lol last review i promise -ha
Classic rockers address Squirrel Hill tragedy
PITTSBURGH — They sounded good, but it felt different. And there were emotional, touching moments addressing last weekend’s Squirrel Hill synagogue shooting.
There’s much to discuss about the new-look Fleetwood Mac’s concert Thursday at a full-house PPG Paints Arena.
At times, it seemed like every other concert Fleetwood Mac has played the past few decades at Pittsburgh’s current and previous hockey/concert arenas.
The classic-rockers started with the traditional “The Chain,” building the intensity to reach that deep, uncluttered and cool John McVie bass solo.
His ex-wife, Christine McVie, positioned stage right at her keyboards, let loose with her warm voice, singing songs like “Say You Love Me” and “You Make Loving Fun.” Her vocals weren’t quite as soaring and flawless as at the band’s 2014 Pittsburgh show, but still pretty special.
Stevie Nicks, as always, earned the loudest cheers with that potent rasp of hers still going strong, and that bohemian, bewitching persona equally intact to deliver crowd-pleasers “Rhiannon,” “Gypsy,” which featured a patented Stevie twirl, and “Gold Dust Woman,” where she wore a glittery gold shawl.
Also true to form, Mick Fleetwood played a drum solo that took too long to get revved up, amid shouting things like “are you out there?” to crank up the crowd noise. It was a such a lengthy solo, a roadie came out and held a plastic cup of refreshment to Fleetwood’ lips as he continued to bash away. Hey, when you’re the top-billed namesake and founder of a band, you get to solo as long as you want.
Though it was impossible to forget Lindsey Buckingham wasn’t there, booted from the band he’d brought exceptional and underrated guitar to for decades.
He’s been replaced by two stalwarts; Mike Campbell from Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn from Crowded House, whom Fleetwood made a public point Thursday of welcoming into the band.
Finn capably handled Buckingham’s vocal leads on “Go Your Own Way,” “World is Turning” and “Second Hand News,” the latter of which had a faster than normal but fun pace led by Fleetwood.
Finn offered the night’s most poignant sequence, starting with him dedicating a song to “the grieving families” of the Squirrel Hill tragedy, and to Pittsburghers in general still immersed in sorrow because of it. Finn then began singing his lovely ’80s Crowded House hit “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” backed only by light guitar and soft hand percussion as most of the band left the stage. For the final verse and chorus, Nicks came back out and sang along. Many spectators lifted and illuminated their phones like candles. It’s a song you’ve heard countless times, to the point you may have forgotten some of lyrics that stood out vividly Thursday; lines about negative forces trying to build walls between us. Finn emotionally emphasized the modified final line sung three times: “You know they won’t win ... you know they won’t win ... you know they won’t win.”
That sentiment perfectly mirrored the “Stronger Than Hate” banner with the Pittsburgh Penguins logo against a Star of David backdrop displayed on the jumbo screen behind Fleetwood Mac after its first song and before the encore.
Once “Don’t Dream It’s Over” ended, Nicks took the mic and talked about the healing properties of music and how the band felt an extra importance to be in Pittsburgh at this time. Nicks’ voice get choked up, as she urged fans to be “spiritual warriors.” The band followed with “Landslide,” emotionally sung by Nicks.
Fleetwood Mac chugged into the encore with “Go Your Own Way,” on which I found myself missing Buckingham’s vocals and guitar.
The encore began with a cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” which gave Campbell a chance to work his magic, having played on the original. The video screen flashed back to the late-Petty, including a number of photos of him with friend and collaborator Nicks.
Christine McVie set up the night’s final selection, “All Over Again,” saying it’s an ideal song under the circumstances, because it deals with hope and looking toward the future.
Overall a good show, though I’d have liked to have heard more of Campbell, who along with Finn spearheaded the night’s most exciting song, the guitar-blazing, way-back Fleetwood Mac track “Oh Well.” (You remember the opening stanza: “Can’t help it ’bout the shape I’m in/I can’t sing, I ain’t pretty and my legs are thin/But don’t ask me what I think of you/I might not give the answer that you want me to.”)
Without Buckingham in the band, the setlist suffered from the lack of his signature song “Tusk”. Nor did we get “Silver Springs,” Nicks’ tour-de-force as a vocalist always made more special in concert because the gut-wrenching lyrics about moving on from a busted relationship were directly inspired by her ex-lover, Buckingham, standing 10 feet from her.
This tour, with its new lineup, has stoked Fleetwood Mac members’ interest in the band’s back catalog, hence the playing of “Black Magic Woman,” a 1968 Fleetwood Mac single written by former guitarist Peter Green. Accustomed to the version they’ve heard on radio, many people mistakenly assume Santana originally wrote and recorded that song. Nicks once thought so, too.
“This was before I was in Fleetwood Mac,” she explained.
The version Fleetwood Mac played Thursday in Pittsburgh emphasized drums and didn’t try to duplicate Carlos Santana’s pyrotechnic guitar sorcery. For a cool twist, Nicks sang the song in the first person with girl power attitude, as in “I’m a black magic woman.”
The band dug even deeper to play “Tell Me All The Things You Do,” a 1970 Fleetwood Mac single written by another former guitarist, Danny Kirwan. The song had a fleet boogie beat that was rather enjoyable, but Pittsburgh fans craved the familiar, and took those several minutes to make a bathroom or beer run.
Kirwan lasted just four years in Fleetwood Mac. We’ll see if that’s a number Campbell and Finn will beat.
http://www.timesonline.com/entertain...-in-pittsburgh