as her 2011 anti-war lament, “Soldier’s Angel,” as she was when essaying Petty’s “Free Fallin’ ” and her 1975 Fleetwood Mac classic, “Rhiannon.”

The concert’s most poignant moment came at its conclusion. That was when Nicks paid tribute to Fleetwood Mac keyboardist and singer, Christine McVie, who died last Nov. 30 at 79 from an ischemic stroke.

Nicks’ spare version of the wistful love ballad “Landslide” found her accompanied by just acoustic guitar and piano, as vintage photos of her and McVie were shown on multiple LED screens. Nicks didn’t write the “Landslide” lyrics “And I’m getting older too / Oh, I’m getting older too” in tribute to her fallen friend and band mate. But when she sang them Wednesday, they served as an elegy and a world-wise declaration of endurance and resiliency.

Stevie Nicks Street Angel and Trouble In Shangri-La Vinyl Coming Soon

Stevie Nicks' fifth and sixth solo albums, "Trouble in Shangri-La" and "Street Angel" coming soon to vinyl in limited edition transparent sea blue and transparent red vinyl. 

Roughtrade in the UK posted the information with a link to pre-order. I'm sure Rhino will soon provide information for a north American release.

STREET ANGEL

30th Anniversary Edition of Stevie Nicks’ fifth studio album, pressed on transparent red vinyl. Originally released in 1994, the album peaked at #45 in the US, and #16 in the UK. The Gold-certified album features the singles “Blue Denim”, “Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind,” and “Street Angel” featuring David Crosby.

Pre-order

TROUBLE IN SHANGRI-LA

Stevie Nicks’ sixth studio album pressed on Transparent Sea Blue vinyl. Originally released in 2001, the album reached #5 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified Gold by the RIAA. The album features the hits “Sorcerer,” “Every Day,” and “Planets Of The Universe,” which reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance chart.

Pre-order

Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel Live in Minneapolis November 10, 2023

Concert review: Odd couple Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks offer fun night at U.S. Bank Stadium

By ROSS RAIHALA

Pioneer Press

Photo: lauraannkg on IG

If Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks seem like an odd combination, well they are. He’s a steely, populist New Yorker, while she’s a dramatic hippie witch from Phoenix. And yet, the pair delivered a delightful and nostalgic evening Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, even if they took two quite different approaches.

Nicks amped up the moody atmosphere for her set, a blend of her solo hits and some of the songs she wrote for Fleetwood Mac, and wore a series of her famous shawls. Early on, she told the crowd one of her backup singers tested positive for COVID that morning and Nicks’ vocal coach was filling in. Nicks said it would sound a little different and it did, particularly during “Edge of Seventeen” and “Landslide.” A bit distracting, but not enough to be a game changer.

As for Nicks, she sounded terrific. Now 75, she twirls slower than she used to, but she can still sing. Whether she was belting out “Stand Back” or bringing the audience in with “Dreams,” Nicks nailed it.

Her longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel — a session musician who has worked with everyone from Linda Ronstadt to Dolly Parton — also shined. He extended the instrumental breaks in several numbers, most notably “Gold Dust Woman,” an already dramatic song he transformed into a true epic.

Nicks also covered two very distinctive songs — Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Free Fallin” — and somehow made them her own. True magic.

Four songs into her set, Nicks played her debut solo single “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” with Joel popping out to sing Petty’s part. He did a decent job and later in his own set offered a surprisingly awesome Mick Jagger impersonation (both singing- and dancing-wise) during a snippet of the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.”

Joel takes an old-fashioned and showbizzy approach to performing live, complete with massive hooks and canned comic lines he’s used hundreds of times. For example, he took the stage to the end score from the 1984 Robert Redford sports film “The Natural,” written by Randy Newman channeling Aaron Copland.

The 75-year-old wasn’t afraid to pump up his old hits like “Only the Good Die Young” and “New York State of Mind” into true stadium rockers. Crucially, though, he didn’t significantly alter any arrangements, he just made them bigger and bolder.

As such, the set list was packed with Joel’s many hits, the ones he’s been playing for decades now. The crowd greeted each one like an old friend, from “My Life” and “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” to “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” and “Piano Man.” (Joel retired from recording pop/rock albums with 1993’s “River of Dreams.”)

The furthest Joel strayed was a pair of album cuts early in his set, “Summer, Highland Falls” and “Zanzibar.” Of the latter, Joel noted it “gets played on TikTok, whatever the hell that is.” Joel sure knows how to put on a show.

