FLEETWOOD MAC - TORONTO PHOTOS 3/17/09

Fleetwood Mac are currently playing in Toronto. A few TwitPics courtesy of concertaholics:

(Review) Mistress Stevie Nicks lived up to expectations

ROCHESTERCITYNEWSPAPER

By Dale Evans

It was a celebratory crowd that nearly filled Blue Cross Arena for Fleetwood Mac Monday, March 16. And I think most of them had filled their bellies at the Dino prior to the concert. The rib-running-jam was so backed up that the hostess pleaded via loudspeaker for patrons to exit their tables ASAP and move on over to the bar because hundreds of concert-goers were still waiting to eat. Last I heard it was a two-hour wait, but it didn't seem to dampen anyone's spirits. Everyone was happy as they strolled the bridge over to the arena.

As they aren't promoting anything -- yet -- Fleetwood Mac is playing just for fun. And it could have been catching if enthusiasm for the concert hadn't already infected everyone. Most of the crowd spent the night up on their feet getting down, which made me wonder why-oh-why the promoter wouldn't book this as a general admission ticket instead of the dance-in-front-of-your-seat celebration that it was.

All the fave songs were played, and even if a few made me cringe inwardly at their corniness, I was more surprised at just how many of the band's songs are really, really good.

Lindsey Buckingham floored me with his playing; he gave his guitar such passionate spankings that I'm sure some bottoms blushed. And if you were in the nose-bleed section, it mattered not, as the videos were masterfully manned. Yeah, that was him looking right at me.

Mistress Stevie Nicks lived up to expectations, slowly swirling and twirling in her shawl-draped costumes, caressing the glittering boas adorning her mic stand, topping off songs with poignant silhouetted poses.

Mick Fleetwood, well, he was just insanely spectacular. Yes! We're with you! And John McVie's bass was profoundly anonymous, just like one should be.

When the band stopped playing, no one moved. After being called back for two long encores, we were finally too tired to put up much of a fight. If it could be possible, everyone left even happier than they arrived.

MICK FLEETWOOD SPEAKING TO CANADIAN JOURNALISTS

Mick Fleetwood Still About The Blues
by Elizabeth Chorney-Booth -CHARTattack-

Mick Fleetwood didn't plan on being the drummer for one of the most popular and ubiquitous rock bands of all time.

In his heart of hearts, Fleetwood is a bluesman and as hardcore fans of Fleetwood Mac already know, when he started the band way back in the late '60s, that's exactly what he originally set out to be.

A quick primer for anyone who thinks Fleetwood Mac begin and end with their massive hits of the '70s like "Go Your Own Way" and "Don't Stop": Mick Fleetwood (the only member of the band who has survived every single incarnation of the group) began Fleetwood Mac in 1967 with guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. John McVie, who still plays bass in the band, joined shortly after their first gig.

They were pretty much straight-up blues band, who became fairly popular. Things fell apart when Green, the driving force in the band, started taking LSD, which unlocked a latent mental illness. Green was diagnosed with schizophrenia, left the band in 1970 and has spent much of his life in institutions. Spencer left the band a year later after being recruited by religious group The Children Of God. 

Fleetwood and McVie kept the band alive, eventually recruited singer-songwriters Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham (as well as McVie's wife, Christine), and morphed into the the mega-group we all know today.

But Fleetwood always kept a piece of the blues in his heart. A few years ago, he and guitarist/vocalist Rick Vito (who, to complicate things even further, was briefly a member of Fleetwood Mac when Lindsey Buckingham took hiatus from the group in the late '80s) started playing together and formed The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band. That band have just released an album called Blue Again!, which is largely comprised of songs that were part of the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac's repertoire.

Speaking to a group of Canadian journalists, Fleetwood says that for him, the project has been about focusing on the excitement of the early days of Fleetwood Mac rather than the sadness of losing Green and Spencer.

"They are all unbelievably great memories," he says. "This is where I learnt to be the player that I turned out to be.

"Peter was, specifically, an incredibly important part of mentoring me in those days. And we became great friends. The sad part is only that I have somewhat lost that connective as a friend. The music entirely inspires me and makes me really aware of these four little English guys. We had such an incredible journey in a very short space of time."

