[David]

Originally Posted by bwboy

I just don’t think this would have worked- no disrespect to that particular incarnation of the band, but I can’t imagine the majority of folks who were at a show to see FM would enjoy most of the songs you listed, of which they likely never heard of before.

But most of the people at the spa resort were not there to see Fleetwood Mac per se. They were there to see live music (and eat dinner in the same venue) — they were staying or vacationing in the area. And I think something similar is true of many of the live stops at that time (the band was an opening act or co-billed most of the time).

Even if the band rocked the house. I consider myself a fan of most of the FM eras, and even I couldn’t place a handful of the songs you mentioned. Blues aren’t my thing, I mean I enjoy a few songs like that during a show, but not as many as you mentioned. If FM had sold themselves as a blues band during that tour, I think even less people would have showed up.

This “solution” was precisely the problem. The casino and fair audiences (who were out to see live music from Benatar, Mac, Crosby/Stills/Nash, REO) love Rumours, but I bet most of them weren’t terribly enthralled to see a band power through those songs without Nicks, Buckingham, and McVie. It struck everyone as a lame, cover-band show because the classic Mac catalogue was so insistently the core of the show. I’m suggesting that a set of songs not tied to the annus mirabilis of 1977 would surely have been less cringeworthy. Even the band itself would have been energized by not having to compete with “sacred” untouchable songs, and would have performed with more conviction. (The one time Mason showed any commitment to his performance was when he sang his own song We Just Disagree.) Not having any of the three 1977 singers and instead having a front line with talented incongruities made it all the more essential for the band to reinvent itself that year. It didn’t reinvent itself (at least as a live act), and it busted big.