[QUOTE] Are they reaching their full potential? No. Are they still an incredible band with terrific music who rock the house? Yes.
LONG LIVE FLEETWOOD MAC. /QUOTE]

YEP!!! :cool:

No one said the band is worthless. :shrug:

Well, perhaps you and I differ in our interpretation of comments where people suggest that Fleetwood Mac disband if they have nothing more to offer.

I'm glad they are still touring.

None of these older bands cant compete with new music on the radio with todays young artists.

I have to say this.I agree with them .Why bother recording new tunes that will not sell in this day in age.

Yes only us fans will buy the new stuff and which does not add up to make it worthwhile to record the new tunes.

I'm glad that SYW had a great outing 10 years ago.Also it got good radio airplay.

I guess so. I tend to be rather literal. :laugh:

As far as the OP and differing points of view:

I'm trying to think about this in a different perspective, and I think this difference in opinion among fans comes down to two different consumer types. I'll use an analogy: your favorite movie. I have a favorite movie, or a few, as most people do. While I can listen to the same songs over and over, I rarely will ever watch a movie twice. I think of a tour, a live show, as being more like a movie and less like a song.

I don't buy copies of movies, and I'd bet I'm not the only one. I see no point in spending money to own a copy of it when I've already seen it, and I certainly will not be paying to see it again in the theatre. I probably won't even watch it for free on TV, unless it's been so long that I've forgotten most of the story. A concert is like a movie to me, it's a visual representation or display of a band's songs. it's like a play or theatre production, for music.

There's little point, from my perspective, in seeing that show twice. As it is now, Fleetwood Mac has taken the same show (or movie) out on the road three times now, and all they've done is *slightly* rearrange the order of the scenes and show us a few more from the cutting room floor. It hasn't been long enough for me to forget the story, so it feels redundant *to me*. When movie-makers want to engage us in more of the same, they make a sequel - what Fleetwood Mac needs is a sequel. The same characters, with a very different story. When movie sequels are obvious replays of the original, they get panned by critics. A fan is pretty much a critic, and this critic is panning this tour, because it's just the same show rehashed.

Now, because I'm unhappy with the setlist, or feeling malcontent about no new album, or just because I complain about the tour, or I (and others) agree with a post that is critical of the band/tour/setlist *does not* mean that we hate Fleetwood Mac, or that we think they suck, or that we wish they were dead, or that we're ungrateful they're alive and working, or that we want them to not tour at all. It just means we're not satisfied, and we're not giving them our money this time, and we're talking about it, and that's OK.

I really liked what HejiraNYC said. See for me...I was not around for the "heyday". I was born in 1978, and all I recall is the songs I heard in the 80s on the radio. In 1997, I was aware of The Dance because of my best friend. I was a little curious about it, but did not get to go to those concerts because I wasn't really a "FAN fan" yet, if you know what I mean.

In 1998, I started to "get it." Stevie Nicks toured in June 1998 in NJ, and I got to see that and was SO excited to see a legend. I thought this might be her last time! I had NO idea that in the 2000s she would tour almost EVERY YEAR!

When 2003 came, and "Say You Will" came out, I was in love. I couldn't believe I got to hear new music from a band who was legendary and before my time in a way. I considered myself SO lucky. It was 18 songs of sheer bliss for me. I usually do NOT like an "older legendary" band's new output when compared to their older stuff, but in this case I really got INTO this album. When they toured with it, and had THREE legs in my hometown area, I jumped aboard for a great ride, never knowing if this would be the end or not.

2009 Unleashed came. I was excited, but longed for more new stuff.

I've had almost every year since of solo Stevie and Lindsey tours to satisfy me. But when they are together and Fleetwood Mac is on that stage, well it IS true -- it's about CHEMISTRY and hearing those great songs, because one day there will be fans who come here, who right now are only 10 years old, but in ten years they will be 20 and coming here for the first time, and guess what...they will be envious of us, and they'll be wanting to hear the stories of when they toured, because FM probably won't be touring in 2023! You know? So, it's not that I am drinking the Kool-Aid, or falling for some scheme of theirs to tour for the wrong reasons, and I'm not against ever hearing criticism for my favorite band. What I AM....is grateful no matter what, because even though I am a latecomer fan in Fleetwood Mac's career, I STILL got to see them LIVE in my lifetime. We are lucky we have that because not everyone will. Even if I didn't see the rockin' bangin' kick-ass FM of 1979, and even though I missed Sisters Of The Moon in 1982 etc....I got to SEE them, in some form, perform this great music. I was a part of something. In my lifetime. In THEIR lifetime.

Youtube videos and cell phone clips and even any recording I may have captured WON'T show all of that magic to you skeptics. To someone who wasn't there, maybe it would sound stale to your ears, maybe it looks lacklustre to your eyes. But if you were THERE....you know why it was so important and you appreciate the magnitude of what you witnessed.

