Vancouver show
 

Five reasons to see Stevie Nicks

Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. | Rogers Arena

Tickets: $46 to $150+; ticketmaster.ca

1. Fleetwood Mac. Classic-rock fans know Stevie Nicks as a member of one of the biggest-selling bands of all time, Fleetwood Mac. Fans hoping to hear Mac classics needn’t worry — on her current tour, Nicks has been performing Rhiannon and Gypsy, to name two.

2. “Black gothic trunk of mysterious and fantastical things.” According to a review of the Nov. 30 concert in Toronto, Nicks made good on her stage promise to draw from what she called her “black gothic trunk of mysterious and fantastical things.” The two-hour Toronto set included tracks from her 2014 album of out-takes, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, as well as never-before-sung-in-concert songs, and cuts revamped for the tour.


3. Edge of Seventeen. Fans of Nicks’ solo career can look forward to nuggets like Stand Back and Edge of Seventeen.

4. Sorceress. As one of the ’70s rock scene’s most iconic presences, Nicks has an image to uphold. She’s doing so on this tour with multiple wardrobe changes that present her as, in the words of one reviewer, “fringed priestess, stage shaman, sorceress.”

5. Chrissie Hynde. The opening act is billed as The Pretenders, but we all know what that means — a chance to see Chrissie Hynde. The Pretenders frontwoman/singer and songwriter is performing classics from that band’s catalogue like Don’t Get Me Wrong and Brass in Pocket. To boot, the punk has been joining the gossamer fairy onstage to perform Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, Nicks’ 1981 duet with Tom Petty.



http://vancouversun.com/entertainmen...e-stevie-nicks

Stevie Nicks / The Pretenders, Rogers Arena, Vancouver BC, December 9


Vancouver welcomed two of music's most celebrated and iconic rock stars Friday night amidst unusual amounts of snow and the buzzing of impending witchy enchantment. Both Stevie Nicks and the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde — ages 68 and 65 respectfully — were in fine form, showing no signs of slowing down, but rather hopeful for a full future with the continued support of their fans and the freedom to explore their vast musical repertoires.

This goes doubly for Nicks, whose voice could not have been more raggedly perfect and who opened up her "dark mystical gothic trunk of songs" for her pet project the 24 Karat Gold tour. Determined not to give her beloved fans the same old tired Stevie set list they have no doubt heard countless times over the years, Nicks pulled out some demo gems.

Nicks' choice to put Hynde and the Pretenders in the opening hour-long slot set the tone for a female-rocker infused journey. The Pretenders were the light part of the show, not able to entirely escape that aged rock star persona associated with so many successful '80s musicians nowadays. From the Kinks cover of "Stop Your Sobbing" that brought them their first hit, to fan favourites "Middle of the Road" — wherein Hynde delightfully whipped out the harmonica — and "Brass in Pocket," the group certainly gave fans what they were looking for, but nothing further.

Alternatively, Nicks has built up a persona so impenetrable and mysterious that the term "aged rock star" could never apply to her. Thrilled at the notion of Vancouverites not experiencing snow often (her limo driver told her), Nicks promised the packed Rogers Arena a "journey through the snow." Donning a black flowing dress and playing with glittering scarves, Nicks gave continuous background narrative to the early days of her solo career.

While giant light bulbs bobbed up and down from the ceiling and images of moons and dancers were projected onto the screen behind her, the warm and funny Fleetwood Mac alumnus reflected fondly on her relationships with the likes of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and her late friend Prince. The former gave her her first single "Stop Dragging My Heart Around," which Hydne joined in for.

From there Nicks took the crowd on a witchy tour; between "Bella Donna" and the more recent "New Orleans," Nicks pulled everyone into her world of femme fatale notions and rock'n'roll nostalgia. Gleefully showing the crowd that she still had the original Bella Donna silk chiffon cape, the blond chanteuse conjured up memories of her short but impressive 1981 tour and the long-lasting determination to prove that her initial solo success was not a fluke.

Wielding a signature tambourine and flailing her arms about, Nicks gave onlookers "Starshine," a song co-written with Petty but never released. When she ripped into the thundering and epic "Edge of Seventeen," Nicks paid tribute to the wonderful man in purple with a Prince photomontage on the big screen interspersed with images of doves.

Perhaps one of the most endearing parts of this tour is the presence of longtime friend, musical director and session musician Waddy Wachtel. Having been alongside Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham from their early days in L.A. to countless recordings and tours with Nicks, Watchel is a continuous presence that helps to connect Nicks to her early days as a commercial success, while also giving her solid guitar backing.

Ending with the always lovely "Rhiannon" and "Landslide," Nicks alone was projected onto the screen in all her caped glory, as if to speak directly to each adoring fan. This tour has shown that Nicks' particular brand of stage presence and mystical persona does not get old, but rather appears fresh in its own way. Her vampy vocals and forlorn writing style continue to penetrate the hearts of multiple generations and it's clear that her trunk of songs is not limited to Fleetwood Mac and '70s hits.




Some more photos here: http://exclaim.ca/music/article/stev..._bc_december_9

First bad review
 

Review: Pretenders Get Real while Stevie Nicks Drags in Vancouver

On paper, last night’s double-header of Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde’s Pretenders at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena seemed like a match made in Queens of Rock heaven. The reality, as is often the case, proved different.