While Fleetwood is still obviously proud of his work with the contemporary Fleetwood Mac line-up, his affection for the original Fleetwood Mac, and by extension, his blues band, is unmistakable. While he's clearly just happy to be playing this kind of music again, he's also proud of the fact that his old friends who haven't been as successful in the later parts of their lives are still getting their props.

"I don't know where it all came from sometimes, but I know there's a regard for how we played music," he says. "We were pretty hardcore and elevated ourselves in our interpretation, which was as loyal as could be to the [American blues artists] that we loved. And looking back on it, I have to say, in a positive way, listening to what we did, it does really hold up. 

"The only thing that baffles me is why I didn't do it many years ago. I don't know. But now that I'm doing it, it makes me extremely happy."

Mick Fleetwood's "Blue Again" cd is in stores today March 17th.

YESTERDAY'S NOT GONE

Fleetwood Mac: Yesterday's not gone
Fleetwood Mac's current jaunt isn't a reunion tour if you accept the notion that the band never actually broke up

Vanessa Farquharson, National Post
Tuesday, March 17, 2009

It's been more than four tumultuous decades of hookups and breakups, arrivals and departures, hits and flops. But, finally, Fleetwood Mac has found some stability within its instability and the band is going on tour to prove it.

The Canadian leg of their Unleashed tour kicks off in Toronto tonight, and band members Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham spoke recently about the state of the band, its place in today's music industry and why they chose to tour without any new material.

"You know, all of the changes we've experienced have been happening since the beginning," said drummer Fleetwood. "Band members have come and gone, but that's just how our story goes. Looking back on it, it hasn't always been easy -- surviving that change is actually somewhat of a miracle -- but it's who we are."

"We never think of ourselves as a band that's broken up," added Buckingham. "We just feel that there are times to be together and times to be apart ... and we take significant periods of time apart. Because of that -- and because we continue to evolve and gain insight and appreciation for the road we've been down and for each other -- the songs can take on a bit of a new life every time we revisit them."

This, in part, is the logic behind hitting the road now, despite not having a new album to promote. And while some may be tempted to simply call it a "greatest hits" tour, the group insisted this isn't entirely accurate.

"It's the first time we've done this," said Fleetwood, "and it'll be refreshing in that we're selecting really emotive, connective songs that we've enjoyed throughout the years, that we hope people will be familiar with.

"I would love to do another album, to make more music, but it ultimately comes down to bio-rhythms, how everyone's feeling. We have careers and families, and it's a different perspective than it was 20 or 30 years ago."

Nicks concurred, adding that as long as a musician keeps playing, regardless of how much new material is written, his or her sound will remain fresh and original. What makes a good concert has less to do with the specific songs and more to do with how they're performed.

In her case, a sense of enthusiasm and originality, at least at this point in her career, comes from alternating between solo work and collaboration.

"It's kind of a blessing and you never get bored that way," she said. "It makes for a more exciting and uplifting humour because you're not stuck doing one thing, year after year."

As well, the constantly shifting dynamic between Fleetwood Mac's band members adds yet another dimension -- after Nicks and Buckingham, who joined the band as a couple, split up, there was a great deal of tension that often had to be mitigated by former member Christine McVie, who was married to the group's bassist John McVie and eventually left the band for good in 1998. Nicks, for the record, insists she doesn't need a buffer anymore.

"Look," said Buckingham, "our mantra is: Have a good time and value the experiences we've had over the years; value the friendships and the history that really underpins this whole band."

CONTINUE

CRASH / LANDSLIDE AVAILABLE TODAY

Stevie's Single "Crash" which includes "Landslide" is available TODAY to purchase through Amazon.com

The "Soundstage Sessions" CD will be released March 31st along with the "Live in Chicago" DVD

SUMMER RE-RELEASE OF RUMOURS

Fleetwood Mac

Rumours still hot

By JANE STEVENSON - Sun Media

Fleetwood Mac expects to hit studio after tour

In addition to Fleetwood Mac's so-called Greatest Hits -- Unleashed Tour (Stevie Nicks describes it "as unleashing a fury which is what Fleetwood Mac is a lot of the time"), the band is also planning a summer re-release of Rumours, as an expanded CD/DVD box set that includes studio outtakes, stills and film.

