Landslide Oakland 1990

[skcin]

Neil (dammit - Neal?) has this vid up on his site for DL. It may have been up for months, I haven't been keeping up with all the different Mac sites lately(many of which, I noticed, are really outdated or just gone.)

http://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/
Click "Audio/visual" on left, then choose "click here for Fleetwood Mac and solo videos"

I had heard about this performance many times in the past, but this is the first time I've actually seen it. Wow. What a huge change from that day to The Dance 7 years later! Stevie sounds horrendous (too low & kind of flat) not to mention that look was not her best (although I regret to say that her skirt looks hauntingly familiar ), LB looks really standoffish & stiff & uncomfortable, Stevie goes from dedicating it to Buckingham Nicks & whining that maybe LB will spend some time with her again someday to totally ignoring him during the guitar break & going over to Chris instead so she can play the break on keys, then she hugs LB & they walk off arm in arm. WTF?!?!

I know, it was a weird & uncomfortable time for LB & the band (and Stevie & Mac too, since she was about to jump ship at this point) but it's almost painful to watch. We talk about how much of the relationship they portray onstage NOW is an act, but good God - it looks as if they're afraid to MOVE on this video, the fake smiles are so plastered on they look as if they may crack!

To those who were fans at that time - was it fake & weird & did you just want to roll your eyes? Or was it actually sweet & sincere & exciting for you all that LB did this brief appearance with Mac again? Maybe I'm forming this opinion because I'm a "Dancer?"

[amber]

jeez, paula, I'm kind of scared to watch it now.

Originally Posted by Paolo

(although I regret to say that her skirt looks hauntingly familiar )

Edit - all I see is live in Sacramento 1990. Did I do it wrong?

[bikerchic]

^^^I saw this the other day on youtube and thought WTF? That was awkward. When Stevie walked over to Chris, she was probably saying "so what are you doing for dinner tonite? Wanna do Chinese? Poor Lindsey

[David]

Originally Posted by skcin

To those who were fans at that time - was it fake & weird & did you just want to roll your eyes? Or was it actually sweet & sincere & exciting for you all that LB did this brief appearance with Mac again? Maybe I'm forming this opinion because I'm a "Dancer?"

Hi, Paula. I attended the Oakland Arena show (but not the Forum show the night after, where they did the exact same thing). Yes, I thought it was all weird & disconcerting for exactly the reasons that you mentioned. Things loosened up a little later on when Lindsey showed up for Go Your Own Way & Tear It Up, but probably because the focus was taken off the Lindsey/Stevie dynamic (although she continued to ignore him during those songs too).

Part of her problem, which manifests itself so blatantly during Landslide, was that she was basically a wreck at this point in the tour. So it wasn't just Lindsey on the last two nights with whom she had a weird vibe. She had been distant & out of it for at least a couple of months on this leg of the tour. She didn't really interact with anyone on that stage -- or only in the dullest, most predictable, most robotic ways.

It's a shame she couldn't snap out of it for just that once or twice when Lindsey appeared with them. But she couldn't.

No doubt at that point he was thinking, "Well, I did that. There isn't any point in my doing anything more with them because we just don't click anymore & they aren't doing anything interesting onstage, as far as I'm concerned, so I wish them all well & I'm outta here." And sure enough he was outta there, his decision to leave three years earlier probably more than validated in his mind.

Incidentally, to my ears, Christine got the majority of the audience response & applause that show in Oakland, not Madame Nicks. That was cool!

[David]

Originally Posted by amber

Edit - all I see is live in Sacramento 1990. Did I do it wrong?

Sacramento 1990? Now that was a pretty good show--far better than the shows later on in Oakland & L.A. & elsewhere.

they played Cal Expo Amphitheatre (Cal Expo is where the state fair is held) & they raised money for the 1989 quake victims & for Red Cross & Greenpeace. "When the Sun Goes Down" was in the set at that point! That was Christine's accordion song back then, instead of Tusk.

[amber]

I found it. She does go flat, but she also was still hitting some of the higher notes, which was nice.

David - I think When the Sun Goes Down is the special download on neil's site right now. Yep, I checked, it is. I don't know that song, but I'm going to go listen.
Edit - It's only part of the song.

Yeah, I know what Cal Expo is, I grew up an hour from Sac.

[SteveMacD]

I wasn't there, but I have a boot from the show.

My reaction at the time was more of how cool it was to see Lindsey showing up at a Mac gig than anything to do with the Stevie-Lindsey dynamic. On my boot, and maybe on this, the crowd goes crazy when Chris comes out to do the solo on "Landslide." That's because, all of the sudden on stage, the classic frontline of Fleetwood Mac. Not to knock Billy and Rick, but one of rock's biggest acts was completely together again on stage for the first time in years. This moment was akin to say, John Lennon showing up at a Paul McCartney concert. It was bigger than any interpersonal dynamic, and, at that point, I don't think people really cared about THAT aspect as much. (That's something that REALLY got sexed up durin "The Dance.")

As for your comments on how Stevie looked and sounded, now you may understand why fans like myself weren't upset that she left and that somebody like Bekka Bramlett came on board. Stevie was a mess. Stevie didn't look good, didn't sound good, and her new songs weren't as good. That's why I don't have an issue with "Time." Lindsey wasn't mentally ready to be in Fleetwood Mac again and Stevie needed to get herself together. An album by those five may easily have been as big a disaster in 1995.

[skcin]

^ Point well taken. I've never been one to say that they should have stayed together, that Rick, or Billy, or Bekka shouldn't have joined. I think it all worked out that way it should have.