The party pooper, it turned out, was Stevie Nicks. Promising a new type of set, featuring not just hits but personal favourites she’d unearthed and rerecorded for her most recent “24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault” album, the issue wasn’t the choice of songs, but the way she went about her performance.

It all started so promising. Nicks was accompanied by Chrissie Hynde singing the Tom Petty parts for “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” the Pretenders’ frontwoman unable to get all her words out after descending into giggles almost immediately. Hynde’s laughter was a rare moment of spontaneity. Instead Nicks chose to punctuate every song with a lengthy, egotistical and over-rehearsed anecdote about its creation. The music, when it eventually arrived, was well sung and polished; “Gypsy,” “Stand Back” and the timeless “Gold Dust Woman” all standing out. But by insisting on eating up endless minutes by trawling out irrelevant tales from her charmed life, what could have been a party often felt more like a series of history lectures.

“I’m not wasting your time, am I?” she asked audaciously midway through introducing her band, a process conducted in a musical vacuum sucking up time that should have been spent playing at least two songs. The Vancouver crowd, polite to a fault, mumbled “No,” but they were thinking otherwise.

It’s not that Stevie Nicks didn’t have an example of how it should be done. Two hours earlier Chrissie Hynde (still looking like she’d been poured into her jeans at 66) had stepped on stage, strapped on her Telecaster and ripped into a set effortlessly mixing high-octane recent tracks like “Alone” with new wave classics like “Message of Love,” “Private Life” and “Middle of the Road.”

There’s no substitute for authentic cool; a quality Hynde revealed in everything from how she wore her guitar to her ad-libs on sharing a stage with Stevie Nicks: “It’s like being on tour with Elizabeth Taylor.”

The songs were the stars. The chiming powerpop of “Back on the Chain Gang” (seriously, what a great song) was followed by ballsy ballad “I’ll Stand By You” and the dreamy Kinks cover “Stop Your Sobbing.” The delivery was relentless. Resistance was futile.
“Have we got time from one more?” asked Hynde at the show’s end.

She didn’t wait for a reply, launching immediately into “Brass in Pocket,” a perfect finale to a great rock and roll set. No stories. No narcissism. All killer, no filler.



http://bc.ctvnews.ca/review-pretende...uver-1.3198169

he dosent get her

No, the stories about the songs are the best parts of the show in my opinion.

BRAVO!!!!! I could not agree more with this. Finally a critic with the guts to review the show as he actually experienced it. There is no right or wrong perception, of course, but I'm pretty sure there are more people out there who share this view on Stevie's show. Just because she's a legend doesn't mean she can't be criticized. For me, this was one of her worst tours, if not the worst.

I was afraid of this. As the tour has continued, she's gotten more "chatty", and taken out songs. Of course the most devoted fans enjoy the stories, others not so much :)

this tour was for the real fans, the set list awesome overall reviews great! the ticket sales very good, a great tour in general!

It's inevitable that sooner or later a bad review would appear, noone has ever received only good reviews, and the fact that the first negative critique appeared only now that the first leg of the tour is coming to an end is certainly an accomplishment in itself.

However what I'm surprised about is that I thought that this type of shows, full of personal exchanging moments with the fans, would appeal more to the casual fans instead of die hard ones like us, since we now know those stories by heart.

When I go to concert of other bands I appreciates if the members take some little moments to connect with their fans and recount something to us instead of going through the setlist like a schedule and then going away because they did the job we paid for and goodbye. For this reason I appreciated more the shows of Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne while I didn't appreciate as much the show of Aerosmith while generally I enjoy more the music of the latter. I can hear straight performed song whenever I want from CD, but I can only get to "interact" with an artist I like when I go see them perform, and that's part of the reason why I go to concerts in the first place.

Re: However what I'm surprised about is that I thought that this type of shows, full of personal exchanging moments with the fans, would appeal more to the casual fans instead of die hard ones like us, since we now know those stories by heart.

I would like love the stories and enjoy the show either way. Hoping to make it to Columbus!

ACDC show this year went like this: 1. Play a song 2. Lights go out 3. Lights go back on when next song starts 4. Not one word spoken throughout the show except maybe a thank you at the very end. I hated the flow of that show. No engagement whatsoever. I much prefer Stevie's warm welcoming approach to her show.

Oh and he's mocking Stevie's rehearsed comments but is praising Christie hynds Liz Taylor remark. Even calls it an "ad lib." not knocking chrissie, the pretenders were great, but she's said that Liz Taylor comment at every show the last 3 weeks. Be consistent in your criticism reviewer!

I completely agree with this reviewer. Charmed life, egotistical, history lecture.

It's like a lottery winner telling you how to get rich. Just do it exactly like they did.

On the other hand, I know a few people who were not Stevie fans before this show, who went to see The Pretenders, but now they adore her. Go figure.

I mean, it's kind of like Stevie said, if you wanted to see the same show she's done for the past 35 years, there were plenty of opportunities. It sounds like this critic just wanted hear the hits from the songs he cited...Gypsy, Stand Back, Gold Dust Woman. He didn't really care about the deep cuts or their stories. His loss.

this is not the casual fans tour, she said it from the begining, she put the tour on hold to tour wiith fm and now shes doing what she wants, hardly selfish! she will do a final tour with them and thats enough for me.