Miami - American Airlines Arena 03/21/15
 

Getting REALLY excited to see the Mac again next Saturday in Miami. It will be interesting since I saw them very early this tour in Pittsburgh and now near the end of the American tour next week.

The Mac has not played downtown Miami since 1990. They have come to south Florida (West Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale/Sunrise) in years later.

Its really overwhelming to be able to hear Christine McVie live yet one more time. In 1990, during the Farewell tour I made peace with myself that I would never hear Songbird live again. While I loved the Dance tour, I was not overwhelmed since the performances were so mechanical and almost studio production sound that made the live performances not as exciting for me. This tour has SO much more energy than the Dance. Who would have thought that since they are so much older.
Having Chris back in the band is a miracle and such a treat. I hope everyone gets healthy and the Miami show has them back at full strength.

Hope to see everyone at the show. I will post again on this thread to give a full review. It will be bitter sweet because I will again make peace with myself I may never hear Christine McVie live again.

One more time please :)

Still lots of seats on both sides of the far side of the stage available. There are some nose bleeds available too.

I had the intention of going to this one, but I'm not too sure if I'm still going... I'm glad there are still some available because I just might change my mind. ;) Is the arena in a safe area?

Nothing in the Miami area is safe :eek:
The downtown area next to the Arena is probably the best part of downtown. The big tourist area Bayside is next door. There will be lots of police directing traffic around the arena since it will be a full house.
Its as safe as Miami can get :)

If I didn't want to avoid the bugs anyway, this assessment of Miami would still be enough to make me think twice about visiting. :laugh:

Michele

Fleetwood Mac's Ten Most Pivotal Moments

By Hans Morgenstern Thursday, March 19, 2015

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/f...oments-7546764

Fleetwood Mac's recent reunion with formerly retired vocalist/keyboardist Christine McVie marks just another notable transformation for the notoriously tumultuous rock outfit.

The significance of having all of the members of Fleetwood Mac's classic lineup on stage at the American Airlines Arena in Miami this weekend will not be lost on the hardcore fans of the band. Nor will it be lost on the band itself.

In a recent interview with New Times, drummer and founding member Mick Fleetwood said, "Not in a million years would we have ever thought, including Christine herself, that she would have ever been standing up there to my right, on stage, playing in this band again. It's a mythological situation that we have right now, that is unfolding as we speak."

The myth began in London, in the summer of 1967, before Fleetwood even new who McVie was and certainly prior to the membership of singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham, both Americans who joined the band in 1974.

Here are Fleetwood Mac's ten most pivotal moments, from the band's formation and nearly endless lineup changes to Rumours and reunions.

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers

Fleetwood Mac were a product of the early 1960s English blues scene forged by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Guitarist/vocalist Green left the Bluesbreakers to form Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac in 1967. He took Bluesbreakers drummer Fleetwood and bassist John McVie with him, hence the Fleetwood and Mac in the band's name. Fleetwood says the earliest beginnings of Fleetwood Mac came from the DNA of the Bluesbreakers, and reflects fondly on the guitar playing of his band's former leader. "If you listen to ‘Supernatural,’" he says, "which was early Peter Green, one of the first things he ever wrote, to my knowledge, and John Mayall allowed him to put it on a John Mayall album, it’s beautiful. It’s stunningly simple."

"Albatross"
Fleetwood Mac's first U.K. number one was the 1968 instrumental “Albatross,” which marked the band's first departure in its sound. Fleetwood says Green was channeling Hawaiian lapsteel players Santo and Johnny. “‘Albatross’ was like an alien slipping into our milieu,” says the drummer, “into all this hard-driving blues material that we were prone to be doing then, and when it happened, it confused a lot of the people that listened to Fleetwood Mac. It was almost too much medicine of a strange type.”