Drummer Mick Fleetwood points out it's the first time the band has ever gone on the road without a new album but he expects they'll go back into the studio once they've wrapped up their North American tour.

"There have been discussions for sure that we would love to make some more music," Fleetwood said.

"And I think it's really down to the whole sort of bio-rhythms of how everyone is feeling and what's appropriate. ... So I think the feeling is and the consensus is that we would love to be challenged to go out and do in a couple of years something with some new songs.

"My heart says I believe that will happen."

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE IN ROCHESTER

Fleetwood Mac sticks to basics at Rochester show

Jeff Spevak
Staff music critic

DemocratandChronicle

Critic's standard review form (please fill out completely and submit for spelling corrections). Concert: Standard legacy rock act, Fleetwood Mac. When and where? Monday night, Blue Cross Arena. Attendance: About 8,000. Just a few hundred seats empty at the back of the building.

What was the band wearing? Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie sported white shirts, black vests and motorcar caps, like a couple of chaps out for a spin in the English countryside. Fleetwood was also wearing knickers. Guitarist/singer Lindsay Buckingham chose a black leather jacket. Singer Stevie Nicks opted for several outfits, opening with a basic-black Wiccan gown with bat wings, later a wine-colored, sequined Victorian wing-backed chair cover.

What was Christine McVie wearing? Probably flannel pajamas and fuzzy slippers, the standard uniform for a night in front of the telly. She hasn't toured with the band for almost two decades. Three back-up singers filled her backing-vocal parts (and ably supported the husky-voice pixie, Nicks).

Did they play their hit songs? Opened with "Monday Morning." "The Chain," "Rhiannon," "Second-Hand News," "Stand Back," "Say You Love Me," "Go Your Own Way," "Don't Stop." You could have gotten many of them on the CD for $18.99. My ticket cost $149.50 (plus service charge of $11.35).

Continue to full Review

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits Concert at Mohegan Sun

Fleetwood Mac Shines With Greatest-hits Concert At Mohegan Sun

By Kristina Dorsey

TheDay.com

Even bitter breakups can't kill great musical chemistry.

They certainly didn't for Fleetwood Mac, whose hook-ups and bust-ups were well-documented back in the 1970s - and whose intra-band animosity would occasionally bubble up in the years after that.

Now, 32 years after releasing its biggest album, “Rumours,” Mac still bristles with the feisty energy of opposites coexisting. But now they seem to be coexisting happily. During their Saturday concert at Mohegan Sun Arena, the band members emanated a distinct, shared joy.

Central to Mac's success are the quirky contradictions between its two lead singer/songwriters. (Christine McVie, the third singer/songwriter, has retired.) Lindsey Buckingham sparks with edgy intensity. Stevie Nicks swirls with ethereal lyricism. It certainly made for a neat balance Saturday; after Buckingham's screaming guitar on one number, Nicks would swoop in to soothe with a ballad.

Buckingham - who is 59, a year younger than Nicks - performed as if the term “a man possessed” was invented for him. He attacked guitar solos, snapping and pawing at the strings, on “I'm So Afraid” and “Big Love.” He cooed and yelped, injecting each song with fresh emotion. It was heartening to see that he was having a hell of a great time, and so was the audience.

The beauty of this go-round, their first tour in five years, is that there is no new album to promote, so Fleetwood Mac is staging a greatest-hits, fans-dream concert. And Mac isn't merely settling for a musty revival-for-revival's-sake tone. Instead, the band goosed the old songs with fervor and new angles. The once countrified loping cadence of “Second Hand News,” for instance, was sped up and sung by Buckingham with a distinct aggression.

Nicks, too, often toyed with the familiar melodies - sometimes, granted, because she might not be able to hit the high notes like she used to, but often because it made for an intriguing twist.

Nicks' purr is now more of a growl when it comes time to rock, but her voice sounded supple on mellow tunes like “Sara” and “Storms.” And, yes, Nicks rotated through a number of costume changes that inevitably ended up a different variation on her signature look - flowy dark, gypsy-like ensemble, shawl optional.

