Four highlights from Fleetwood Mac's new tour
 

The Fleetwood Mac soap opera has been an engrossing yarn over the last 50-plus years. The latest iteration of the group is currently on a world tour with two new members (Neil Finn and Mike Campbell) following the departure of Lindsey Buckingham. With 31 shows completed, including a three-performance run at the Forum in Los Angeles on Saturday, it’s clear that Finn and Campbell have firmly settled into their roles. (It’s not the first time it has taken two people to fill Buckingham’s shoes, including a late ’80s-early ’90s stretch featuring Billy Burnette and Rick Vito.)
Buckingham is not “replaceable” per se, and there were ways in which the singer-songwriter-guitarist was certainly missed (notably: no “Tusk”). But he and the band have moved on, and the addition of Finn, of Crowded House, on vocals and guitar, and Campbell, from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, on lead guitar and one surprising lead vocal, proved the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers still have some gas in the tank.

With that, here are four highlights from the stellar two hour-plus show that found the band roaming all over its catalog — including tracks that pre-dated Buckingham-Nicks — and a couple of choice covers.
New Energy on Old Songs
The band, of course, faithfully played all the hits, kicking off with a churning take on “The Chain.” But there was an extra vibrance evident thanks to Finn and Campbell. The New Zealand native sang tunes like “World Turning,” “Monday Morning” and “Go Your Own Way” with a verve and giddiness that made it clear he was thrilled to be included. (Although certain lyrics did have an extra twist, like “I know there’s nothing to say/Someone has taken my place” in “Second Hand News.”) Campbell, the ultimate economist in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was neither slavish to Buckingham’s leads nor disrespectful, recreating familiar licks as well as taking flights of his own fancy. McVie was in wonderful voice all night, gliding through songs including “Say You Love Me,” “Little Lies,” and “You Make Loving Fun” with her familiar velvety tone. And Nicks twirled and wailed through an epic “Gold Dust Woman” and the lilting “Gypsy,” and got gauzy for “Rhiannon” and “Dreams.” Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie (the band’s namesake members) remained a formidable foundation. Backed by a sharp group of auxiliary musicians — including a guitarist, keyboardist, percussionist and background singers — the group seemed to have hit a sweet spot. That feeling was underscored by Nicks’ playful dancing around Finn and Campbell, and occasionally holding hands with McVie.

Diving Deep Pays Dividends
The band took the opportunity on this tour to explore some tracks from their earliest days. Nicks admitted that she had no idea that “Black Magic Woman” was a Fleetwood Mac song, assuming the popular cover by Santana was the original. She decided to reclaim the song, written by founding Mac member Peter Green, from a female point of view. The sinuous track also gave Campbell a chance to stretch out. Campbell himself — whose speaking voice sounds uncannily like Petty’s — actually took to the microphone for the full-tilt jam “Oh Well,” also by Green, and occasionally sung by Buckingham in the past. Finn stepped up for the zippy Danny Kirwan jam “Tell Me All the Things You Do.” (Alas, no one tried their hand at Bob Welch’s “Sentimental Lady.”) McVie confessed that she knew the dip into the past might seem self-indulgent to those only familiar with the classic line-up of Fleetwood Mac, but diehards in the crowd were likely thrilled.
A Nod to Crowded House
While Finn was in the spotlight frequently since he sang most of the Buckingham songs, it was a classy move by his new bandmates to cede the stage for him to perform his band’s most well-known hit “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” Classier still for Fleetwood to introduce it as one of the most beautiful songs he knows. And classiest of all for Nicks to come out and join him mid-song. She was not alone, as many in the crowd crooned along with the wistful 1986 ballad and waved cellphone lights. (We even spied a few actual lighters.) Finn is one of the most undersung pop songwriters ever, and if this tour helps bring new fans to Crowded House (and to his solo work and Split Enz) then all the better.

A Tribute to Tom Petty
The first encore was dedicated to the late rocker, Campbell’s bandmate and brother for more than 40 years in both the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch, and Nicks’ occasional duet partner and close friend. As images of Petty through the years — early promo shots, onstage with the Heartbreakers, in the studio with Nicks — drifted by on screen, Nicks performed one of her best vocals of the night, belting out “Free Fallin,'” as Campbell played the familiar chords. It was doubtlessly difficult for both but it was one of the evening’s most poignant moments.
Fleetwood Mac’s world tour continues in January with dates across the U.S. and Canada before heading across the pond.

https://ew.com/concerts/2018/12/17/f...ew-2018-forum/

Thanks for posting this, kak125! This review was spot on, as it reflected pretty much my experience when I saw them back in early November. The highlights the reviewer mentioned were the highlights for me, too. Neil was really the secret weapon of the night, as he did a fantastic job, especially on Monday Morning and Don't Dream It's Over. And Stevie singing Free Falling was one of the best live vocals I've ever heard out of her live.

