Los Angeles - Buckvie Thread

[elle]

i didn't even register they only play 3 Rumours tracks on this tour - pretty incredible considering FM history!


http://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/03...-at-the-greek/

Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie mix new songs with Fleetwood Mac classics at the Greek

Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac perform at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday, August 2, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

By PETER LARSEN | plarsen@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: August 3, 2017 at 1:11 pm | UPDATED: August 3, 2017 at 1:16 pm

Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac performs with Christine McVie at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday, August 2, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie held hands as they walked onto the stage by themselves Wednesday, the audience at the mostly full Greek Theatre in Los Angeles rising for the first standing ovation of the night before they’d played a single note.

That was to be expected: There’s a whole lot of love in the world for Fleetwood Mac, the hugely successful band of which Buckingham and McVie have been members since its commercial breakthrough in the mid-1970s, and a chance to see them in a smaller-than-Mac-size arena or stadium doesn’t come around that often.

And yes, the reason they were at the Greek was to play music from “Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie,” their recently released album as a duo. But fans knew that would make up maybe half the set, with the rest of the night drawn from Fleetwood Mac’s deep catalog of hit singles over the years, songs such as “You Make Loving Fun” and “Go Your Own Way” from 1977’s “Rumours,” which indeed showed up later in the night.

But first, before those classics, and before performing eight of the 10 tracks on their excellent new record, Buckingham and McVie seemed intent on establishing themselves as a duo in the eyes and ears of the crowd, launching slowly, just the two of them, into more unexpected numbers such as “Trouble,” a Buckingham track from his 1981 solo debut, and “Wish You Were Here,” a deep cut from Fleetwood Mac’s “Mirage” in 1982.

It made for a soft opening to the show, a get-to-know-us-like-this entry that risked being too subtle for the crowd until the third song, when Buckingham’s opening guitar picking signaled the start of “Never Going Back Again,” the third of three “Rumours” songs in the set. You could feel the audience’s excitement and confidence rising to meet the intent of the two musicians, who, over 90 minutes of performance, delivered one strong moment after another.

“The reason we are here is that Christine and I have made an album together,” Buckingham said after the fourth song ended and their band slipped onto the stage behind them.

“Yes, we have!” McVie added.

“We came about making this; it was a couple of surprises that happened,” Buckingham continued.

A few years ago when McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac after 15 years away, he explained, they reconnected as musicians first, and then as songwriters. She started sending him pieces of tunes she was working on, “and me being me, I had my way with them.


“One thing led to another and here we are,” Buckingham finished.

If you’ve not heard their record, it’s not much of a stretch to say its the best Fleetwood Mac record since 1987’s “Tango in the Night.” While it’s attributed to McVie and Buckingham, bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood also play on the album — only singer Stevie Nicks is absent from the band’s classic lineup.

And the songs are terrific, from “Sleeping Around the Corner,” which kicked off the first section of new material with a strong melody and hook, to “In My World” a few songs later, which saw Buckingham walk over to McVie’s keyboard to give her a hug and a kiss at the finish.

The pair smartly broke their set into segments — four new songs, then you got “Hold Me” and “Little Lies,” from “Mirage” and “Tango,” respectively, on which McVie’s lovely vocals carried the lead part while Buckingham and most of the four other guys in their band filled in harmonies.

Buckingham’s guitar solos were strong all night long, with big solos on numbers such as “Tusk,” the familiar drum patterns of which once again brought the crowd to their feet, and “I’m So Afraid,” which coming from 1975’s self-titled album was the oldest number played in the show. He also did nearly all the talking on stage, chatting a few times about the way they came together to make their album.

“We didn’t know when we came together — would there be any vocabulary left?” he said. “And what happened, which blew our minds — ”

“We might have hated each other,” McVie joked.

“– was that when we got back together, our chemistry was better than ever,” Buckingham said. “It was really a brand-new equation.”

The back half of the set included more catchy new songs, with “Red Sun” a highlight live and on the album, as well as the “Rumours” favorites “You Make Loving Fun” and “Go Your Own Way,” which closed the main set.

And then, where the risk they took with the soft start to the night quickly paid off, the structure of the finish did not. “Everywhere,” the final Fleetwood Mac song of the night opened the encore — well and good, for it’s a fan favorite and got the expected response.

But then, after Buckingham introduced the band, which include mostly guys with whom he and Mac have worked often over the years, he noted that the last two songs were from the new record, which set an unfortunate number of people in the seats heading to the exits, finally recognizing that they were not going to get Fleetwood Mac’s “Songbird” nor Buckingham’s solo number “Holiday Road” no matter how many times they hollered for those.

And that’s a shame, really, because both were good, the final number, “Game of Pretend,” a McVie-sung ballad, just a lovely way to say goodbye, for now.

Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie

When: Aug. 2

Where: Greek Theatre, Los Angeles