10-22-18 St. Paul, Minnesota videos & reviews

[vivfox]

Little Lies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ambl0ZpvpBU

The Chain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFSM3ZYJj6k

Second Hand News:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-OfMTEwhYo

[Keith]

Isn't It Midnight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ambl0ZpvpBU

The Chain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFSM3ZYJj6k

Second Hand News:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-OfMTEwhYo

Thanks as always for sharing the videos from YouTube. fyi, "Isn't It Midnight?" is actually a nice version of "Everywhere" which was a nice treat to enjoy this morning. Thanks again - I love all the videos from the tour!

[gldstwmn]

I saw Fleetwood Mac with my ex-boyfriend’s secret girlfriend
I got a Facebook notification in July from a stranger named Katie.

“This message is a long time coming,” she began. “I think you deserve to know that [REDACTED] was not honest to me about how you met or your relationship. If you'd like to talk about this more in person or wherever, no hard feelings and beers are on me.”

The text thread that followed went on for hours, but here’s the upshot: My then-partner and Katie had been together a few months longer than my then-partner and I had. Both of us had been in the dark about the other, and we uncovered an extended, elaborate, and honestly impressive web of lies meant to obscure the other’s relationship. It sure was… something.

Katie, it turned out, was also cool as hell, and we had a lot in common: just a couple of femmes who were into bikes and Hamm’s and ’80s punk. We both had two cats, we both loved monster trucks and @dasharez0ne—and Stevie Nicks. And eventually, she said those 19 little words every recently cucked gal who just learned her “relationship” is actually a half-year con longs to hear: “So the real question now is: Are we going to Fleetwood Mac together since I'm repossessing [REDACTED’S] birthday ticket?”

Obviously.

Show me a more metaphorically on-the-nose group than the one that penned Rumours to soundtrack a friendship forged in such a strange emotional chaos. Telling your girlfriend you’re spending the day at Mom’s when actually you’re at an amusement park with your other girlfriend? How very Christine McVie telling John that “You Make Loving Fun” was about her dog. The primal, wounded anguish of “Go Your Own Way”? That’s finding out about the aforementioned lie(s), and asking a one-time partner to kindly **** off forever outside of your favorite bar. “Don’t Stop” is the willful optimism you’ll perform in the weeks that follow.

Months after meeting, Katie and I heard all those tracks and then some last night at the Xcel Energy Center, during a marathon Fleetwood Mac set.

There’s been lots of speculation following Lindsey Buckingham’s abrupt firing earlier this year—I don’t have to tell you Fleetwood drama in no way stopped post-Rumours—about what his absence would mean. Would the Lindsey-less lineup trot out his tracks? Would a more-is-better approach—subbing in Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and former Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell—help fill Buck’s black blazer? Will it still be worth it?

The answer is yes, to everything.

These songs, spread over two and a half hours, sound as good as I can imagine them sounding. The first notes of opener “The Chain” have a direct line to the heart even now. The harmonies on every “Rhiannon” chorus will make you shudder, then decide to start a coven. “Black Magic Woman”—best known as a Santana song, yes, but written by Mac’s Peter Green—sung by Stevie and retold through a female lens instead of a man’s, is owned entirely, of course, making you wish it had been that way to start.

And Nicks must have black magic in her pocket—how else could her voice sound so incredible? Somehow better with time, as warm and tough and soft as worn leather, and as comfortable to slide back over yourself no matter the year?

Some of the show has aged less gracefully, sure. The fractal ’90s video effects playing behind the band, for instance. And Mick Fleetwood’s extended, obligatory solo during “World Turning,” with the camera zooming in on his passionate-but-terrifying eyeballs as his body repeats outward toward infinity, recalls a Tim and Eric segment. But people were… into it? I… think?

Does it stack up to the Mac’s glory days? I mean, hard for me—a 27-year-old catching them for the first time in 2018—to say. (Hey, if you clicked a story with the headline "I saw Fleetwood Mac with my ex-boyfriend’s secret girlfriend" expecting a note-by-note unpacking of Finn’s harmonizing vs. Buckingham’s, I really can’t help you.)