Review: Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks team up to thrill classic rock fans of all ages

Despite no new music for decades, the Rock Hall of Famers packed U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. 

By Jon Bream Star Tribune

Billy Joel stands close to alone. Fifty years to the week after he released the album "Piano Man" — featuring that sing-along ode to loneliness — he was ambitiously playing at U.S. Bank Stadium even though he hasn't released an album of new songs in 30 years. What other solo artist would attempt that?

Stevie Nicks stands close to alone, too. One year to the month after the death of her bestie Christine McVie, she was playing at U.S. Bank Stadium, opening for Joel, as essentially the last singer standing from Fleetwood Mac. (Remember the band unceremoniously dismissed Lindsey Buckingham in 2018, and he's scaled back to performing in theaters.)

Joel and Nicks seem like an odd pairing — the pugnacious New Yorker and the mystical California hippie. Yet, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have joined forces this year for the eight-city Two Icons, One Night Tour, which falls between their separate arena gigs.

The New York/California ticket got the overwhelming approval Friday night of maybe 50,000 multi-generational voters at the packed Vikings stadium (according to our applause poll).

With living-in-the-past Joel, the fans indicated that "we love you just the way you were." Of the 25 or so selections his group offered, all but two were from 1982 or earlier. And not all were hits, as he included deep tracks "Summer Highland Falls" for "all you manic depressives" and "Zanzibar" with its snazzy jazzy Carl Fischer trumpet solo.

Joel was, as always, full of shtick, attitude and, now, dad jokes. He did his dad-dance impression of Mick Jagger by doing a taste of the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up," and he had his guitarist Mike DelGuidice detour into a gratuitous slab of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" as well as Puccini's aria "Nessun Dorma." Like Joel's catalog, his two-hour set was a remarkable rangy musical melting pot.

Joel remembered playing at the Marigold Ballroom "in the boondocks" (actually it was downtown Minneapolis, where the Hyatt Regency stands), and he asked for prayers so he could still hit his high notes on "An Innocent Man" (he did).

Yes, he was in good voice at age 74, save for control issues on a couple of tunes. He turned "The Longest Time" and the doo-wop styled "River of Dreams" into wonderful group vocal showcases. The piano man gave each of his fun-loving musicians time in the spotlight, which doesn't typically happen at stadium shows. Moreover, the sound for Joel's highly musical set was better than usual at the football palace. Too bad his crew couldn't get the live video cameras to work on the opening "My Life."

Nicks, who in 2016 toured with Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders (same era, different vibe), delivered a greatest-hits set this time, unlike her arena trek seven years ago that featured plenty of deep tracks. As the first act to hit the stage Friday, Nicks knew how to get the party started segueing into "Dreams," the Fleetwood Mac song that got resurrected via TikTok in 2020, for her second number.

She pulled out her trump card on the fourth selection, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," as Joel sauntered out to sing the part originally done by Tom Petty on Nicks' debut solo single in 1981.

The duet may not have been as spirited as when Nicks pulled it off with Hynde in St. Paul seven years ago, but it certainly invigorated the late-arriving Minneapolis crowd. Afterward, Nicks explained that she's done the song live with Petty, Harry Styles and others, but Joel "scares me every time." It was a little unclear if she meant that in a good way.

There was no question that Nicks, 75, was in terrific voice, that seductive husky siren of hers, though it was hard to fully appreciate her 90-minute performance in the echo chamber that is the Vikings stadium. Moreover, the live video — that was essential in the massive coliseum with a petite performer who eschewed her usual signature dizzying dancing — was marred by all kinds of tacky patterns (colorful dots, gold bubbles, etc.) over her image.

Waddy Wachtel's guitar consistently cut through, whether the mysterious and ultimately noisy slashing on "Gold Dust Woman," one of Nicks' highlights, or the edgy riffing on "Edge of Seventeen" (which also featured a funky organ passage by the Twin Cities' own Ricky Peterson).

Nicks did not mention Prince even though she played their funky 1983 collaboration "Stand Back." As she always does in the Twin Cities, she gave a shout out to "my one and only husband," Kim Anderson, her ex- who was in the audience and to whom she dedicated "Wild Heart."

Despite a few glitches, Joel and Nicks reinforced what the music business long ago learned: Classic rock knows no expiration date. 

