Favorite Mac Tour
 

What's yours... I voted Mirage, but I like Tusk very much too.
AND SYW, because it was my first Mac show ever.... What's yours?

I'm missing a few 'tours' here...

Although they were not the Rumours-line up, my first tour was Tango in the Night, followed by Mask in 1990 and 'Another link in The Chain' back in 1995 (or was it 1994, cannot remember). Anyways, saw them in Oberhausen two weeks ago and by far that was my extraordinary best Mac-memory ever !

Mirage!!
 

I voted for Mirage for two reasons:

1) Lindsey looks sooo handsome!! :nod:

2) It's the one tour I would've loved to have seen.

I would definitely have to say the Tusk Tour. I really loved the set they played for that tour, it included 'Sara', 'Angel' and 'Sisters of The Moon'. Christine was doing 'Over and Over' and 'Think About Me'. I didnt really like Lindsey's songs from that album, but I did enjoy 'Save Me A Place'.
Mirage was a close second choice though. I enjoyed hearing the band without all the extra musicians and singers in that era.


Joseph

I voted for the Rumours tour since that was the first Fleetwood Mac show that I ever saw. The Dance tour would probably be my second favorite since that was my last Fleetwood Mac show that I saw. But, I loved the Tango show maybe even more because they did so many Christine songs. Almost half of the show were her songs. I wish I had seen the White Album tour back in 1975 since that tour probably had my favorite set list of any of their tours.

It would be easier to name the one(s) I DIDN'T like that the ones I did.

Really didn't care for The Dance tour at all. Nothing more infuriating than to go to a Fleetwood Mac show and NOT hear "Oh Well"...of all the songs Fleetwood Mac has ever done, THAT one should be mandatory in every set. It would be like seeing Clapton and him not play a blues tune, or The Who not play "Won't Get Fooled Again", or Jethro Tull not play "Aqualung", or, even, the Eagles not play "Hotel California", etc.

Mirage was ok, they attempted to play songs that would've sounded better had they expanded the lineup..."Hold Me" was atrocious, "Gypsy" was weak (still is, actually)...but, "I'm So Afraid" was the best ever, before or after.

My favorite tour of the Lindsey/Stevie era was back in 1975/76. They didn't play the same set night after night. You'd hear some great oldies mixed with chilling new tunes, everything sounded great. THIS is the tour they should've released an official live album from.

I think my favorite tour all-time was the "Shakin' The Cage" (aka Tango) tour. Old Peter Green tunes played alongside brand new tunes and tunes from all eras mixed together and sounding great. Again, I think the "HAEWAFY" to "I Loved Another Woman" to "Brown Eyes" string is the best three-song stretch during any Fleetwood Mac show ever.

I want to say SYW is my favorite tour maybe just cause I was right infront of Lindsey and got to shake his hand, play his guitar and git an autograph.

I wanna say Tusk because it was a mega tour, they went everywhere and the ywere crazy. Lindsey was doing something off the wall each night and they played some awesoem tunes. "Oh Well" is one of my highlights.

I say "Mirage" is right behind that even though a lot of the songs off that album didn't translate well onto live performance.

I don't really care for anything pre-Tusk live, or anything from Shakin The Cage.

MIRAGE
 

Alot of people are right here... Mirage stuff didn't really translate that well (Hold Me,Gypsy), but Love In Store, was awsome live, vocally and musically. But, Highlights of the tour, IMO Sister Of The Moon kicked ass:nod: Best version ever on the VHS:D

The Chain- What else needs to be said, the best performaces ever, energetic and strong.. again in music (guitar rocked) and vocals (I love stevie's "ahhhhh's")

Gypsy translated fine musically, but vocally, I don't really care for it

I'm going with Tusk over Mirage. Mirage had a more upbeat mix of songs, & had more highs and lows, but Tusk seems more sublime. It had atmosphere, and I love the dark stuff.

- Jake

Rick did an excellent job on ILAW.

- Jake

Not even those killer versions of "Rhiannon"? :eek: (Including the one on Live 1980, which was actually recorded during the Rumours tour?)

How u know?

Well, of the ones listed, I'd say '75 because that was the tour (of the ones listed) that was the most balanced of ACTUALLY old and "new" material. One wasn't really sure what would come next, unlike most tours they've had since then, which 90% of (at least) could've been predicted. :)

John

Since I have only seen one show ( Toronto 03) I can't really pick a favourite but I would say that The 75 tour or Mirage tour had good setlists as new and old stuff was played wuth a nice balence. I liked how on the Tango tour they played Seven Wonders (Seems to be missing on every tour since then). Is it too much though for them to shake up the set lists like Tori Amos does on her tours.

Mirage. I'll give you three reasons why. Lindsey. Little hat. Linnen suit. Yep. :nod:

Too bad that I wasn't born untill like eight years later... :rolleyes:

If you listen to recordings of a lot of Fleetwood Mac concerts, or even see them a bunch of times, from different tours, you pick up on how they played songs & what they sounded like at various times, & you can distinguish between a "Rhiannon" recorded in 1977 & one recorded in 1980. The "Rhiannon" on the "Fleetwood Mac Live" album was definitely recorded during the early part of the 1977 tour, as a comparison of it with other early 1977 tour recordings of "Rhiannon" would reveal. The sleeve just says it was done in London, England, so if that information is correct, it was recorded at the Rainbow Theatre sometime during that run (April 8, 9 & 10). The arrangement, the jamming, the instruments being played, the vocals -- everything is essentially identical to other recordings of "Rhiannon" from that same time.

Additionally, there are a couple of recordings of some "Rhiannons" from London on the Tusk Tour, & those sound nothing like the one on the album. The band is playing the song differently, singing differently & even playing different instruments. It's three years later & the live sound has changed. Maybe one of our fan site hosts will post some "Rhiannon" recordings from some of these shows in order to allow everyone to compare eras.