Peter Green Leaves
After a hit UK album in 1969 with Then Play On, Green reportedly left the group for religious reasons. But there were also rumors. One story had it that Green took a job as a gravedigger. It was later revealed Green became a casualty of the era's LSD culture. Music author Anthony Bozza, who co-wrote Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac: The Autobiography with Fleetwood explains, "He had a mental breakdown ... sort of the onset of mental problems and drugs and stuff and had mental issues brought on by LSD abuse, like Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd.” The closest Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac got to another success like "Albatross" was the 1970 single "The Green Manalishi," whose title spurred rumors of that spiritual rediscovery by Green.

Christine Perfect
Former Chicken Shack keyboardist/singer Christine McVie, née Perfect, joined the band in 1970 after having married Fleetwood Mac bassist, John McVie. Around that time she recorded keyboard parts and even painted the cover for the band's fourth album, Kiln House. She began writing and co-writing songs for the band on their fifth album, 1971's Future Games, which revealed a shift away from blues and more towards folk-pop. "Show Me a Smile," which was written by Ms. McVie, is a nice hybrird of blues and folk.

American Blood
Bob Welch was first American in the band and joined soon after McVie became a full-time member. He hailed from California. Bozza calls this an interim period for Fleetwood Mac but still very important to that band. “That era is very fascinating because it lays the groundwork for the sound that Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks just kind of walked into and made a lot richer," says the writer. "It opened up the possibility of what else this band could do besides being just this incredible blues band, which they were before.” Welch actually wrote most of the songs on the band's eighth album Mystery to Me. "Hypnotized" became a staple on FM radio in 1973.

A Lost Identity
Depending on which of the early 1970s Fleetwood Mac albums you pick up, they could sound like blues, folk pop or mainstream rock. But the most nefarious change came when a former manager created a fake Fleetwood Mac after the band started falling apart due to affairs and alcohol abuse. Their most famous member was guitarist/vocalist Elmer Gantry who later joined The Alan Parsons Project. After playing a few shows under the premise that Fleetwood and Christine McVie would join them, they were stopped by lawyers. Gantry and guitarist Kirby Gregory went on to form the band Stretch, whose 1975 single "Why Did You Do It" was inspired by their time as the decoy Mac.

Buckingham and Nicks
Stretch can have that cheesy 1975 UK semi-hit. In late 1974, Welch left but Fleetwood discovered guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham who agreed to join the group if he could bring his then girlfriend Stephanie "Stevie" Nicks with him. The result was a self-titled album in 1975 often referred to as "the White Album." It featured the dreamy, driving hit single, penned by Nicks, "Rhiannon."

Rumours
After a long world tour that added more difficult experiences of interpersonal relationships, the band wrote and recorded their 1977 hit album Rumours. The songs were inspired by the complexities of love and the difficulties heartache. The most literal track is the Buckingham song "Go Your Own Way," inspired by his difficult relationship with Nicks. As hard as life was in the band, it produced several hit singles. Everyone knows most of the hits, but one notable outtake from the Rumours sessions was "Silver Springs," by Nicks, featuring stalkery lyrics on an existential level: "Time casts a spell on you, but you won't forget me ... You'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you."

Buckingham Leaves
There were more terrific albums since. Though Tusk (1979) and Mirage (1982) have many merits, the bar had been set with Rumours. After the band's hit 1987 album Tango In the Night and as another grueling tour loomed, Buckingham announced his departure. He had argued that his creativity was being stifled, but Bozza notes a bigger, more personal issue: “He didn’t want to be around Nicks and [John] McVie who were still very much on the substances, and Lindsey wasn’t, and he told them later he didn’t want to see them destroy themselves.” In 1990, Fleetwood Mac went on to record an album without Buckingham, Behind the Mask, that produced the low-ranking top 40 single "Save Me."

You Name It
There were clearly more transformations in the line-up, though by this point, the band's sound was secured as adult contemporary pop rock. Fleetwood says, "Really, everyone, other than John and myself, has left this band. Lindsey was first to go, and he was gone, unbelievably – I thought it was only like three years, but he was gone for like 12 years or something, and then eventually Stevie and Chris stayed for a while and then they left, Stevie first, and then Chris left after we had reformed to do The Dance [ in 1997]. So it’s an unbelievably crazy story."