It's cool to see other people felt the same way I did.

bw, what are your thoughts on Stevie doing justice to Free Falling by belting out the big notes, while not being half as adventurous with most of the Fleetwood Mac numbers? It rubs me the wrong way, even though it's great (for Tom Petty fans..) that she can manage to belt out that song.

Always nice to see some FM-related journalism that doesn't just describe Lindsey as "guitarist".
Obviously he was much more than even the three roles listed above, but it's a nod in the right direction.

That's a good point! I really don't like the song Free Falling, so I probably had low expectations of hearing it live. I guess it wasn't just that she hit some high notes, as much as it was an emotionally charged performance, maybe? I don't know, her vocals were incredible on Free Falling. I think I've heard Gold Dust Woman, Dreams, and Rhiannon so much that even a stellar performance kind of leaves me non-plussed. However, she did well on those songs, too. GDW really seemed to blow the audience away. I think it's fair to say Stevie felt more inspired by the newer stuff, but she still sounded incredible on the standards, too.

My beef with Free Fallin is Mike told Stevie he really wasn't keen on performing it every night. Stevie still gave zero sh*ts, made it all about HER and the "moment" she wanted to create in the show and insisted on it being done.

#teamplayer

You are very welcome and I totally agree with you. I still can't believe how good they sounded at the Pittsburgh show. It's funny at first during The Chain I could tell the audience wasn't quite sure what to expect but then once Little Lies started they were all cheering and dancing away. My hubby who is not a Fleetwood Mac fan actually had a blast and sang his heart out during Don't Dream It's Over and my in-laws who have seen the FM in 2013 & 2014 actually seemed to enjoy this show more without Lindsey. I won't say it was better I will say though that it felt fresh which was nice.
I do think Free Fallin was the total highlight of the show besides Gold Dust Woman. I thought maybe by that point it wouldn't pack as much of an emotional punch with the audience but it really was a hit.
I also think if Mike didn't want to do it live he would have put his foot down about it. I think probably once he thought about it he figured it was a good idea. I would love for the 2nd leg of the tour if they switched it up though and did a different Tom Petty song.

From the January, 2019 Guitar World with Mike Campbell on the cover.

You mentioned earlier that you’re playing “Free Fallin’” in these shows.

It was actually Stevie’s idea. And I said, “No, we’re not going to do that.” I mean, I love that song, but I was so tired of playing it and it’s so emotional. But she said, “No, I think we could do this song really well.” And we tried it and she was right. It’s a real emotional high point of the evening. It’s a very sweet tribute and she sings it really well. I get tears, still. But, I’m glad we’re doing it. I have a whole new respect for the song because it feels right.

Thanks for the clarification.

In my opinion if the cover songs are being highlighted what does that say. A band with 50 plus years of material to chose from but let's play other people's songs. Considering they just lost a member in FM the Tom Petty Tribute is wrong. I know Danny isn't well known but they made this big deal of the pre 75 material why didn't they do a video tribute to the members who have departed. It would have been a nice gesture to the past.

Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, and–on-and-off–the Rolling Stones all have plenty of great music of their own yet still do covers, so I don't get that part of the complaint. Whether this cover or how they do it crosses a line is another question, but merely doing a cover doesn't necessarily seem out of line to me.

Not gonna happen. As soon as Stevie decided it was a hit in concert she will continue to do it for the rest of the tour. And after that she will perform it forever and run it into the ground.

Not to mention FM doing "The Farmer's Daughter."

3 of the highlights are already gone
Storms
Hypnotized
Isn't it midnight

Did anyone ever believe there would be a Mac concert with those songs in the set? I would never have believed it ever. I guess it was nice while it lasted ;)

My point was they said Lindsey didn't want to play pre 75 material and that this was going to be a different show so why do cover songs when you have so much material that you have never played from your own band? The Stones and even Bruce do covers but they at least change it up so that it isn't simply a GH jukebox show.

The “covers” are songs from the new guys’ past works. But, really, look at some of the early 1975 set: a Chicken Shack cover, a Duster Bennet cover, two Buckingham Nicks covers, and a Curtis Brothers cover.

In Fleetwood Mac, they're covers, not covers with quotation marks (just as Jumping at Shadows was a cover).

Absolutely fine. Nothing wrong with covers. Some adventurous bands are famous for their covers. It's nice to approach a cover with a little more personal voice than Fleetwood Mac sometimes shows. But more important, my issue is not with covers (I often love covers) but with a core of hits and concert songs that remains static tour after tour. This current configuration of the band had every judicial opportunity—and every reason—to invent a new core and throw the stale past to the wind. It did not. It opted to once again deliver The Chain, Dreams, Say You Love Me, Everywhere, Rhiannon, Gypsy, Landslide, You Make Loving Fun, Gold Dust Woman, Go Your Own Way, and Don't Stop with the same performance approach and even the same spatial place in the set.