I can tell you they’re sure as hell going to make you feel something.

Fleetwood Mac’s always been more about the women for me anyway. “The Christine McVie songs are some of my favorites,” Katie says during “Say You Love Me,” because of course they are. And the lionization of McVie and Nicks in the classic rock canon, in an era when so few women got any recognition, says to me that’s true for a lot of people.

I recognize Buckingham wrote an awful lot of classic songs, but, respectfully, those songs have already been written. What’s left to do now is get out on the road and play them. For someone like me who’s clearly quite adept at taking other people’s anguish and making it about their own life, the thesis of the show couldn’t have been more clear: Sometimes you just have to keep moving.

Which is exactly what Nicks told Rolling Stone earlier this year, after announcing the split with Buckingham. They were supposed to rehearse for this six-month behemoth of a tour in June, and he wanted to wait until November 2019. “That’s a long time,” she said. “I just did 70 shows [on a solo tour]. As soon as I finish one thing, I dive back into another. Why would we stop? We don’t want to stop playing music. We don’t have anything else to do. This is what we do.”

I had to marvel at these musicians, who have weathered so much together throughout their 40-plus year career. Aw, was a bartender you met last year dishonest with you about his feelings? I could just see Stevie shrugging beneath her shawl, then playing the world’s saddest song on the world’s smallest tambourine.

Every tortured lyric said: “Buck(ingham) up, buttercup—it can get a whole lot weirder and worse. We took our emotional trauma and aired it publicly, turning possibly the worst romantic implosion a group of people has traversed collectively into some of the best records of all time. What are you going to do with yours?”

Turn it into a “review” of a Fleetwood Mac show at city pages dot com for starters, I guess.

Click here to see a photo slideshow of Fleetwood Mac rockin', twirlin', and groovin' in St. Paul

Critics' bias: Spent a chunk of summer 2018 in a confused emotional haze withTusk on repeat. Once got drunk on New Year’s Eve and tweeted this.

The crowd: A good amount of beautiful people in black lace and gingham and hats. Also plenty of gray-haired guys in jackets promoting various Midwestern construction companies. This is a mix I’d like to see more of.

Random notebook dump: We’re entering peak spooky season, and I have to say, Stevie… might get more powerful the closer it is to All Hallow’s Eve? Possible unfair advantage, idk.

Setlist

The Chain
Little Lies
Dreams
Second Hand News
Say You Love Me
Black Magic Woman
Everywhere
I Got You (Split Enz cover)
Rhiannon
Tell Me All the Things You Do
World Turning
Gypsy
Oh Well
Don’t Dream It’s Over (Crowded House cover)
Landslide
Isn’t It Midnight
Monday Morning
You Make Loving Fun
Gold Dust Woman
Go Your Own Way

Encore
Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty cover)
Don't Stop
All Over Again

http://www.citypages.com/music/i-saw-fleetwood-mac-with-my-ex-boyfriends-secret-girlfriend/498307331

[gldstwmn]

Fleetwood Mac soldiers through St. Paul concert without guitarist Lindsey Buckingham
The Hall of Famers were revitalized by two new replacements.

The elephant wasn’t in the room but you sensed his presence all night long anyway.

No, guitarist/singer/producer Lindsey Buckingham got kicked out of Fleetwood Mac this year, but it was obvious who was getting under Stevie Nicks’ skin when she came out of her trippy, enigmatic dance during “Gold Dust Woman” Monday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

She approached the microphone again, tugged tightly at her spangly gold shawl and started purging in song from deep inside her psyche: “You can’t save me now. You did this to me. You can’t fix me. You can’t fake me out. You can’t save me. You can’t blame me. You can’t change me. You can’t do it.”

Talk about shattering your illusions of Fleetwood Mac.

Fleetwood Mac without Lindsey Buckingham is sort of like the Twins without Joe Mauer. He’s been there forever, right? The band, like the baseball team and Mauer, existed before Buckingham joined in 1975 and still carries on without him.

