New Worcester Review: The Republican

[macko814]

Fleetwood Mac kicks off tour in style



05/30/2003


By DONNIE MOORHOUSE
Music writer



Officially kicking off the first of a two-night stay at the Worcester Centrum Centre and unofficially kicking off the summer concert season in New England, rock veterans Fleetwood Mac performed a two-hour, 24-song set Tuesday night.

The Fleetwood Mac tour is significant not only because it marks the band's first tour since their 1997 reunion twirl, but it just may be the best of the big rock shows available this year. Unless you are willing to sit through Kiss to hear Aerosmith (touring as a package this summer) or stand in one end zone and watch Bruce Springsteen play in the other (he's playing football stadiums), Fleetwood Mac is it.

Living up to that historical reunion may seem like a tall order, and the added distraction of not having Christine McVie, who opted out of this chapter of the band's legacy, doesn't help. But Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham proved more than capable of holding down the fort.

Opening with "The Chain," the band chose to stun the audience with sound, unleashing the wrath of a backing ensemble that complemented the rhythm section of John McVie (bass) and Mick Fleetwood (drums) with another drummer and a percussionist, two more guitarists, a keyboard player and a pair of backup singers.

There were enough players for three bands.

They moved from the up-tempo rocker "Eyes of the World" to the new anthem "Peacekeeper," with Buckingham quoting a line from a Laurie Anderson song.

"Someone once said, 'When love is gone there is always justice,' he opined, 'and when justice is gone there is always force.'"

The song did roar with that familiar Fleetwood style, as much of the new material did throughout the night.

Buckingham kept the momentum going with "Second Hand News," and added a lyrical guitar solo to Nicks' "Say You Will," the title track to their recently released studio album. The collection of players left the original quartet to acoustically render "Never Going Back Again."

The group hit its stride with Nicks' on "Rhiannon," but tripped up at Buckingham's parody of a progressive rock accident on "Come." Epic in length, the song seemed to go nowhere until Buckingham redeemed it at the end with an inspiring solo that saw him shredding the strings on his guitar.

But it was Nicks who was the undisputed star of the evening, obviously having once again sold her soul to rock 'n' roll. Ageless and timeless, Nicks' aura was at once Old World faerie, gold dust woman and modern day rock star.

She bowed and flitted, her signature sequined shawls and veils trailing along as she delivered hits like "Gypsy," "Landslide" and "Silver Spring," alongside concert rarities "Beautiful Child" and a triumphant rendition of her solo hit "Stand Back."

The band closed with "Go Your Own Way," and allowed Mick Fleetwood to derail the three-song encore with his now-familiar drum solo featuring a self-contained drum vest that was wired for sound.

After "Don't Stop," Nicks capped off the night with the new ballad "Goodbye Baby."