Much quieter a stage presence was John McVie, but his bass work was sharp as ever. Animated Mick Fleetwood thwacked and swatted the drums in his own inimitable style, especially on that hugely entertaining drum rhythm on “Tusk.”

As if proving that you don't have to repeat history, Nicks and Buckingham worked better and seemed more figuratively in tune as the night went along, and they actually came out for the encores hand-in-hand

BUCKINGHAM NICKS IN FINE FORM (Mohegan Sun Review)

Fleetwood dazzles
Monday, March 16, 2009
By KEVIN O'HARE
Masslive.com

If you're sick of superstar bands going out and playing too many obscure songs during their concerts, then Fleetwood Mac's first tour in five years will hold a whole lot more appeal for you.

The 1970's superstars are out on the road and bringing a truckload of hits with them on their "Unleashed" tour, which was unleashed Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

While the Mac went through plenty of personnel changes during decades of rockin', this tour features four-fifths of their most famous lineup. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, singer Stevie Nicks, and founding fathers Mick Fleetwood on drums on John McVie on bass are all there. Unfortunately the great keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie, who retired from the band in the late 1990s to return home to England, is not back on board for the latest reunion and early rumors that Sheryl Crow would take her place blew up when Crow blabbed about it before the agreement had been finalized.

Nevertheless, there's plenty to like about this tour, which finds Buckingham in particular as well as Nicks out front and in fine form.

With tickets priced between $125 and $175, this wasn't a cheap seat, but the band nevertheless played to a packed house.

Accompanied by two additional musicians and three female backing vocalists, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees opened the two-hour and 20 minute performance with "Monday Morning" before Fleetwood's huge, pounding beat drove "The Chain," and Nicks said it was time to "get this party started" with a crowd-pleasing take of "Dreams."

Early in the concert, Buckingham acknowledged Fleetwood Mac's "convoluted and complex emotional history." It was a supreme understatement for anyone who's followed the band's soap opera-like journey through the decades.

"Because there is no new album to promote - yet," he said, teasing the audience with the implication, "we're just going to do the things that we love and hopefully you love as well."

It appears they succeeded on all levels.

Centered between two of Nicks' signature songs, "Gypsy," and "Rhiannon," Buckingham turned in a drop-dead brilliant "Go Insane," filled with the mesmerizing finger-picking and pure passion that he exhibited nearly every time he stepped into the spotlight Saturday.

"Tusk" started slow and somewhat eerie but built to a huge ending before Nicks brought her raspy lower range into focus for "Sara," while Buckingham offered the high harmonies.

An acoustic triad featuring "Big Love," "Landslide" and "Never Going Back Again," was placed perfectly into the set, which also included a few genuine rarities, including one they had never played live before this tour, 1979's "Storms."

While this is definitely a Buckingham and Nicks kind of tour, they did acknowledge Christine McVie with a sharp arrangement of the latter's "Say You Love Me."

Buckingham's firepower reached staggering heights when he did "Oh Well (Part 1)" from the days when Peter Green played lead guitar for Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham's take brought the house down, as did the follow-up "I'm So Afraid."

The night wound down with highlights that included "Go Your Own Way," and encore faves such as "World Turning," complete with a very amusing tribal drum solo courtesy of Fleetwood; "Don't Stop;" and a moving version of "Silver Springs."

CRAZY FLEETWOOD MAC JOURNEY - Mick Fleetwood Interview

Fleetwood Brings Back Blues And Beats Pop Icons In The Process

ANDPOP.COM
by: Ilan Mester

You may know Mick Fleetwood as a blues artist, a legendary rock drummer or as one of the founders of the Grammy Award winning band Fleetwood Mac. But you may not know that this drummer has his own line of wine and that he recently beat out the Jonas Brothers, Nickelback and Britney Spears on iTunes the day his latest album “Blue Again” became available for download.

In a recent phone conference, Fleetwood reminisced about his blues roots. “We were very much just a formatted blues band,” says Fleetwood. “Our love for the genre of music was extreme.”

As the drummer explained, since Fleetwood Mac started off as a blues band in 1967, he was able to return to his blues roots with “Blue Again.”

And in what he defined as the “crazy Fleetwood Mac journey,” there were members that came and gone, one of them being guitarist/singer Rick Vito. “I got to know him as a player and as a friend,” says Fleetwood of Vito. The two friends worked together on Fleetwood’s album.