In their 10th show since booting Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac took a while to find its footing. Oddly enough, it was a cover that sparked Nicks and the rest of the band. Neil Finn, who along with Mike Campbell has replaced Buckingham, was reprising his hit from Split Enz, “I Got You,” and Nicks was relishing vocalizing as if she was in her Los Angeles mansion singing along to MTV in 1982.

Then it was time for “Rhiannon,” perhaps the Steviest of Nicks songs, and she became Stevie Nicks, all bewitching mystery, dangling scarves, shiny beads and mesmerizing vocals. Her voice was clear, she seemed focused and, for a rarity in Fleetwood Mac, relaxed. Refreshed, too.

Nicks and the band — the veterans range in age from 70 to 75 — seemed revitalized by the addition of Finn and Campbell of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, who represent guitarists No. 11 and 12 in Fleetwood Mac’s long history. (No, the unofficial record for replacements in one band is held by Spinal Tap’s drum seat. Google it.)

The new players helped to open up the Big Mac catalog, which, of course, dates back to the band’s beginning in 1967 in England. That gave Campbell, 68, an underappreciated guitarist in his Petty days, an opportunity to exercise his blues vocabulary, painting “Black Magic Woman” with a heavier brush than Carlos Santana used on his famous cover version and turning “Oh Well” into something swell if you welcome a Led Zeppelin feel.

The crowd of nearly 14,000 was thrilled to hear Campbell’s signature work on Petty’s “Free Fallin,” which featured the liberating lead vocals of Nicks, the world’s biggest Petty fan. New Zealand’s Finn, 60, who has a Paul McCartney vibe about him, did a lovely understated reading of “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” the 1986 hit by his other band, Crowded House. With his assertive tenor, he was a good surrogate for Buckingham’s vocals on such Mac favorites as “Second Hand News” and “Go Your Own Way.”

His acoustic guitar was all the reassurance Nicks needed to turn “Landslide” — her reflections about the fear of moving on from a relationship because, as she sings, she’d built her life around him — into one of the highlights of the 140-minute concert. As she has often done in the Twin Cities, she dedicated the song to her “one and only husband,” Kim Anderson, who was in attendance with his girlfriend of 30 years. “Minneapolis, St. Paul — quite a place in my heart forever,” she proclaimed as the fans cheered loud and long.

Always a crowd favorite, this tune seemed to have new resonance on this night. It was so obvious that she’s moved on from the elephant in the room.

http://www.startribune.com/fleetwood-mac-soldiers-on-without-guitarist/498275911/

[gldstwmn]

Dreams:
https://youtu.be/dyQ80lKfzFI

Little Lies:
https://youtu.be/NEFGLEtOCLo

[aleuzzi]

Fleetwood Mac soldiers through St. Paul concert without guitarist Lindsey Buckingham
The Hall of Famers were revitalized by two new replacements.

The elephant wasn’t in the room but you sensed his presence all night long anyway.

No, guitarist/singer/producer Lindsey Buckingham got kicked out of Fleetwood Mac this year, but it was obvious who was getting under Stevie Nicks’ skin when she came out of her trippy, enigmatic dance during “Gold Dust Woman” Monday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

She approached the microphone again, tugged tightly at her spangly gold shawl and started purging in song from deep inside her psyche: “You can’t save me now. You did this to me. You can’t fix me. You can’t fake me out. You can’t save me. You can’t blame me. You can’t change me. You can’t do it.”

Talk about shattering your illusions of Fleetwood Mac.

Fleetwood Mac without Lindsey Buckingham is sort of like the Twins without Joe Mauer. He’s been there forever, right? The band, like the baseball team and Mauer, existed before Buckingham joined in 1975 and still carries on without him.

In their 10th show since booting Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac took a while to find its footing. Oddly enough, it was a cover that sparked Nicks and the rest of the band. Neil Finn, who along with Mike Campbell has replaced Buckingham, was reprising his hit from Split Enz, “I Got You,” and Nicks was relishing vocalizing as if she was in her Los Angeles mansion singing along to MTV in 1982.