Welcome to Miami Fleetwood Mac. Hope you enjoyed the beautiful weather today and tomorrow here in Miami. Will see you tomorrow night. Please play songbird :)

Still some seats available on ticketmaster for tonight in Miami.
Have fun to everyone going. Please report any set list changes if any. Wondering if Songbird and Seven Wonders are permanently out.
Will be seeing them in Orlando Monday

Oh I will be reporting back tonight and you can read it then.

Just back from the Miami show. It was a full house but they did not start letting people into the arena till 7pm. Is this typical of other cities too? Just a few crowd observations before I get to the fun stuff. It was very warm inside the arena. Even Stevie looked hot and sweaty at the end of GDW. I was on the floor on the Christine side about 50 rows back. Lots of pot smoking going on around me too. Many peeves about this crowd. First one, many were not in their seats by 8:15pm. People were still getting into their seats during Dreams...the 3rd song. The people in front of me constantly loading photos to facebook and texting. I am 45 and not in this generation of facebook and constant selfie updates. Then security was asking for tickets in the row in front of me during Everywhere and it was a big distraction. For some reason security thought people were in the wrong seats. It just reminded me how much I missed the classic rock crowd in Pittsburgh. People having respect for others.
Now....on with the show.
The band took the stage around 8:15. I was in my seat before 7:30. They played several Lindsey acoustic songs....Bleed to Love her, Think about me and Oh Daddy. I wish I could get a recording of Lindsey doing Oh Daddy only with guitar. It was a treat but then I wished I could hear these versions live in concert. At the beginning of the tour in Pittsburgh they never played any such songs before the concert started. Or at least I don't remember so.
The setlist is the same except Seven Wonders and Songbird are dropped. I must say that Christine was on fire. I have NEVER seen her have so much fun at any FM concert or solo concert. She sang every song. She mouthed ever word of Dreams, Second Hand News, Rhiannon, Gypsy, etc. She was smiling and having so much fun. She was egging the crowd on more than I saw in Pittsburgh even with her accordion. She gave a big welcome to "Miami, the sunshine state." She commented how much she loved Miami and the sun but yielded she lets Stevie and Lindsey do all the talking. She was funny too. Stevie commented after YMLF that Miami was their 67th show of the tour and she normally would say Welcome Chris and then Christine would say Thank you in the phony British accent that Stevie uses when she imitates Chris. And Chris said it like Stevie would imitate her with. Talk about funny! I hope someone posts this on youtube. At the end of Rhiannon Steive was spinning and her shawl got caught up with all that ribbon hanging from her microphone. She could not escape. So Christine came over and stage people came running on stage. It took a little while to free Stevie. It was funny. Everyone was around Stevie trying to free her from her microphone. Lindsey gave a very good speech at the beginning of Big Love. Usually he talks in code and not specifics. But he was very specific talking about the recording of Tango in the Night at his house and how hard it was and how happy he was with the record. But he said he could not tour with the band because he needed to make major changes in his life. I never heard him talk like this before. Usually he blamed the band for wanting to leave, etc. During the intro to Gypsy Lindsey was holding his head in his hands as to be in disbelief and bored. Stevie was talking about how they opened for Creedance Clearwater Revival and the car broke down and they were stranded in some CA town. Lindsey then made a car horn noise with his guitar. Stevie looked and Lindsey and said "why did you do that, are you bored?" She then acknowledged she was sorry for boring people with the story. Stevie dedicated Landslide to a friend Eve who lives in Key West. Stevie's wild crack head dance at the end of GDW is much tamer than it was early in the tour. Big difference. Christine really sounded good. She is over being nervous and having so much fun. She wore a mini black glove on her right hand and I thought that would be a sign of some hand injury. But she only wore the glove to play the maraccas. She plays wild during Don't Stop. I was watching the other keyboardist and he was not playing much during Don't Stop. Stevie looks exactly the same from when I saw her in Oct 2014. Lindsey looked a bit more tired and Mick looks like he lost weight. Christine looked amazing with much thicker bangs and dressed in black with a big silver star broach on her top. She really was having fun tonight like I have never seen before. Before the Chain started Chris, Stevie and Lindsey came out on Chris's side of the stage and met my Chris's keyboards. They all hugged and kissed each other on the cheek before going to their places. During Landslide Stevie and Lindsey were holding hands well before the song even ended. Stevie commented that since the beginning of the tour in Sept there were snow covered hills everywhere they went except in Miami. Seven Wonders and Songbird were dropped. I was prepared for this otherwise I would have been devastated. Stevie did not speak at the end. I missed her speech. Mick did give a speech at the end.
Good concert. I missed Songbird but loved to see Christine having so much fun. She wanted to sing every song. This tour is so much better than the Dance. Christine looked so bored during the Dance. I still am upset that Stevie and Lindsey do deep cuts and they don't allow Chris to do one too.
Hopefully there are videos on youtube soon. I know I want to see them :)
Oh a couple other thoughts. Lindsey is getting more comfortable doing Chris songs too. He has added very loud guitar licks during YMLF. In Oct there were a few in the song but he has really turned it up. Sort of like the Mirage tour. There were no flowers, stuffed animals or albums to sign in the front row. Gosh I was I could have been in the front row by Christine. I would have been holding her 1984 solo album up for an autograph and I have a feeling she would have signed :) During Second Hand News during the "Do it do it do it do it do it" Christine would point to the crowd with both hands over and over and mouth it. She was on fire!

