Recap: Stevie Nicks performs to sold-out crowd at Ruoff Music Center
Photos by Lora Olive
The rock ‘n’ roll legend played a career-spanning set of hits in front of the 23,000 fans on hand.
Following a headlining appearance on Sunday, June 19 at Bonnaroo, Stevie Nicks made her way to Ruoff Music Center on Tuesday, June 21, in Noblesville on what was a steamy night in Central Indiana.
Over the course of her 16-song set, Nicks touched on standout selections from her time in Fleetwood Mac as well as her solo career. A prime example of this came with the concert’s opening pair of tunes, as Nicks and her band smoothly transitioned from “Outside the Rain” (from Nick’s 1981 solo debut Bella Donna) into “Dreams” (from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours).
Known for her patented cape, Nicks shared with the audience that the first cape she wore on stage at Ruoff Music Center was the original one she bought back in her solo Bella Donna days.
At the age of 74, Nicks proved time and time again that her voice has aged like the finest of wines, with one chilling vocal performance after the next.
Despite being an otherworldly rock god to some, Nicks brought her show back down to earth a few times throughout the night, often sharing personal anecdotes in the fashion of an endearing aunt.
Nicks’ performed several standouts from her first two solo records. One particular solo Stevie sequence that really stood out in the set came when Nicks and her band played “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” followed by “Enchanted.”
“I know when I see 23,000 gypsies,” Nicks said at one point of the night, commenting on the sold-out crowd on hand at Ruoff Music Center.
Nicks made sure to touch on all of iconic Fleetwood Mac gems she played a big part in. Perhaps the most memorable of these instances came when Stevie and her band performed a towering rendition of the classic Rumours song “Gold Dust Woman.”
In what she referred to as the night’s lone “serious” point, Nicks performed her 2011 song “Soldier’s Angel” in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Nicks closed out her initial set with her classic song “Edge of Seventeen.” Throughout this performance, photos of Prince also scrolled across the stage’s backdrop, subtly referencing how “Edge of Seventeen” inspired Prince to write his timeless classic “When Doves Cry.”
Upon returning to the stage for their encore, Nicks and her band got right to work, paying tribute to Tom Petty with their cover of “Free Fallin’” followed by another Fleetwood Mac classic in “Rhiannon.” To cap off the show, Stevie gave Ruoff Music Center one final display of her vocal prowess, belting out Led Zeppelin’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll” before sending fans out into the night.
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