Then it was time for “Rhiannon,” perhaps the Steviest of Nicks songs, and she became Stevie Nicks, all bewitching mystery, dangling scarves, shiny beads and mesmerizing vocals. Her voice was clear, she seemed focused and, for a rarity in Fleetwood Mac, relaxed. Refreshed, too.

Nicks and the band — the veterans range in age from 70 to 75 — seemed revitalized by the addition of Finn and Campbell of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, who represent guitarists No. 11 and 12 in Fleetwood Mac’s long history. (No, the unofficial record for replacements in one band is held by Spinal Tap’s drum seat. Google it.)

The new players helped to open up the Big Mac catalog, which, of course, dates back to the band’s beginning in 1967 in England. That gave Campbell, 68, an underappreciated guitarist in his Petty days, an opportunity to exercise his blues vocabulary, painting “Black Magic Woman” with a heavier brush than Carlos Santana used on his famous cover version and turning “Oh Well” into something swell if you welcome a Led Zeppelin feel.

The crowd of nearly 14,000 was thrilled to hear Campbell’s signature work on Petty’s “Free Fallin,” which featured the liberating lead vocals of Nicks, the world’s biggest Petty fan. New Zealand’s Finn, 60, who has a Paul McCartney vibe about him, did a lovely understated reading of “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” the 1986 hit by his other band, Crowded House. With his assertive tenor, he was a good surrogate for Buckingham’s vocals on such Mac favorites as “Second Hand News” and “Go Your Own Way.”

His acoustic guitar was all the reassurance Nicks needed to turn “Landslide” — her reflections about the fear of moving on from a relationship because, as she sings, she’d built her life around him — into one of the highlights of the 140-minute concert. As she has often done in the Twin Cities, she dedicated the song to her “one and only husband,” Kim Anderson, who was in attendance with his girlfriend of 30 years. “Minneapolis, St. Paul — quite a place in my heart forever,” she proclaimed as the fans cheered loud and long.

Always a crowd favorite, this tune seemed to have new resonance on this night. It was so obvious that she’s moved on from the elephant in the room.

http://www.startribune.com/fleetwood-mac-soldiers-on-without-guitarist/498275911/

Apparently, Christine, Mick and John aren't worth mentioning in the review, underscoring the perception that this tour is seen by many as "Stevie Nicks and Players"...

[gldstwmn]

Whole show:
https://youtu.be/B0jgcSdFiyo

This guy posts a lot on Dime too so for those of you who have been looking for a complete show it will probably show up there if it's not already there.

[gldstwmn]

Apparently, Christine, Mick and John aren't worth mentioning in the review, underscoring the perception that this tour is seen by many as "Stevie Nicks and Players"...

He seemed a bit too focused on Stevie I thought. I know he didn't say this but it was almost like he thought they should play Black Magic Woman the way Santana did. :confused: Maybe he wasn't very aware of the history of the band prior to 1975 or isn't a big fan of it? Anyway I do want to watch GDW now that I've read his take on it.

[vivfox]

Thanks as always for sharing the videos from YouTube. fyi, "Isn't It Midnight?" is actually a nice version of "Everywhere" which was a nice treat to enjoy this morning. Thanks again - I love all the videos from the tour!

Thank God you discovered my mistake but now in doing so I discovered yours. LOL. It's not Isn't It Midnight or Everywhere! It's Little Lies. Hahahahhahahhhaaaa. For realz tho. Go listen.:laugh:

[vivfox]

Whole show:
https://youtu.be/B0jgcSdFiyo

Now this is really effing cool.

[Hawkeye]

Now this is really effing cool.

YEA It Is!!! And the angle is great and most of all the attention to the whole band and not just Stevie is great.

Black Magic Woman keeps getting better and better. And Christine is 100 percent playing the solo. Peterson’s hands are clearly off the keyboard during part of the solo and piano is coming through loud and clear. Not only is she playing but she’s clearly enjoying the **** out of playing the song. I’ve never seen her foot tap so much.

[HejiraNYC]

YEA It Is!!! And the angle is great and most of all the attention to the whole band and not just Stevie is great.