I LOVE your review and it sounds like you got a great show, because so many unique things happened. Maybe it was the heat in the area. I don't like Oh Daddy, but I look forward to hearing the acoustic version.

Christine imitating Stevie doing her British accent is hilarious.

Oh my GOODNESS, I cannot believe Stevie getting stuck in her mic ribbons and everyone coming over to help. They need to keep a jaws-of-death in the wings, just in case Stevie needs to be extricated. It sounds like an SNL skit.

I'm surprised Stevie was still friendly with Lindsey after he made a noise with his guitar during his speech. She must have thought it was funny and was meant to be funny, otherwise she would have ignored him all night and it sounds like they were being cute and cozy instead.

Michele

Photos I took from tonight!:
https://plus.google.com/photos/11640...20719419605537

Thanks, Erin!

Thanks for posting. You brought back another memory. It was so cute the way Lindsey would cradle his head in Stevie's shoulder during Say You Love Me. Photo 11 shows Stevie stuck at the mic and everyone trying to free her LOL

Shades of him laying on her back for SOTM back in the day.

Michele

During the past few shows they've been interacting and touching in Say You Love Me, You Make Lovin' Fun AND Don't Stop. It's all very amusing.

I thought about going - hope it was a ball!! Saw them in Lauderdale back in December and was planning only on seeing them again if I could get close floor seats. No such luck this time.

Great review! Glad you had a good time. I'm 48 and I'm right there with you. When I go to a concert, I watch the concert. The phone stays in my pocket. But I get it's a generational thing. Miami crowds aren't the best in my experience. I'm still in disbelief that Songbird has been dropped. It's baffling but whatever. I'm sure they have their reasons. I wonder why Stevie isn't doing her speech at the end. Interesting.

'the hell?

http://stevie-nicks.info/wp-content/...rtsfield02.jpg

There's no way they keep Songbird out for the California shows, right?? Soon enough they'll be back in LA.

I heard Landslide was dedicated to someone named Ashley? Did anyone hear her name as well?

No Seven Wonders or Songbird?!?! Omg!! Why!! Please bring them back!! I already think this set list is so-so, then they take out 2 of my favorites. :(

Yes she dedicated Landslide to about 3 or 4 people. One was Eve in Key West and Ashely and someone else too.
Most of the floor stood for the show but did sit during parts. Most were sitting during I'm So Afraid. But it got dramatic at the end when the house lights go on and everyone stands and gives Lindsey an ovation.