I'm grateful for the esacapism I got last weekend. Fleetwood Mac gave that to me. Moments of my life where all I felt was a tingle in my gut from the electric anxiety of seeing them live. Where all I felt was happiness. That's what they gave to me.

This!!!!!!:blob2::blob1:

Couldn't have worded it better Abbi!

Wow AbbiJoy78 I could not have said that any better myself and its exactly how I feel being that I was born in 1977 and the first time I saw the Mac was in 1997 as well. I literally can't get enough and I get so freaking excited everytime they tour and while I would love for them to add some different stuff in their set I am still so unbelievable happy to hear Dreams for the 10th time live. They are my favorite band so I dont care what they sing just as long as I can see them on tour.

Wow, this is so beautiful, I actually had some tears in my eyes when I was reading it. :xoxo:

But there is absolutely nothing wrong with the fans that are showing their disappointment about the new setlist etc. They are real fans nevertheless, and they have every right to write down what they are feeling.

You can absolutely love the Mac and still be sad about some of their choices.
I'm sure you all love your partners, but still don't agree with all of their actions all the time. ;)

It's a little bit like kindergarten in here, at least sometimes. ;)

This is great! Awesome! I feel the same way, I was born at the end of 1980...months after the very long Tusk Tour had ended and years before I'd know what a Fleetwood Mac was! My story is much the same as yours and I for one am thrilled to be able to enjoy this band still now that I am in my 30's, despite the fact that they no longer are!

If someone has seen the show and wants to complain that's fine. But if they haven't seen it and are just going by what they remember from 2009, 2003 or 1997 or 1982 I don't consider the opinion valid anyway. I've seen them every tour since 1979 and, except for Time, I've seen them multiple times every tour (well, I haven't seen this one multiple times yet, but if I live long enough . . .) and I've never seen the same show twice.

And no, I'm not given to watching the same thing over and over again. Although I do think I've seen Purple Rain 15 times and I've seen I Want to Believe and Fight the Future many times as well. But those are exceptions. Usually I don't repeat. Anyway . . .

On the other hand, I don't agree with the "and you call yourself" a fan attitude. I see no reason to be gushy and gooey about anything too long. I would never belong to a fan site where all people do is sit around and sprout googly-eyed praise incessantly. I LOVE to complain. I will complain about anything. I don't want to be happy. I never will be. Maybe I'm not a Fleetwood Mac fan. Maybe I'm a detractor. Detractors need somewhere to post too. Fans should probably go some place where there's lots of love all around and Mary Tyler Moore is throwing her hat up in the air.

Michele

Great post - I love your sentiment! Now if only some other fans could understand, like you do, that some of us are a bit worn out on the same ole'. It doesn't make us any less of a fan than you are. We're just...burnt out, I guess. :o

*****

I think it's funny that, over the years, we've discussed so many aspects of the band on this board, with nearly gleeful abandon. Drug use, affairs, and infidelity. We've talked about how much we hate Stevie's shoes or her dress. How ridiculous Lindsey can be in interviews with his talk of 'cycles'. How much of a moocher Mick is. We've talked about how certain albums or songs are terrible, we've criticized lyrics, shamed them for not recording the demos we like, or for changing a song we liked into something we don't. We talk sh*t about how Judy Wong was treated, about Lindsey being an abusive jerk, about Stevie being a clueless narcissistic primadona. About Stevie putting cocaine in her butt, or having abortions. We've talked about who was screwing around with who and what a good or bad person they are because so-and-so was married. We routinely play games where we vote away songs we don't like. We've discussed songs that we wish had never been! Producers have been trashed - we've even said some admittedly terrible things about members of Stevie's family and Lindsey's wife.

But a tour setlist is off the table? A tour setlist is *too much*. Talking about the lack of an album or releasing new music? Over. The. Line. Not wanting to fork out money to see, essentially, the same tour as before, and before that - that is the final straw? That's SO NEGATIVE that it's enough to bring into question just how much of a fan one really is? Trashing Mick for greed, shaming Stevie for her footwear, publicly dicussing whose hotel room Lindsey was in - these are all ok, but the tour is off limits. Whatever.

For those who don't know or weren't around, this happens for every tour - solo or together as a band. There are always those who aren't content, and they talk about it, and inevitably there are those who just can't stand to read anything critical of Fleetwood Mac (or especially Stevie) when it comes to touring, and will point fingers and call you names for not being a yes-man. :shrug:

Marry me? :laugh:

Just kidding -I'm already married. And gay. :xoxo:

I was unhappy with the setlist in 2009, But I saw them twice, and, as a fan since the mid seventies, they blew my socks off. They never do what I want, and they always overwhelm me anyway. It's that electricity, and the combination of a priceless rythmsection with a sharp and endless energetic guitargod with this untouchable charismatic girlsinger, that somehow, when experienced live, always touch my soul. Whatever dumb choices they make, when you see them live, you just break at the anckles. (Dutch expression. Eh.. Mine anyway).

Wait! Whose hotel was Lindsey in???:laugh:

Michele