Stevie Nicks Detroit November 7, 2023

Stevie Nicks cast a spell over Detroit audience at Little Caesars Arena

The Queen of Rock and Roll put on one epic show

Clickondetroit.com

by: Jack Roskopp

“There’s just something that’s so rock and roll about Detroit City,” said Stevie Nicks at the top of her headlining show at Little Caesars Arena Tuesday night.

She is certainly right about that statement, and rock and roll she did deliver. As the first woman to ever be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (once with Fleetwood Mac and again as a solo artist), she lived up to her title as Queen of Rock and Roll.

Dressed in all black and her signature shawls, Nicks tore through her back catalogue of hits, which included Fleetwood Mac hits (”Dreams,” “Gypsy,” “Gold Dust Woman”) as well as songs from her solo career.

The best part was that she introduced almost every song with a little story or anecdote, and man were they entertaining. She told stories of her time before joining Fleetwood Mac, how she and Lindsey Buckingham were dirt poor until they joined the band and her friendship with the late Tom Petty.

She even encouraged the audience to get out and vote (it was election day, after all), and how she didn’t actually vote in election until recently, and to not be dumb and stupid like she has been all her life with not voting. For the amount of young people in the crowd last night (all dressed as her, of course), it was a needed message.

I’ve seen Nicks a few other times while she was on tour with Fleetwood Mac, and she never talked this much when she was with the band. That’s probably because Fleetwood Mac has so many songs to get through in their setlist, so it was kinda great that she could be a bit more intimate, even while playing at a packed arena.

But it was all about the performance for Nicks. At 75-years-old, she still sounds amazing. The highlights, of course, was when she performed Fleetwood Mac hits. “Dreams” and “Gypsy” were ethereal, while “Rhiannon” during her encore was as witchy as ever. It was like she cast a spell over the entire audience.

She also added some covers to her setlist. “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield was a welcome surprise (also her story before she played the song was delightful as ever), and a cover of “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was a beautiful tribute to her late friend.

Speaking of tributes, she closed out the show with her most famous song, “Landslide,” and dedicated it to Christine McVie, her best friend and Fleetwood Mac bandmate who died almost a year ago. Images of Nicks and McVie played on the screens in the arena while Nicks warmly sang the lyrics “Children get older, I’m getting older, too.” As a lifelong Fleetwood Mac fan, I couldn’t help but get emotional.

Nicks told the audience right before the show ended how this tour has helped her deal with the immense grief of losing McVie, and it was the perfect note to end a wonderful night of music on.

“Join the peace train,” she said at one point during the show, and it was a perfect reminder for what’s going on in today’s world. Long live rock and roll, and long live Stevie Nicks.

Stevie Nicks (Live) 4K - Opening Songs - 11/7/23

Stevie Nicks in Detroit: Storyteller, showstopper singing Fleetwood Mac and solo hits

By Edward Pevos

mlive.com

DETROIT - She has one of those voices you have to hear in person to get the full appreciation for. Stevie Nicks performed both Fleetwood Mac hits and songs from her solo catalog at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Tuesday, November 7.

She took the stage at 8:25 p.m. to a loud applause, performing “Outside The Rain,” a deep cut, before smoothly mashing into “Dreams,” performing it just the way fans remember the song when it was released in 1977. After hearing the 75-year old’s strong, signature vocals on this Fleetwood Mac classic, fans knew they were in for a special evening.

Nicks didn’t just perform, she was a storyteller, giving fans some history behind many of the songs she performed. Like how she didn’t have a lead single for her “Bella Donna” album until Tom Petty offered her “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” to record. And she says she had the choice to do it with or without him. You know how that turned out.

Nicks also performed a cover of “For What It’s Worth,” a song written by Stephen Stills and made famous by Buffalo Springfield. Nicks told the crowd she said when she was younger that she would record it when she became a rock star. She put it on her 2010 album, “In Your Dreams.” She says she always had thought the song was political, but says it is actually about the Sunset Strip curfew riots.

Nicks also paid tribute to the late Petty with a strong rendition of “Free Fallin,’” showing pictures of the two together throughout the years.

Nicks had two showstopping moments in the evening with extended versions of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” and one of her solo hits “Edge of Seventeen.” Both were mesmerizing from start to finish.

She also told the crowd there is just something about performing in “Motown.”