The new stuff—Black Magic Woman, I Got You, Tell Me All the Things You Do, Don't Dream It's Over, Free Fallin', All Over Again—was mildly refreshing. But it was obviously presented as addenda to the old set, not a substitute. The 2018 set was created because it was familiar to audiences, not because it was new to them.

Bands don't just exist onstage, too. What's with the latest CD anthology? Actually, Lindsey's anthology is also stale (but less so because his material is less familiar). I don't see the point in these things. They're repackagings and they serve a marketing purpose, not an aesthetic purpose. How many years does one need to rehash one's own contributions to pop culture before one is satisfied?

After casting off an iconic member and hiring two new members, Fleetwood Mac had every good reason to reinvent itself. It did not. It's merely pretending to be what it has been for forty years already. With this band mindset, we'll see whether a new album comes out of all this—new albums generally come out of a collective desire to forge ahead down some other road, the road less traveled.

You can't tell me it's not a sad statement when people say highlights of a Fleetwood Mac show are Free Fallin' and Don't Dream It's Over.

THIS!!!
I couldn't agree more.

David, I understand what you're saying. As a FM fan of several years, and having seen them several times (well, 5 different tours, anyway), I would love to hear deep cuts instead of the usual 10 songs. But there is no way the new lineup could have been expected to not sing those 10 songs we all know so well. They are a new band and had to prove themselves to the audience, and the best way to do that was to include the hits or standards we all know. Now, if Lindsey had still been in the band, it REALLY would have been brave to do deep cuts. But can you imagine a FM concert where Lindsey doesn't sing Go Your Own Way? He even sings it on his solo tours! Stevie not singing Dreams? Christine not singing You Make Loving Fun? No way would that go over well with the audience. So if the new lineup hadn't sang the standards/hits, the tour would have bombed. I think they did a fantastic job with the set list this tour, they gave us the best of both worlds!

If Lindsey was still in FM, I would have loved to see them in a more intimate venue, with the deep cuts we'd all die to hear, like Brown Eyes, Over and Over, Save Me a Place, Storms, That's Alright, Mystified, Crystal, I Don't Want to Know, That's All For Everyone, etc. These songs wouldn't go over well in a big venue, as we could see by how Storms was received on this tour. But to expect ANY lineup of FM to tour arenas and NOT sing the hits is unrealistic.

AncientQueen and sodascouts, I see your point, but the way I see it, a powerful performance is a powerful performance, regardless of who wrote the song. And those two performances were powerful and beautiful. What's interesting to me about that is I've always loved Don't Dream It's Over and always disliked Free Falling, especially the recorded version by Stevie. Neil singing DDIO and then Stevie coming in halfway and singing it with him was beautiful and genius. Those songs were highlights to me because they were so unexpected. They were highlights, but not the only highlights.

Sorry, but Neil Finn singing a song he wrote isn’t a cover (or even unexpected with DDIO). And, Mike had a hand in developing “Free Fallin’” with Tom and played the iconic 12-string guitar. It would be weirder if they didn’t do at least one Tom Petty song with Mike and Stevie in the band together.

I don’t disagree, but going THAT rogue isn’t in their DNA, and never really was. Even during the Time band shows, they did a lot of the same core songs (The Chain, Oh Well, GDW, SYLM, YMLF, World Turning, GYOW, and Don’t Stop).

That said, not having Lindsey in the band obviously lowered the number of core songs in the set. Not nearly enough. I would be just as happy that MM and SHN get dropped (GYOW isn’t going anywhere). But the new stuff was worth it to me, especially TMATTYD, BMW, Hypnotized, AAA, and DDIO. I absolutely loved hearing Christine do some soloing and playing off Mike. Stevie was probably the most invested/engaged in the performances I saw than I’ve ever seen from her before.

And, I still got to hear Lindsey’s core songs at his show.

Nobody died and the songs still got played.

As long as the label thinks people will buy it, I guess. I prefer Lindsey’s because he’s never had one and there was something new. I’m very disappointed Fleetwood Mac didn’t record at least one new song for that set.

I agree that there could/should have been more reinvention, especially with the caliber of talent they brought in. However, I’m not sure it would have been that good right out of the gate. For example, Neil and Mike seemed to have developed a chemistry on the tour that wasn’t there initially. I’m still curious to see where it goes.

Down the toilet.

#crowded_knobs

Or, if nothing comes from Fleetwood Mac, maybe the New Hearbreakers...