Christine shook her maracas…? :eek:

So does this mean Christine isn't playing on Say You Love Me (and for other portions of the show)? Maybe stage fright or the pressures of performance played some part...and now with current technology, that can be assuaged and she can be more comfortable and less on edge.

I wondered the same thing about Silver Springs. It was clear Chris wasn't playing the intro last night as she was about ten feet away from her keyboards when the song started. I don't really understand what that's all about..

Brett T. plays the beginning of SS on his keyboard...at he did in NY.

I get that, I guess my question is why isn't Chris playing it?

Who's Brett T and why is he playing Christine's prominent parts? (I know who he is)

Also, in The Chain video from Pittsburgh, Christine is clearly NOT playing. She's holding the microphone! She's not very convincing at "faking" it, like the rest of the music industry.

She never played at the beginning of the Chain, live. See "The Dance." That beginning part has always been guitar, bass, and drums on stage.

Ok! That's good to hear. I should've known that based on the sounds. Thanks!

There are only a few videos online from the Pittsburgh show. I thought Lindsey was killing it on You Make Loving Fun...his solo/guitarwork sounds great!!

I wonder then why Chris isn't playing the Silver Springs beginning.

Here is my review of last nights concert. I wasn't crazy about my seats. I was in section 104, but at least I was in the first row. The biggest problem was you had to turn sideways to see the stage. The other reviews are pretty accurate to what I saw too. I remember the beach ball at the beginning of the show. I wondered what happened to it. You don't see that much at a Fleetwood Mac concert. It was such a thrill to see Christine again. The last time I saw her play was 1997. Hard to believe it's been that long. The highlights for me was how great they looked and sounded. It's unreal. I think Stevie's voice has improved from the last tour. I really liked how she did Dreams. There were subtle changes. The backdrops were really nice. Gold Dust Woman was incredible. I know I'm not wrong is one of my favorites and Lindsey was as amazing as always on the guitar. He mentioned that the group was going to be around for awhile and bear fruit. I took that as an album is in the works. Sisters of the moon was better on this tour also. The best thing was seeing Stevie sign the BuckinghamNicks album for someone. I was pretty far back, but I knew what that album was. Great show. Makes me want to see them again. I have some photos I can post when I upload them from my phone.

My review of the Pitt show.

A couple friends and I drove from Rochester, NY to Pittsburgh. We were excited to see the band and were ready to forgive them any out-of-tune or low-energy moments. How wonderful, then, not to have to worry about such things, all three singers were in fine voice. Christine sounded fantastic and I thought she was so clearly happy to be playing with the band and to the crowd. It was sweet to watch her!

Stevie was the centerpiece, of course. Her Sisters was eons better than it was in other performances I've seen on YouTube. She was flawless on Gold Dust.

Lindsey's playing was right up to scratch. Very impressive. His speeches were a bit long-winded and certainly pretentious, but that is who he is. Contrasting the high-flown rhetoric of his Big Love intro with Stevie's very long story about shopping for clothes shows the contrast between them works perfectly.

My favorite moments were The Chain, Little Lies, Gold Dust, Big Love, Mick's imaginative drum solo, and Songbird.

The duds, IMO, were The very tired acoustic pairing of Landslide and Never Going Back, which, though the crowd loved them, are so played out for me. Over My Head was adorable but out of place in the set, as it was played at a much lower volume than the other songs. It seemed more appropriate to a smaller stage production. Oh, how I wish Isn't it Midnight was in its place!

I did NOT like the video backdrop for some of the songs, most notably, I Know I'm NOt Wrong (silly Lindsey head with sucked-in cheeks mouthing the chorus with a pout) and the endless procession of trees during Say You Love Me.

My only real beef, however, was that I sensed Christine and Lindsey were not playing some of their critical parts. The grand piano wasn't wheeled out until the last encore, so maybe that's why Brett handles the piano part on Silver Springs? There were times in many of the songs where Christine could have played more fully, but she either felt it unnecessary or hadn't yet retrieved all of her muscle memory. I think it the former, since Lindsey himself didn't play the guitar rhythms on some of his songs--only the solos. Weird.

I was so moved by Songbird, a tune I never thought capable of moving me after I'd heard it three billion times.

Over all, I thought the show was excellent and the band appeared to be VERY happy to be playing there. I had cheap seats ($75) and had a ball.