“I have to say that in all the years I’ve been doing this, I always remember being in Detroit many, many times to play. I don’t know whether it’s Detroit City, like the song, or cars, I don’t know. It’s just something in the name of Detroit that’s just really special and rock and roll. I’m so happy that I’m here still standing and alive.”

The setlist also included solo hits “If Anyone Falls” and “Stand Back” as well as Fleetwood Mac staples “Gypsy,” “Rhiannon” and “Landslide.” In all, she performed 17 songs in two hours with plenty of storytelling. Nicks voice is just as strong as ever and she delivered a memorable night of music.

“You have been patient listening to my long stories and I love you for that so much, really. I will take that home with me tonight.”

Stevie Nicks celebrates long career, absent friends at Little Caesars Arena

By GARY GRAFF 

The Oakland Press

Stevie Nicks called to “get this party started” early on during her concert Tuesday night, Nov. 7, at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.

What the presented, however, was a bit of a wake — albeit a celebratory one.

Nicks, at 75 and nearly 50 years into a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted recording career, put absent friends front and center during her two-hour show. Tom Petty was particularly top of mind; Nicks and her eight-member band entered the stage to his “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” and Petty, who passed away in 2017, was part of a parade of stars (her ex-boyfriend Don Henley, occasional tour mate Billy Joel, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and others) featured on the curved rear stage video screen as she played their 1981 hit collaboration “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

An emotional encore cover of Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” meanwhile, was accompanied by another photo show, this time all of Petty, his Heartbreakers and Nicks with him and them. In image of Prince, who died during 2016, appeared during “Edge of Seventeen.”

But perhaps the most moving was the show-closing rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” a tribute to Nicks’ late bandmate Christine McVie — who passed last year — that was also accompanied by a three-hanky reel of vintage images of the two together.

The undercurrent of mortality was poignant but hardly a drag on a show that also celebrated Nicks’ long career and continuing potency as a performer. Wrapped in a series of shawls — including the original one she sported on the cover of her 1981 solo debut, “Bella Donna” — Nicks was a commanding presence even when standing stock still, her voice finding melodic variations in the 17 songs from her solo and Fleetwood Mac catalogs. She’s aging with grace, but her capable delivery of rockers such as “Fall From Grace,” “Wild Heart,” “Stand Back” and “Rhiannon” assured fans — many dressed in Nicks’ flowing Welsh witch attire — that she’s hardly bowing to the years.

The support was there, too, particularly from longtime guitarist and music director Waddy Wachtel — spotlighted during numerous solos including a lengthy prologue to “Edge of Seventeen” — and backing vocalists Lori Nicks (her sister-in-law) and Sharon Celani.

The show was part “Storyteller” as well, with Nicks offering lengthy and insightful remembrances of working with Petty on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and her fan experience with Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” which she covered during the show. Nicks is also using this year’s tour to perform the 1985 track “I Sing for the Things” for the first time, and she dedicated “Soldier’s Angel” to current war in Ukraine, with video images of the struggle and of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Nicks didn’t delve deeply into politics, however. “You came her for peace — that’s what I’m trying to give you,” she explained before the song. “We just sing this for peace.”

Nicks demonstrated admirable self-awareness at the end of the night, telling the Little Caesars crowd that “you have been sweet and you have been patient and you have listened to my long stories, and I love you for that.” She could rest assured the feeling from fans was mutual.

Stevie Nicks Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2023 with Sheryl Crow

The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony brought out the best and brightest in the music industry for a night of electrifying performances at the Barclays Center in New York City on November 3, 2023.

One of the biggest surprises of the evening came when Stevie Nicks joined inductee Sheryl Crow on stage to perform Crow's hit 'Strong Enough' off her 1993 Grammy-winning album Tuesday Night Music Club. 

The 75-year-old Fleetwood Mac icon looked every inch the bohemian chic goddess in a billowy black ensemble as she belted out the upbeat single next to Crow, 61, who rocked out on a guitar.

The 'Edge of Seventeen' songstress wasn't finished whipping the crowd into a frenzy when the song ended, however, as she kept up her signature vocals for a round of Crow's 'Everyday Is a Winding Road'.

And the stunning female vocalists got a little help from none other than singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Frampton.

- Daily Mail

Videos: golddustnickss on X

 

Stevie Nicks Announces Baltimore Date + Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performace

STEVIE NICKS Announced a new date: 

February 17, 2024 Baltimore, MD at CFG Bank Arena. 

