REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac at Madison Square Garden Unleashed Tour

Fleetwood Mac's Golden Oldies are Aging Just Fine

New York Daily News
BY JIM FARBER
DAILY NEWS MUSIC CRITIC
Photo: Loud/Getty

Family dynamics never cease to fascinate us - especially ones with histories as incestuous as Fleetwood Mac's.

It should surprise no one, then, that the band's show at Madison Square Garden last night proved as musically vital, and as alive with subtext, as ever. This, despite the fact that the band had no new music to play, instead drawing most of the material from wells filled more than 30 years ago.

Opening with 1975's jubilant "Monday Morning," the band's remaining four main members wove through a two hour and 20 minute set that functioned as a nearly unbroken greatest hits medley.

The current "Unleashed" tour represents the band's second since singer/songwriter Christine McVie bailed. So, naturally, the defection has thrown a harder light on the complex interplay between Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

Their songs threaded in and out of each other at last night's show just as the lives of these former lovers have. "Gypsy," Nicks' tale of emotional independence, played off Buckingham's admission of neurotic excess, "Go Insane" - together serving as an on-going public confession of their mutual needs and deficiencies.

In "The Chain," the two harmonized about family bonds in a way that communicated less loyalty than threat. "You'll never break the chain," they brayed at each other. Consider these guys the original "reality show."

The loss of McVie has robbed the group - which also features John McVie and Mick Fleetwood - of its most diplomatic voice. And she was missed on the few numbers that originally featured her, like "Say You Love Me."

But as a happy consequence, the band rocked harder and found more room for Buckingham's fiendish guitar work. His obsessive arpeggios gave a richly tactile feel to "Big Love," while in "I'm So Afraid," he mined deep blues hues.

The group kept things frisky by tweaking the arrangements and the harmonies in many songs.

Buckingham delivered some with newly emphatic inflections.

But the night's emotional highlight struck a tender note. When Nicks sang her song of age and humility, "Landslide," she read the line "I'm getting older, too," with an acceptance that showed not an ounce of regret.

Some families, it seems, only grow more sure with age.

LANKY STICKS MAN BEHIND FLEETWOOD MAC

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Montreal Mirror

It’s not often you get a chance to talk to a legend, and the rather lanky sticks man behind Fleetwood Mac, Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famer Mick Fleetwood, is indeed a card-carrying member in the legendary set, having cut his teeth during the British blues explosion of the mid-’60s with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and then of course recording one of the biggest selling records of all time in 1977, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.

Now in his sixties, Fleetwood is feeling a little bit nostalgic these days, having managed to get Fleetwood Mac’s most famous line-up back on the road (well, almost—keyboardist Christine McVie chose to tend to her garden instead). Fleetwood’s on the cusp of seeing the Rumours deluxe edition re-released, and releasing the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band’s Blue Again!, which revisits all the original Fleetwood Mac blues classics.

“I really have nothing but amazing joy when I think of those days,” says Fleetwood. “We had such an amazing journey in such a short space of time, it blows my mind. I still consider myself more of a bluesman than a pop star and I think that the music we made back then still really holds up.”

CONTINUE

PHOTOS: Fleetwood Mac - June 11, 12009 - New York City

Debra L Rothenberg Photos

Mick Fleetwood makes an appearance at Barnes & Noble

TODAY - 12 NOON - NEW YORK CITY

Rock legend Mick Fleetwood makes an appearance at Barnes & Noble on Fifth Ave. Probably best known for his contributions to the band, Fleetwood Mac, this time the rocker appears solo to promote his newest album “Blue Again.” The album was released on March 17 and features several collaborations. 12 Noon; free admission. 555 Fifth Ave. (212-697-3048).

REVIEW: Monday Morning Launched The Show - Fleetwood Mac Live in Toronto

FLEETWOOD MAC

AIR CANADA CENTRE

TORONTO, CANADA - March 17, 2009

REVIEWED BY:CONCERTAHOLICS.COM

Monday Morning launched the show off followed by The Chain and Dreams. Lindsey showed his strong presence early here in the show… his unique vocals and of course his guitar mastery. I wasn’t expecting to hear “Gypsy” and it was real cool to experience as it totally brought me back to the early 80’s. Think about how many times you heard that tune on the radio back then?

