Arizona Republis Review of Dodge Theater

[enchanted]

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/ConcertReview/4365 Our Stevie does it once again!!!!!!!!

[danax6]

You have to be a member to see the review. Could you post it here? :)

[MacMan]

Stevie Nicks enchants at Dodge Theatre, July 28
By Larry Rodgers

The Arizona Republic

Stevie Nicks, Phoenix's favorite homegrown female rock star, returned to wrap up her latest tour on July 28, and she did things up in style.

Looking fabulous at age 59 and sounding very solid, Nicks took the sold-out Dodge Theatre audience on a trip through the catalog of solo and Fleetwood Mac songs that have made her a rock icon.

The delivery by Nicks and her seven-piece band, which included some of the music industry's best studio and back-up musicians, was close to flawless during a set that clocked in at just under two hours.

Nicks will be 60 next year, but she showed that she still has the fire that drove her to create such rock classics as Edge of Seventeen, Dreams, Stand Back and Rhiannon.

She has two of rock's most intense eyes, and when she gazes out from the stage and sings a song like Gold Dust Woman or Landslide, concertgoers can only imagine what memories from a three-decade career she's dialed into.

Supporting her new greatest-hits collection, Crystal Visions, Nicks told the crowd early on that it was in on "a little bit of a different kind of tour," where each evening had been full of stories about how several rock standards were spawned.

"What can I say? Welcome home to you. I could say welcome home to me," a smiling Nicks told the audience, full of friends and family, including her mother, Barbara. Nick's sister-in-law Lori, is one of her three backup singers.

"In 1981, I took a very dangerous step away from Fleetwood Mac to make a record of my own, called Bella Donna," she said, drawing a roar of approval. "I thank you so much for standing with me all these years. ... Now, let's rock!"

Nicks and her band, led by veteran California guitar slinger Waddy Wachtel, then launched into a crisp version of Enchanted, which spotlighted the harmony among Nicks and her backup singers.

An energetic take on If Anyone Falls (which Nicks said came to her after a romantic declaration by a friend) followed, unfolding before a video screen that showcased some of Nicks' artwork. (It's a shame in a way that she modestly chose not to let the uninitiated in on the secret that many of the flowing images of women, angels, butterflies and birds were her own.)

She mentioned that although she hadn't actually written Landslide about her concert promoter father, Jess, who died in 2005, she later adopted that story because "my father was so sure it was about him." Touching slides of Nicks as a little girl with her dad, who headed Armour/Greyhound before building Phoenix's Compton Terrace venue, and other family members accompanied the song.

Nicks recently said that she wasn't going to tinker too much with the arrangements of her hits onstage "because people aren't crazy about that."

She stuck largely to that plan, with the exception of some expanded introductions to songs like Rhiannon, Edge of Seventeen and Gold Dust Woman. The last two featured driving solos by Wachtel, whom Nicks said she has known since she moved to Los Angeles in 1971 with then-boyfriend (and future Mac bandmate) Lindsey Buckingham.

Carlos Rios, who has played with Nicks since 1987, also got some chances to show off his lower-key but also impressive approach to guitar throughout the evening.

Nicks, who changed costumes a handful of times -- favoring flowing blouses and skirts, shawls and scarves -- whipped the crowd up every time she did one of her trademark pirouettes. She danced in silhouette during How Still My Love and showed what a master or rock theater she can be with her dramatic hand movements.

The singer has skipped the higher notes in songs like Dreams for yeveral years, but it hasn't diminished the fact that her smoky voice remains one of rock's most distinctive.

Nicks is selling her Paradise Valley home and downsizing to a "rock and roll penthouse" on the beach in California, but she can always count on a warm reception when she plays in Arizona -- as was evidenced by the many bouquets of flowers (and crown of flowers that she happily donned) and other gifts she received when she traversed the stage and shook hands at the end of her main set.

South Carolina's Trevor Hall played a well-received opening set of reggae- and hp-hop-infused rock. The young singer-songwriter was spotlighting his EP, The Rascals Have Returned.

[rbs3676]

Sounds like a hell of a show. There is something about hometown gigs that are always just a little bit better.

Thanks for posting.

rbs

[kathy1]

great review. how long did she play for?

[danax6]

great review. how long did she play for?Did you actually read it?

"The delivery by Nicks and her seven-piece band, which included some of the music industry's best studio and back-up musicians, was close to flawless during a set that clocked in at just under two hours."

[UnwindedDreams]

There is something about hometown gigs that are always just a little bit better.

And gigs close to hometown like Prescott Valley...

[The Tower]

Did you actually read it?
Dullest knife in the drawer. ;)