Tickets on sale Friday Oct 27th

Stevie Nicks Official

STEVIE NICKS will be performing LIVE at Rock Hall 2023! Stream it on Disney Plus, Friday, Nov. 3 at 8p ET!

Stevie Nicks Live in Pittsburgh, PA September 27, 2023

Stevie Nicks delivers the hits and stories in Pittsburgh concert

MIKE PALM 

Triblive.com

Photo: Renee Klaas Piatt

Much as she’s done for the past 40-plus years of her solo career, Stevie Nicks enchanted Pittsburgh concert-goers with a career-spanning show Wednesday night.

Nicks dazzled through a nearly two-hour show at PPG Paints Arena, soaring through Fleetwood Mac classics like “Dreams” and “Gypsy” while delving into her solo career, with hits like “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen.”

Dressed all in black, the 75-year-old Nicks didn’t venture too far from her mic stand except for occasional off-stage wardrobe updates — a variety of shawls, of course — or for light dancing near her guitarists.

Playing the part of enthusiastic storyteller, Nicks offered commentary and insight into many of her songs while introducing them. First, she expressed satisfaction with being indoors after a rain-drenched show in Boston last week where she was forced to wear a velvet hat on stage for the first time in 30 years.

Appropriately, she opened Wednesday’s show with “Outside the Rain,” which segued seamlessly into Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”

After the synth-driven “If Anyone Falls,” Nicks told the story of how one of her most famous songs — from her debut solo album “Bella Donna” — came to life, thanks to producer Jimmy Iovine.

“(He said) ‘Well, it’s a great record, and we love it, but guess what? There is no single,’” Nicks recalled of the conversation. “By now, this guy is also my boyfriend. ‘There’s no single. Did you think about telling me that last week or something? Do I have to write a single or dig through my vault of songs and find another song that we didn’t put on there already? He goes, ‘No, no … I have a plan.’”

That plan turned out to be a collaboration with Tom Petty on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” which helped Nicks’ debut record rocket to No. 1 on the Billboard charts back in 1981.

One of her most recent songs (relatively speaking), 2001’s “Fall From Grace” rocked with Nicks offering her most emphatic singing of the night and some minor head bopping.

In 1966, Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield wrote “For What It’s Worth” about the Sunset Strip Riots in Los Angeles, and Nicks had long admired it, releasing a cover of it last year.

“He managed to write a protest song but yet write it in a way where it’s like, you’re on this side, and you’re on this side, and you’re down the middle and he doesn’t really care,” Nicks said. “He’s just writing a song to ask everybody to stand back and listen. Listen to some music. Listen to your friends, and don’t be nuts and try to destroy everything.”

Nicks called Fleetwood Mac’s “Gypsy” her foundation song, recalling a time in 1975 where she and Lindsey Buckingham came into a lot of money but she needed to stay grounded. She pulled her mattress onto the floor, declaring “I am still Stevie.”

“And much to my surprise — you would probably not believe this — but I still do this every once in a while,” she said. “I put the mattress back on the floor, back to my roots. So if you ever need to just bring your foundation back to where you wish it would have stayed, that’s what you do.”

“Wild Heart” flowed into “Bella Donna” before an electric version of “Stand Back,” complete with black and yellow lights on the stage and video screen, as well as Nicks’ black-with-gold-highlights shawl.

In her most serious moment, Nicks reflected on 2011’s “Soldier’s Angel” — written after visiting injured troops at Bethesda Naval Hospital and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — taking on new meaning in light of the conflict in Ukraine.

An extended version of “Gold Dust Woman” led to “I Sing For the Things,” which had originally been cut from Nicks’ debut album. The crowd came back to life as the drums and guitar kicked in for the intro on “Edge of Seventeen,” another highlight of the set.

Two of the three songs in the encore paid tribute to close friends she had lost. A cover of Petty’s “Free Fallin’” included archival photos of Nicks and Petty, and the closing “Landslide,” a Fleetwood Mac classic, honored bandmate Christine McVie, who died in November 2022.

In between those two came another Fleetwood Mac hit, “Rhiannon,” which drew the largest cheers and helped send the audience home satisfied.

Judging by the restroom lines, the crowd skewed heavily female, and there might not have been this many Pittsburgh women sporting fancy hats since Easter or maybe the Kentucky Derby.