Black Magic Woman keeps getting better and better. And Christine is 100 percent playing the solo. Peterson’s hands are clearly off the keyboard during part of the solo and piano is coming through loud and clear. Not only is she playing but she’s clearly enjoying the **** out of playing the song. I’ve never seen her foot tap so much.

Ugh, I can't stand the tin-hatters here posting all of those conspiracy theories about Christine being so frail and arthritic and unable to play keyboards. :rolleyes: Ricky Peterson seems to be adding little flourishes here and there (or playing when Christine is standing at the mic) but the heavy lifting is clearly being done by Christine. That being said, she was clearly not playing on a few songs during the LB/CM tour last year, so that remains a bit of a head scratcher.

[Sugar Mouse]

Whole show:
https://youtu.be/B0jgcSdFiyo

This guy posts a lot on Dime too so for those of you who have been looking for a complete show it will probably show up there if it's not already there.

Love the banter between Neil and Stevie before they play "I Got You" at about the 35 minute mark of the video. Stevie goes on about how much she loved the song back in 1980 and how big a hit it was in America. And Neil jokes how happy he is about that ... very cute.

[jwd]

Whole show:
https://youtu.be/B0jgcSdFiyo

This guy posts a lot on Dime too so for those of you who have been looking for a complete show it will probably show up there if it's not already there.


So this is the first chance I've had to see a full length clip of TMATTYD. And a close up of Chris playing, really playing (around 49:40). Quality of video and sound could be better, but not bad. They do a good job on the song.

[ali101]

So this is the first chance I've had to see a full length clip of TMATTYD. And a close up of Chris playing, really playing (around 49:40). Quality of video and sound could be better, but not bad. They do a good job on the song.

Yes it’s interesting to see the musical integration of Chris and Mike on this one. His guitar style fits the old tracks. Seems to work pretty well. It would have been nice to have the additional harmony of Stevie on there also in a similar vein to the old stuff from the first few years after BN such as Why, Station Man, Spare me a Little.
They rock along though.

[jwd]

Yes it’s interesting to see the musical integration of Chris and Mike on this one. His guitar style fits the old tracks. Seems to work pretty well. It would have been nice to have the additional harmony of Stevie on there also in a similar vein to the old stuff from the first few years after BN such as Why, Station Man, Spare me a Little.
They rock along though.

Absolutely. If he were only replacing Danny or Bob, or even Peter after their departures, I'd be more than happy with him in FM. If there are any bones to throw the Rumours 5 fans, he'd be one of them, at least in my eyes.

If there's one song that I'm really enjoying on this tour, it'd have to be TMATTYD. Could be the closest you're ever going to get to the live performance of the song without Danny actually being there and playing it himself.

[sleepless child]

Great to have a whole show to watch. The band does seem to be having a good time onstage.

Chris is so much more animated then she ever was. She and Mike have a nice repore. Neil and Stevie do also.

I still wish Storms and Hypnotized were still in the set. Cut back on the World Turning drum solo if it's a time issue. Or keep Gypsy and drop Storms but no Hypnotized. Drop a Lindsey song instead. If they are going to honor past members, that was a poor thing to do to Bob Welch. It's a pretty well known song in FM circles. I like Black Magic Woman better than I thought I would. And I love TMATTYD. Don't drop that one.

John seems almost invisible. Not much interaction there. I guess it's just him or maybe he is missing Lindsey. Obviously no one else on stage seems to be.

I still hate what happened though and wish they could have worked things out, I miss Lindsey even though Neil and especially Mike are doing a good job. It's just not the same Mac to me.

[missundercover]

Whole show:
https://youtu.be/B0jgcSdFiyo

This guy posts a lot on Dime too so for those of you who have been looking for a complete show it will probably show up there if it's not already there.

Just watched this and I loved it! Can't wait for June next year.

The start with 'The chain' and the end with 'All over again' really made me nostalgic though. Chain really IS broken and having the remaining four close the show. Ahhhhh... feels so wrong.

Mike and Neil do a great job, but... sigh.

[lovethemac1]

Just watched this and I loved it! Can't wait for June next year.

The start with 'The chain' and the end with 'All over again' really made me nostalgic though. Chain really IS broken and having the remaining four close the show. Ahhhhh... feels so wrong.