“How we got here is really an affinity and a love from Rick and myself with blues music,” says Fleetwood. “And hence ‘Blue Again,’ you know, blues once more.”

The album features new takes of classics like “Looking For Somebody,” “Rattlesnake Shake” and “Black Magic Woman.”

But that’s not all the drummer has going on for him. Fleetwood is currently on the road with Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and John McVie for Fleetwood Mac’s sold-out North American tour — a first in five years.

“We’re right at the beginning of our tour which is going great, and as with anything you’re sort of nurturing some of the technical stuff and the production stuff to make sure everything is going,” tells Fleetwood. “So we try to pay as much attention to that until everything is as right as it can be.”

The tour kicked off on March 1 in Pittsburgh and features seven Canadian dates including Ottawa (March 23), Montreal (March 25), Toronto (March 17 & 26), Calgary (May 12), Edmonton (May 13), and Vancouver (May 15), before wrapping up in San Diego on May 31.

But until then, the band has plenty of shows to put on, and plenty of time to play around with the set list. “As the months go by we may, you know, have fun changing around the set, cause we are blessed with a chunk of excessive amount of songs,” jokes Fleetwood.

He says the set list was carefully thought about, and they made sure to include songs that had never been heard live before. “It’s all about what we’ve thought would be an interesting set, we’re doing ‘Storms’ which we’ve never done on stage.”

The concert will open with the hit “Monday Morning,” a song which they haven’t performed in about 30 years according to Fleetwood.

During the phone conference, Fleetwood also answered the question that’s probably on everyone’s mind: Why did it take them so long to return to the stage as a band?

“We had talked about this probably about 18 months, nearly two years ago and in truth, Lindsey did not put out a double album, he put out two single albums and that sort of put a dent in the planning of the timing of it.”

Fleetwood says this five-year gap worked out for the best, adding they have all “ended up happy and brought that energy” to the stage.

“We’ve all brought sort of things back into Fleetwood Mac, you know, certainly the fact that I’ve been very active playing as a musician, you know, I’ve gotta be in good shape to do this,” Fleetwood admits.

However, he says there was a time period in the 80’s where he ditched practicing to party. “I confess I was so busy sort of galavanting around and partying way too much that [drumming] got put by on the sideline.”

But this has obviously changed today, as the drummer says he’s been playing more today than in his early 30’s.

And when Fleetwood isn’t busy with his music, he’s busy with his wine. The musician has one of the most sold celebrity-branded wines and says that letting go of his wine, is like “letting go of a song or letting go of an album. You do what you feel you can do with hopefully the right integrity.”

For more Mick Fleetwood news visit mickfleetwood.com.

MOST OF THE BIG SPOTLIGHT MOMENTS CAME FROM BUCKINGHAM

Fleetwood Mac Focuses On Familiar In Uncasville
By THOMAS KINTNER
The Courant
March 15, 2009

There is no false pretense to the current Fleetwood Mac reunion tour. With no new album to push, it is a pure nostalgia play, a look back and the band's considerable height of popularity in the 1970s and '80s. At Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville Saturday night, the group focused on precisely that, a parade of hits that retained their accessible appeals even when the people forging them showed signs of wear.

With four of the five members from its commercial heyday on hand, the act leaned heavily on the familiar from the outset, opening with the contoured pop rock of "Monday Morning" as a showcase for guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who recalled the greatest part of his past appeals when barking lyrics. He was the sharpest part of the vocal harmony as he joined with vocalist Stevie Nicks for "The Chain," which John McVie's plump bass line pushed toward its familiar driving finish.

Always a somewhat unconventional vocalist, Nicks retained some of the ragged sweetness that was her hallmark, but made her offerings with limited intonation that stiffened the otherwise fluid pulse of "Dreams." The musical backdrops over which she hovered were sturdy and smooth, strong enough to cover for her flattening the lyrics of "Gypsy" and a brittle reading of the otherwise supple "Rhiannon."

Drummer (and lone original from the band's initial 1967 incarnation) Mick Fleetwood manufactured robust pacing for the likes of the rattling "Second Hand News" and the bounding "Tusk," the latter of which saw its marching band passages replicated by keyboard player Brett Tuggle, one of two support musicians who, along with three vocalists, filled out the show's arrangements.