Another generational thing is when I saw T shirts for $45 :eek:
My first concert was Stevie's Wild Heart Tour where the tickets were $12.75 each and you could get a baseball T shirt for $11.

Did someone put a penguin up there for Johh?

Michele

Looks like Lilo from Disney's 'Lilo and Stitch', actually.

Without watching a Landslide video (yet), I assume it was this Ashley. https://instagram.com/p/0hUC4ktHPd/

Ok. So, those would be ears instead of wings.

Michele

It's Stitch, Lilo is the girl. ;)

Oh my... Sometimes my fingers type and the wrong thing comes out. I know. I mean, it came out when I was twelve and I watched it A LOT so I have no excuse. *curses self*

Interesting note about the smoking, considering the concert I attended in Tampa in December had not a single hint of pot smoke (not that I would know lol) ;) Maybe it's a Miami thing?

There was pot wafting around the upper level of Madison Square Garden

In NYC??? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Yes, I suppose that could have gone without saying:laugh:

I am shocked, shocked to find that there is gambling in this establishment!

I def smelled quite a bit of weed at the NY show, and some in Philly too.

Okay, so this review says nothing about Christine's performance that evening. Despite making routine mention of Christine's return in the opening paragraph, plus a brief nod to a bitof stage banter, the writer proceeds as if FM were merely Lindsey and Stevie, with a tad of Mick. Doesn't mention her singing or playing once. Annoying.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/f...-miami-7549342

Thanks for posting this. I was going to do it last night but got lazy :eek:
Some major factual errors in the article. I hate that today's "journalists" never fact check anything.
It is not the Mac's first appearance in downtown Miami with Christine in 38 years. Christine played with the Mac in 1990 in the older Miami Arena that was built in 1989 and torn down about 10 years ago. There are multiple videos of this concert on youtube.

And yes the article makes a fuss about Chris in the first paragraph but never mentions anything else.

[Thanks for posting it] Miami New Times Monday, March 23, 2015

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/f...-miami-7549342

Fleetwood Mac's On With the Show Tour in Miami

By Hans Morgenstern

It’s been nearly 38 years since Fleetwood Mac appeared in Miami with Christine McVie, whose smooth vocals and strident keyboards were so essential to the sound of this legendary rock band.

That last Magic City show starring all five members of the group's classic lineup was at the long-gone Miami Stadium for megahit album Rumours. Now, all these decades later, the quintet is back together and still playing many songs off that 1977 record for its On With the Show tour.

So, needless to say, it was a historic reunion the other night at the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami. And thankfully, for many latecomers, Fleetwood Mac hit the stage on Miami time, around 25 minutes past 8 p.m., though thousands were still scrambling to their seats after the band kicked off the show with “The Chain.”

On paper, the song — which equally features the band’s trio of singers: McVie, Stevie Nicks, and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham — was a great choice. Though the voices of McVie and Buckingham have clearly been roughened by time, Nicks’ raspy vocals have only improved with age. But the most egregious problem with the opener came from the its steady, deliberate beat, through no fault of drummer Mick Fleetwood. It was potently played, but an annoying echo bounced down from the upper level of the arena following each lick of the drum kit.

Much of Fleetwood Mac's charm is its knack for creating an enveloping sense of intimacy. And though it’s unrealistic to expect this hit machine to play a small theater with proper acoustics, that would be the ideal setting for a band mostly defined by smooth, dreamy songs featuring distinctive voices. But if there is one thing that can fill an arena besides hits, it is charisma, and this band has that to spare.
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After “The Chain,” Nicks played up McVie’s return to the Fleetwood Mac fold, which, after her departure in 1998, was something hardly anyone expected to see again. She noted the Miami show marked their 67th performance with McVie since she decided to rejoin the group last year. “I feel there are all kinds of things she could say, but I won't go into that,” said Nicks in a clear reference to the band members' tumultuous relationship. Later, McVie said, “On a personal note I'd like to thank John [McVie, her former husband and the band’s bassist], Mick, Stevie, and Lindsey for letting me do this again.”