FULL REVIEW

FLICKR PICS

BUCKINGHAM NICKS STILL HAVE TENSION, LOVE

Exerpts from a CNN Interview....

Mac's Buckingham, Nicks still have tension, love

Full Interview Here
Video segment

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Most musicians don't like doing interviews at their homes. It's much too private. Stevie Nicks, however, has no problem inviting journalists to her big colonial house in Pacific Palisades, half a mile above the California coastline.

"It's just easier," she confides.

Perhaps that's true. But after three decades in the public eye, she really has nothing to hide. Fans know all about her fabled history with Fleetwood Mac -- in particular, her tumultuous relationship with the band's prodigal guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham.

Even hovering around age 60, they are yin and yang. Buckingham is spirited and hot -- in sharp contrast to Nicks' eternal cool. The tension that fueled such songs as "The Chain," "Dreams" and "Go Your Own Way" in the late '70s is still palpable -- and they seem to return to it instinctively, like muscle memory.

But these days, there's also a certain acceptance and understanding.

Along with bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Buckingham and Nicks are back on the road with Fleetwood Mac for their first tour in five years. It's a celebration of their greatest hits, as well as 30 years together as a group. During our interview, Buckingham and Nicks reminisced about how their rocky relationship became immortalized in their music -- while Buckingham's wife Kristen snapped photos six feet away.

CNN: This is the first Fleetwood Mac tour in five years.

Stevie Nicks: We don't like comebacks. We don't make comebacks. We're not making a comeback. We never went away.

Lindsey Buckingham: Every time we get together, it's like a whole new group of people.

CNN: People have always been fascinated by the dynamic between the members of Fleetwood Mac. You guys lived together, worked together, wrote songs about each other and dated each other.

Buckingham: I think if the media (paparazzi) had existed in 1977 when we were going through break-ups within the band and still moving forward on a professional level, the tabloidism that exists today would have probably eaten us alive.

Nicks: Let's use Britney Spears as an example, poor little thing. In our day, I think that the audiences revered their rock stars -- and I say that with all respect -- that our audiences cared about us, and took care of us and would never have put us under that kind of danger. I would have been a very unpleasant star if people treated me the way people treat the kids that are out there now. If I had to feel that somebody was waiting for me every time I came out, I would never leave the house. I hardly leave the house, as it is!

CNN: What do you think about, Stevie, when you are out there on stage and you hear "Go Your Own Way?" Does it bring back memories of what you were going through at the time -- because that song was about you, wasn't it?

Nicks: I think.

CNN: Lindsey?

Buckingham: Indeed, it was. Yeah, completely autobiographical. You know, the funny thing was I don't think we were aware we were writing songs specifically to each other. It was really only when our audience picked up on it that it became obvious we were dealing with a completely transparent, autobiographical piece of work.

Nicks: If Lindsey and I had been happy, happy, happy, there would have been no "Go Your Own Way." It would have just been, "Here we are -- happy, happy." And the audience would have been like, "OK, well -- next couple."

So you know, we played off of it. We had fun with it. We could actually walk on stage and have our own little almost-love affair, and have the audience go, "Oh my God! They're getting back together!" And we'd be like, "They're falling for it!" You know, we would totally play it, and we did, and we do, and we always will.

CNN: You both recently completed solo projects. Lindsey, you have your solo album, "Gift of Screws," and Stevie, there's an upcoming CD and DVD ("The Soundstage Sessions" and "Live in Chicago," respectively).

Nicks: We've been lucky. You do Fleetwood Mac, and then you work on your own stuff, and then you do Fleetwood Mac and then you work on your own stuff. As much as I love my solo work, I'm a little bored with it, so I can put that away in its magical box and I can go straight into working with three of my favorite people in the whole world.

Fleetwood Mac is bigger than anything Lindsey and I solo-wise will ever do. I never rented a 737 jet for my solo tour. So now we get to be grand, and at the end of the tour, it's kisses for everybody and goodbye. Go do your own thing, and we'll meet up again in two or three years.