Alongside such familiar fare as a Nicks/Buckingham acoustic duet on "Landslide" and a jaunt across "Say You Love Me," the show also ranged a bit off the beaten path, forgoing bigger hits (including some sung by the now-retired Christine McVie) for the likes of the flowing ballad "Storms" and the rumbling, propulsive 1969 number "Oh Well." Buckingham and Nicks also dipped into one solo catalog tune apiece; he strummed hard on an acoustic guitar for "Go Insane," while Nicks yelped at the synthesizer backbone of "Stand Back."

Most of the big spotlight moments came from Buckingham, who extended "I'm so Afraid" with an indulgent electric guitar solo, and turned the set closer "Go Your Own Way" into a finale that amounted to little more than everyone else in the band watching him work out. After an initial encore that included a full-bore trip through "Don't Stop," the group returned a second time, stretching its show to two hours and twenty minutes with "Silver Springs," an outtake from its 1977 album "Rumours." The show featured seven other tunes from that popular album, and not a one from the most recent Fleetwood Mac disc in 2003, a tally certainly in keeping with the show's greatest hits theme.

Fleetwood Mac's performance Saturday night included the following songs: "Monday Morning," "The Chain," "Dreams," "I Know I'm not Wrong," "Gypsy," "Go Insane," "Rhiannon," "Second Hand News," "Tusk," "Sara," "Big Love," "Landslide," "Never Going Back Again," "Storms," "Say You Love Me," "Gold Dust Woman," "Oh Well," "I'm so Afraid," "Stand Back," "Go Your Own Way," (Encore) "World Turning," "Don't Stop," (2nd Encore) "Silver Springs."

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC LIT UP LONG ISLAND

Fleetwood Mac Lights Up Nassau Coliseum on Long Island
by Debora Toth - Examiner

Four of the five original members of Fleetwood Mac lit up Long Island's Nassau Coliseum on March 13, 2009 during their one-night show in Hempstead. Embarking on their first concert tour in five years, the group chose to call the tour "Unleashed", which was a perfect description for the crisp, focused vocals and solid musicianship displayed on the stage. Without having to support a new album, the group was able to play all of the crowd's favorite hits and show off each member's unique personality.  Stepping to the front of the stage where they produced highlight vocals and sincere duets were former-couple Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Long parted, the two produced many fine memborable moments during the evening. Toward the end of the sweetly-sung "Sara", Nicks walked toward Buckingham on stage and let him lay his head on her shoulder as he smiled at the audience. During many of their songs, they earnestly looked toward at each other, giving the audience an up-close view into the dynamics of this duo. Before she sang "Landslide", Nicks told the crowd that she was switching from dedicating the song to her father to dedicating to Alicia Keys, "one of the most talented artists out there." On "Tusk", Buckingham started slow and quietly by singing, "Why don't you tell me who was on the phone; Why don't you tell me what's going on," then put all of his emotions into the song's refrain with wrenching animal cries that fit into Fleetwood's drum beat.  Throughout the show, Mick Fleetwood kept the band cooking with fine drumming while the audience was kept amused with his bug-eyed expressions or teasing facial tics. During one of the final songs, World Turning, Fleetwood was given a drum solo to display why he is still considered one of the leading drummers in the world. Fittingly, as the founding member of the group, it was Fleetwood who introduced everyone on stage, even "Stephanie" Nicks, better known to all of us as Stevie. He called John McVie his partner in crime and joked about how they've been playing together for 40 years.  John McVie was the more reticent member of the group. Even with a spotlight showing on him all night long, he remained toward the back of the stage, playing bass, but never making eye contact with the crowd or any of his band mates.  Missing from the group was Christine McVie, who has retired from the stage. Her vocals were replaced in the song she wrote "Say You Love Me" by a solid duet between Nicks and Buckingham. These two, plus Mick Fleetwood, carried the night with strong voices, incredible guitar and drum work, and an unabashed love for the audience, which was sent right back to the legendary group. The evening ended on a high note with the upbeat "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" anthem giving everyone a positive lift to a very positive show.