Throughout the show, one of the most interesting things was how the band members played with their history and the personal stories that inspired the songs. “I think it's fair to say we are a group of individuals and a band that's seen its ups and downs,” Buckingham offered later that night. “We have been able to evolve but also prevail in the good and bad times.”

Though supplemented by a trio of backing singers, as well as an extra keyboardist and guitarist, the band's most compelling numbers of the night came about when Buckingham picked up an acoustic guitar. Alone on stage, he again brought up Fleetwood Mac’s history before playing a spare yet energetic version of “Big Love.”

“We lived our lives the way we thought we were supposed to,” he said before noting the significance of the single off the group’s 1987 album, Tango In the Night, which was Buckingham’s last album with Fleetwood Mac before he “took leave.” He mentioned that the lyrics of the song have evolved in meaning for him over the years. “It began as a contemplation on alienation, but it became about the power and importance of change," he said.

He then broke into a spirited version of the song, lashing at the nylon strings of the acoustic in his distinctive style of flicking downward on the instrument. Stripping "Big Love" of all of its embellishments, he was able to highlight the lyrics and even enhance the song’s energy. This was the first of a trio of acoustic songs that would be the evening’s highlights. After the song, Buckingham got the night’s second standing ovation. (The first was for a spirited version of the 1979 single “Tusk,” with the marching band part coming from a backing track enhanced by a giant screen projecting images of the ‘70s-era marching band.)
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Then Nicks, who was Buckingham’s girlfriend when he joined the group, came out for the next song. She was one of the night’s chattiest members. “This song is my dad’s favorite song, and he said he thought I wrote it about it him,” she offered. “I didn't, but I wanted to mention that because it brings him closer.” After three other dedications, she offered the song’s title: “This song is called ‘Landslide,’” and Buckingham played that familiar, sad, rambling guitar line. It was a beautiful moment capped off with the couple holding each other's hands to another standing ovation.

“Every place that that's been played there has been snow,” Nicks said, whose emphasis on “snoooow” in the lyrics got nary a notice from the Miami crowd. “Real snow. Not here.”

Indeed, Miami could have responded to the band with more enthusiasm. There was an almost collective zoning out during a pair of extended songs — “Gold Dust Woman” and “I'm So Afraid” — featuring indulgent but potent solos. Of course, they were a pair of challenging, slow-burning deep cuts from the earliest years of this lineup that appeared toward the end of a nearly two-hour set. So sleepy fans can be forgiven, and it was a relief to some when the band delivered an enthusiastic “Go Your Own Way" afterward. Buckingham, who gave the most energy that night, sometimes letting out primal roars instead of words, played an epic guitar solo and even bent over to the front row, allowing fingers to reach up from the pit to play on his fretboard at the hit single's conclusion.

Even Mick Fleetwood had his own moment to interact with the crowd from his epic kit, which featured an impressive array of cymbals, two of the longest rows of chimes you will ever see, and a giant gong. During the night’s encore, which kicked off with “World Turning,” the rest of the group wandered off as Fleetwood pounded through a lengthy solo and inspired a call-and-response with the crowd. “Goodness gracious me,” said the drummer. “One thing is for sure, much fun was had by all tonight.” Then the full band came back to play a rollicking version of “Don't Stop.”

It had already been a long, lovely evening, and though many in the audience began trickling out to beat traffic as Fleetwood Mac played a perky version of “Don’t Stop,” Fleetwood Mac was not done. The five reunited members offered a wonderful version of “Silver Springs” to end the night. It’s rare for a band that began in the late ‘60s and had high points in both the ‘70s and ‘80s to be able to draw an arena-size crowd so many years later.

Fleetwood Mac can still bring it. It was a mythic, historical moment this past Saturday night. And who knows if Miami will ever get one like it again.