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Originally Posted by Lola
The show was outstanding. They sounded great. No set list changes. I was in the 4th row center. Everyone around me jamming and enjoying themselves. Only the first row was allowed to go up to the metal barricade in front of stage(security gave wristbands) and they were strict about sending non wristband people back to their seats. They started around 9pm and ended at 10:40pm.
They were selling zip up hoodies, t-shirts, vinyl and cd's. They had signed vinyl and cd's but some of them were only signed by Chris or Lindsey, not both. Thankfully I've trained my significant other well and he asked for one of each signed by both. The merch guy said they had 60 more signed CD's in the back but we got the last of the signed vinyl. No bags available but I brought one with me as I'm a firm believer in Murphy's Law. Then we talked somebody into letting him take the stuff back to the car. So far so good.
The opening band was supposed to be the Wallflowers but for some reason it changed to Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. He walks out and says "hello Chicago" in a not too confident voice and I thought oh dear....
The band was good though. They were well received and he gushed about Lindsey. He said when his manager called to ask him about opening for Lindsey and Chris he thought it was a prank!
I loved Wish You Were Here. All of the new songs kick ass live. Hold Me got a big whoop from the audience and me. Right before the song Chris asks if we'd like to hear something more familiar. I was surprised by that cause people were into the new stuff-at least from my vantage point. It was weird not hearing Stevie but it wasn't too jarring. I didn't see anyone dressed up like Stevie but quite a few FM shirts and a few Lindsey solo shirts. I read about somebody dressed up like Stevie at one of these shows in a thread here--unbelievable! I had so much fun with the new songs. Sheer joy experiencing new live music.
Chris sparkles. She's so much more attractive than that GD album cover. Lindsey is swoon inducing as usual. They smiled at each other often and the whole band looked happy. Part 2 later.
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thanks so much for posting your review so fast after the show - it was great to get that slice from the show atmosphere, as well as a bit more about the opening act. so agree about Christine!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lola
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Review: Buckingham, McVie stay close to Fleetwood Mac at Northerly Island
Lindsay Buckingham, right, and Christine McVie, left, perform during a concert at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island on Monday.
(Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune)
Joshua Klein
Chicago Tribune
Ask someone if they're a fan of Fleetwood Mac and they might respond with "which one?" From the start the group's been marked by constantly shifting line-ups, sometimes radically so. Even the band's best known (and best selling) '70s line-up eventually gave way, through acrimony and attrition, to endless permutations of the group's by-then familiar five members.
Which brings us to "Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie," an album credited to those titular principals and technically not a Fleetwood Mac record, but confusingly and conspicuously featuring the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. While billed as something separate (and missing Stevie Nicks), much of it wouldn't be terribly out of place on a Fleetwood Mac record.
That put the pair of Buckingham and McVie, performing at Northerly Island Monday night, in the precarious position of making a case for the new album as something other than Fleetwood Mac without shying away from many of Mac's hits. That didn't stop Buckingham from further complicating matters, starting the show with his melancholy solo career gem "Trouble." Played at a hushed crawl with minimal accompaniment from McVie, the arrangement unfortunately accented the modest attendance, and a handful of further slow, spare songs — even the redoubtable "Never Going Back Again" — failed to fully capture the crowd's attention.
Things perked up, however, when the rest of the band of session ringers emerged to play much of the new album, followed by a few of Fleetwood Mac's best known hits, indelible songs such as "Little Lies" and "Hold Me" that not only shifted the emphasis to the otherwise underutilized McVie and her smoky lead vocals, but highlighted how well they've always blended with Buckingham's high-strung bark. In this context new songs such as "Feel About You" and "In My World" felt like a real continuation of the pair's collaboration rather than a new take on it, if not quite on par with the lovely "Everywhere" then certainly strong enough to make you wonder if the duo album might have made a good Mac album after all.
If the headstrong and restless Buckingham has always seemed content to do his own thing, certainly McVie seemed to recognize the "almost there" quality of this current project. She introduced the aptly titled last song of the night "Game of Pretend" with a sheepish "this is not 'Songbird,'" acknowledging the albatross of Fleetwood Mac's legacy.
Joshua Klein is a freelance critic.