What he said. :) Except, I'd say that it comes from a LATE 1977 version, instead of an EARLY 1977 version...in those early 77 shows, Stevie was STILL belting it out with the same fervor as in 75/76, it wasn't until MID-77 that the dynamics of her vocals within the song changed. Compare versions from the March 77 San Diego show vs the August 77 Las Vegas or Los Angeles shows.



Plus, it's a dead giveaway that the Live 80 album is not what it is advertised, since (even BESIDES the early arrangement of "Rhiannon") they never played "Don't Let Me Down Again" on the Tusk tour...and hadn't played it since early 1976 at the latest.

No, but I'll pull out a few versions for analysis :) Bear with me a while, and I'll pop up a web page with a comparison...
(not going to try editing a 8x5 table in here!)

I'm not even considering the current tour, nor the Dance one. If they aren't supposed to be a nostalgia act then why do they act like one?

I guess the 1975/1976 tours were ideal, for the reasons ChiliD mentioned. Lindsey may still think they sounded like a lounge act on other people's tunes, but I guess it's mainly because they didn't do enough of his songs. ;)
But otherwise the line-up didn't really hit its stride live until the Tusk and Mirage tours. The setlist may not have changed much, but they could still pull up a surprise from the sleeve ("That's Enough For Me" once in Europe, right?) and the arrangements and solos varied enough. It wasn't the most pleasant time for the band members, in fact, maybe that's why those two tours had the youthful intensity at its max.

The Tango tour I have problems with: the backing musicians and singers appear for the first time. The band interplay begins to lessen. Stevie's voice is at its worst; I even prefer her tone on "When I See You Again" to these flat performances that she gave. The change in her stage movements was disappointing too.
But on the other hand Rick and Billy sounded more comfortable with the PG era material than Lindsey (with the exception of "Oh Well"). So at that point one could still maintain illusion of FM retaining the band interplay of the past.

Tusk it is.

Ooooooh...uh....yeahhhhhhh...I think I have to go ahead & disagree with you there.

I don't think Lindsey EVER got a good handle on "Oh Well". The 87/88 tour versions, I think, are the best in the history of the band, as far as LIVE performance. Nothing comes close to the original studio version, though.

I voted for Tusk, but Say You Will is a close second... because I'm still so happy to have seen LB perform live, last saturday, FINALLY:)

actually, i've got a slew of those early to mid 1977 Rumours shows. The very first "Rhiannon's" of that tour were very similar to the Rosebud performance. Stevie hit the same notes and did the same ending - almost verbatim. For the next few months (till the beginning-middle of June), the performances were still strong but it was slowly becoming evident that Stevie's voice was changing and she was having difficulty hitting the higher notes...It's really apparent on the "all your LIFE" lines as well as the ending...Then, in the Little Rock show, she began dropping down the second high note during the "all your life" verses. Her voice was getting a little more strained and scratchy - but it was still good...just a little more raw....Then, in the MSG show from the end of June, she had a really bad night...it's painful to listen to it....she was almost whispering the ending in a falsetto....she kept repeating "try hard!" "try hard!" at the end....i think that was when she began changing her singing during that song.

The "live" album version was definately from the spring of that year. It's a pretty solid performance. Vocals and all....However, i think that they overdubbed the "dreams unwind" lines until she does the screaming part before the final crescendo...she was doing a very soft rendition of those lines which i don't hear on any of those other era shows. And, her voice sounds more Tuskish to me...We know she overdubbed the "Sara" vocal so it's quite possible. Also, they overdubbed the chorus of "Rhiannon".
In the "live" album version, Stevie is doing the middle part and Chris is doing the high part. When they actually did it live back then, Stevie always did the high part and Chris the middle. I'm sure they just wanted it sound fuller. Sounds good to me though either way.

I didn't try to say that I consider Lindsey's take on "the best song ever written, after 'Stardust'" as superior to Rick's and Billy's, although you can read what I wrote that way. I hold both versions in equal value. I understand that if you consider "Oh Well" as a song that only a person with a knowledge of blues can do justice, then Lindsey doesn't cut it. Rick and Billy are more comfortable with it. But I think it was fascinating to hear Lindsey do something that wasn't completely in his ballpark but that he still had an enthusiasm for. On a good, coked-up night, I don't think the instrumental sections were any less hot than what Burnette and Vito were cooking up with their guitars.

i actually think the version on the "live" album is one of the best versions he's done.

Billy and Rick's version was decent too...i think i like their covers of Peter Green's stuff than of Lindsey's.

Not even my point at all. "Oh Well" isn't "blues" in the least (which is my one beef with Billy Burnette's annoying intros of the song when he kept saying "Anyone wanna hear some BLUES?" before playing "Oh Well"...like fingernails across a blackboard.)

I will admit that by the time Lindsey left the band, he'd improved his take on "Oh Well" a TON...and the Live album is testament to that (agreeing with joe, here); especially, when compared to the versions he did on the Who's The New Girl? boot from 1975 and the Sin City '77 boot...those version of OW are REALLY weak. But, the song STILL was in the set, so I really never have had too much of a beef about it. ;) I'd rather hear a weak version of "Oh Well" when I see Fleetwood Mac, than to not have the song in the set at all (like during the current tour and The Dance tour...it's blasphemy to omit that song from a Fleetwood Mac set!)...and with the "guitar pyrotechnics" that Lindsey is featuring this tour, I'm really, REALLY surprised that "Oh Well" ISN'T in the set this time around. ESPECIALLY, since they're touring the UK & Europe! "Oh Well" would fit PERFECTLY right before "Come".