For the Dreams haters, it did sound pretty good, much better than expected...Stevie really went for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl2W7cb9tmc

Good video of Christine singing Songbird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2FXbV-1CDs

This YouTube channel has a bunch more: https://www.youtube.com/user/clubdoc/videos. I'm gonna check out Sisters with the mic and Say You Love Me botched beginning.

P.S. I love how unrehearsed and rather spontaneous Christine's introductions are. She's so delightful and genuine, not reading something or rehearsed and ridiculous like Lindsey's cycles and growth and big machine/small machine crap.

Thank you for the link! Yes, I was so pleased with her vocals throughout, and was especially happy to see Songbird sung and played with such skill, warmth and earnestness.

Wow you hit the nail on the head! Lindsey gives prepared speeches. Chris is different every night. How genuine. And she is funny!

Here is a good video of the microphone slip at about 4:04
She never missed a beat. But it looks funny to see Stevie holding a microphone singing :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw1Q...5Iagg&index=16

its so funny i dont know how i missed that during the show but i think it looks so much better when stevie is holding the microphone. i would love for her to hold it and walk around and sing kind of like how ann wilson does when i see heart's live shows. i know stevie doesnt like to leave her spot though -ha ha!!
i do think this version of sisters was so much better than the show in pittsburgh in 2013. she seemed a lot more into it!

Good rendition of the song. Kind of cool how Chris is mouthing some of the words.

I love the album Tusk but was never a fan of the song Tusk live. But I really enjoyed it at the Pittsburgh show.
One word: amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCzP...vprDvut3f5Iagg

the song Tusk is becoming one of my favorites on this tour. I've been lukewarm about it all these years but for some reason I'm really loving it live now! It's probably due to Chris and her accordion!

Wow, Christine sounds better and better with each show. That was great!! All you haters from the Today show performance, smack down.

Very nice.

[From a Pittsburgh Post Gazette article about Fan Expectations]

October 23, 2014 by Scott Mervis

http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/music...s/201410230130

Fleetwood Mac and Jackson Browne both delivered two-and-a-half-hour sets this month, with widely varying results. Fleetwood has three quality front people, one of them with wild energy -- hello, Lindsey Buckingham -- and an endless catalog of rockers and ballads that range sonically from "Gold Dust Woman" to "Tusk." Browne's approach of playing one slow song after another, and discarding most of his uptempo hits, was so leaden they should have passed out No-Doze.

It's understandable why their one-off TV performances are never as good as their concert performances.

Performing a few songs in a somewhat stale and foreign environment, where they have little control over the the atmosphere is very different from performing an entire show in their natural habitat among thousands of rabid fans.

I'm a Jackson Brown fan, but I don't think I could withstand the tedium of more than an hour and a half of sluggish acoustic ballads. I have much sympathy for his audience. After a certain point, it must feel like water torture.

nah don't believe what that reviewer is saying - actually i'm surprised you even considered it anywhere close to truth as a Jackson Browne fan and if you saw one of his recent shows.

it's a very different show for sure, from Lindsey's manic energy, but that doesn't mean it's not good. he puts on a great long show, changes setlists, takes requests, and interacts a lot (although i would say Lindsey's interactions are more genuine, when doing solo shows). he does a lot of deep cuts. it's definitely not as loud or rocking evening as you'd get at LB or FM show, but it's also definitely a great evening.

They are so stiff on tv too. I remember their two Leno appearances in 2003. They looked so skittish I wanted to pet them.

Michele

yup. i can tell you that at the Today show, they definitely had there audience there (other than those people right at the stage). and LB behaved like he always does at FM shows. he was stiff for the interview though, and the way he was looking towards the camera while singing came off weird.

women supposedly had a problem cause they couldn't use their ear monitors; that may have been the root of Christine being off pitch. Lindsey never uses it anyway so he had no such problems.

the sound and movement definitely suffers from not having their own stage and just partial sound equipment.

Times Online, Great Concert Moments of 2014, December 28, 2014

http://www.timesonline.com/entertain...450218248.html

If McCartney was a natural wonder than so was Christine McVie, who at age 71 sounded remarkable on her lead vocal contributions, bringing extra spark back into Fleetwood Mac for the classic-rock band's crowd-satisfying Consol Energy Center show.