According to Mick at the end of the last night's return to Madison Square Garden; funny, I didn't think they had gone anywhere. Nor did I particularly feel like I was missing them in any significant way.
I'm a huge Fleetwood Mac fan and their albums Tusk (!!) and Rumors are on my regular listening rotation. Well, last night's concert was particularly focused on the hits (and, for Rumors, pretty much the entire record was played, except MIA Christine McVie's big tunes). It's pretty remarkable to look at this band's six full-length studio albums (I do not count 1980's Fleetwood Mac Live or 1997's reunion The Dance) and marvel at just how many songs we know by heart from this band. Nearly every song was greeted with a cheer of recognition - and there were more than 25 on the setlist!!
In their early 60s now, Buckingham and Stevie continue to play out their school-kid crush melodrama out on each other despite a break-up that happened nearly 30 years ago; Buckingham's young child and (presumably secure) wife were in the house (he dedicated the sole Tango In The Night track "Big Love" to them). For two and a half hours, my childhood soundtrack was played by a group of senior citizens in decidedly lower keys, decidedly slower twirling, and it was pretty terrific. The absolute highlights for me were Stevie's "Storms" (first tour ever - they have now performed all five of Stevie's songs from Tusk live in concert over the years!) and "Gold Dust Woman".
Watching the pair work the crowd was a study in contrasts: Buckingham is clearly the idiot savant who is also decidedly more neurotic and desperate for love; he's also had a lot of therapy and meanders in his monologues about songs being mere "echoes" of the past. Nicks, on the other hand, is a legend, pulls in the crowds, and knows it; she's barely breaking a sweat. And when the two gypsies DO interact on stage, it has the spontaneity of an "American Idol" episode. Still, when she started wailing away on the show closer "Silver Springs" (cut from Rumors, but featured on 1997's The Dance and now a huge concert hit for the band - revenge must taste like cherries, Stevie!), it is quite easy to clutch the person next to you and remember loves lost and hope for the love just down the road.
Mick and John McVie just look happy they're getting paid.
What's with those dangling balls, Mick?!?!
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