Cil, a 20-year-old pop singer from Colorado, opened the show with 25 minutes of songs about love, albeit with a younger viewpoint.

Stevie Nicks setlist

• Outside the Rain
• Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
• If Anyone Falls
• Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
• Fall From Grace
• For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield cover)
• Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac)
• Wild Heart
• Bella Donna
• Stand Back
• Soldier's Angel
• Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac)
• I Sing for the Things
• Edge of Seventeen

Encore

• Free Fallin' (Tom Petty cover)
• Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
• Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)

Review: The ageless Stevie Nicks bewitches crowd at PPG Paints Arena

SCOTT MERVIS

PostGazette.com

With the departure of Lindsey Buckingham and the passing of Christine McVie, we may have seen the end of Fleetwood Mac.

While that situation plays out, or doesn’t, we are blessed to have the mystical gypsy of the band, Stevie Nicks, serenading us with those classic songs as well as the best of her solo career.

That on-and-off journey was launched 42 years ago with the instant success of “Bella Donna,” and now, at 75, Nicks is on a solo tour that brought her to PPG Paints Arena Wednesday for the first time since 2018.

Her devoted followers turned out strong in brimmed hats, shawls and lacy dresses, even some of the guys.

After the entry song of “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” from another fallen comrade, Tom Petty, Nicks emerged, all in black, bowed, and eased into “Outside the Rain,” a deeper track from her 1981 debut, “Bella Donna.”

Although it’s not a showy song, vocally, it was all we need to know that her uniquely rough and raspy voice still has the old magic. It was reinforced when the song segued into “Dreams,” one of the beloved entries from the FM catalog.

It’s not often that Pittsburgh is complimented for its lack of rain, but she greeted the crowd saying she did her previous show, with Billy Joel, in a steady Boston rain, with a hat pinned to her head, “and I can’t tell you how excited I was to get to this show.”

She prefaced her signature duet with the story of Jimmy Iovine telling her that her forthcoming solo debut album didn’t have a single.

His solution was to introduce her to Petty for what would become “Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.”

“I love you, I love the Heartbreakers, I love this song,” she recalled telling Petty.

Rather than summoning the late Heartbreaker on video, she found a worthy duet partner in longtime guitarist and music director Waddy Wachtel, who sizzled throughout.

Nicks, once a shy frontwoman, continued in storyteller mode, providing the background, about the LA Sunset Riots in 1966, for Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” The song endures for her, she said, because it’s about learning how to listen. She infused it with some added slide guitar, her blunt, husky delivery and a longer, echoey outro.

About 10 years after Stephen Stills wrote that song, she was joining a broke Fleetwood Mac, driving around with Buckingham in a car that didn’t go in reverse.

“I was the only one that had a job,” she said, “because [what] was Lindsey going to do?”

She was cleaning houses. He was perfecting his guitar chops, presumably.

It introduced “Gypsy,” which she referred to as one of FM’s “foundational songs.” It, of course, was another beauty with another stunning vocal over a spinning, carousel effect.

It was full-on hard-rock muscle for a show-stopping “Stand Back,” for which she donned a sparkly coat for the first of her witchy dances, sending the crowd into hysterics.

The strident “Soldier's Angel,” she explained, was added to the set to support Ukraine and express her disgust with Vladimir Putin, who she is convinced plans to take over all of Eastern Europe. “He is not going to stop.” Rod Stewart had a similar message here a few weeks ago, so this is clearly a hot topic with the boomer rockers.

An exquisite “Gold Dust Woman” was thick with drama and noisy atmosphere, climaxing with harrowing held notes and the shawl dance that’s the Stevie Nicks equivalent of Gene Simmons spitting fire.

Wachtel got to blaze away in an extended opening for the song that many were waiting for, “Edge of Seventeen.” It was an epic set-closer with the chugging riff, Nicks’ braying vocal and a round of solos going from organ to piano to guitar.

“You’ve been an awesome crowd…I love being in this city,” she said, before exiting the stage.

There were more hits stacked in the encore: a celebratory cover of “Free Fallin’,” a surprisingly hard-driving “Rhiannon” and finally, the lovely and bittersweet “Landslide” with just Nicks, Wachtel and keyboard.

This song is course, has her repeating “And I’m getting older too.”

Some of the 70-something rockers still packing arenas have lost a step or two, while others barely seem any different than they were 30 years ago. Maybe even better. Nicks clearly falls in the latter category. Rock goddess, indeed.