Mike and Neil do a great job, but... sigh.

I haven't been able to watch, but to read your post made the tears flow. I'm still so heartbroken that what I consider MY band is broken. It just breaks my heart. Nope, not "just getting over it" fast at all. Not sure I ever will.:distress:

[aleuzzi]

Ugh, I can't stand the tin-hatters here posting all of those conspiracy theories about Christine being so frail and arthritic and unable to play keyboards. :rolleyes: Ricky Peterson seems to be adding little flourishes here and there (or playing when Christine is standing at the mic) but the heavy lifting is clearly being done by Christine. That being said, she was clearly not playing on a few songs during the LB/CM tour last year, so that remains a bit of a head scratcher.

I was surprised by how much she is playing and how much of her playing I can hear. It was refreshing and heartening because she appeared to be using the keyboard as a prop on the LB/CM tour.

She also sounded quite good vocally throughout this concert, with the occasional wobble—which is nothing new.

[gldstwmn]

Neil Finn and Mike Campbell bring fresh energy to revitalized Fleetwood Mac
1:14 pm | UPDATED: October 23, 2018 at 7:55 am

When we last saw Fleetwood Mac in 2014, Christine McVie had returned to the band after a 16-year break, fully reuniting the “Rumours”-era lineup. After decades of drama, it seemed there was finally peace in the group as they made plans for this year’s outing to serve as their farewell.

But in April, the band shocked the world by firing Lindsey Buckingham and replacing him with guitarist Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and vocalist Neil Finn (of Split Enz and Crowded House). Earlier this month, Buckingham responded by suing the band he fronted for decades. Drama!

This new version of Fleetwood Mac headlined St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center Monday night for a crowd of more than 13,000 eager to hear what Stevie Nicks told the crowd was their “new adventure.”

The good news is that Buckingham’s absence appears to have given the core members a second wind, with Nicks in particular looking happier than she’s ever been in the group. And, crucially, Campbell and Finn didn’t try to imitate Buckingham, but instead brought fresh energy to the stage.

Fleetwood Mac concerts over the past two decades have offered an at-times chilly professionalism, especially those without Christine McVie. But Monday night, there was a sense of uncertainty in the best possible sense. The vibe felt like “Yeah, we’re still figuring this out but we’re having a ton of fun.” (This was the 10th stop on the tour and the band has tinkered with the set list along the way.)

Finn proved to be a fine addition to Fleetwood Mac with his surprisingly powerful voice and casual chemistry with Nicks. But the real star of the show was Campbell, a longtime pal of the group who still wasn’t afraid to put his own spin on things with some creative, thrilling solos.

Fleetwood Mac also used the opportunity to add some songs from throughout their entire history, something Buckingham largely avoided. Nicks handled lead vocals for “Black Magic Woman” and acknowledged that Santana had the bigger hit with it: “Even I thought that they wrote it. They didn’t.”

Even better was Campbell tackling both guitar and vocals for the old Peter Green staple “Oh Well” and instantly turning it into a new Fleetwood Mac classic.

Of course, the set list included the staples — “The Chain,” “Dreams,” “Rhiannon,” “Go Your Own Way” — and nothing from “Tusk,” the Buckingham-heavy double album that nearly tore the band apart. They also found time to give nods to the new members, with Nicks joining Finn on vocals for Split Enz’s “I Got You” and Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”

Nicks — who sounded rusty at the start of the show — had opened up quite a bit by the time she nailed “Landslide.” She kicked off the encore with Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” and truly went for it during the choruses. Clearly she appreciated having some fresh material to sing. (She also faked out the audience by gazing at Campbell during the designated twirl time at the end of “Gypsy,” but worked in a quick spin to cheers.)

It didn’t all work. Mick Fleetwood’s mid-show drum solo, which dragged on for more than 10 minutes, should’ve been cut in half. And beyond “Oh Well,” the other stabs at blues numbers felt wonky at times. The ultimate takeaway, though, is that this is a band reborn (for, like, the 10th time) and it’s going to be fun to see where they go from here.