Let's be thankful
 

I was reading the Dance appreciation thread, and a thought occured to me. I can understand people's reasons for wanting more variety sometimes, but here's how I see it. I waited for 20 years to see Fleetwood Mac live, and the Dance represented my first opportunity to do that. How would I have felt if I was a fan of let's say the Beatles or Led Zeppelin, bands where there's no chance that there will ever be a reunion. Let's all be grateful we had that opportunity.:nod:

Good point, but you have to appreciate an opinion of someone like ChiliD, who's seen em live like 100 times since the latter 18th century.

And I do, he has alot of good opinions, I agree with him most of the time, and I'm certainly not begrudging him his opinion here either.

I just found out that a friend of mine's mother, perfectly healthy 58 year old died of a heart attack. I couldn't agree more to be thankful they are a) alive and b) doing something.

Exactly. And that is how i thought it was going to be - I thought I would never see them, and I was so sad.

Ok, then, that just proves my point of Fleetwood Mac being a nostalgia act. Sure, you saw Mick, John, Lindsey, Stevie & Christine together, but, you didn't see them in "their prime"...the five of them were not really reuniting to do something new, they were trying to RECREATE something that couldn't be recreated. (Point #1 to why the Beatles never reunited when they could have...you can't repeat something that is a one-time phenomenon).

It is the same thing with me & Cream. I didn't see them the first time around back in the '60's. Was I dying that they reunited? Yes. Did I want to see them? Yes. Were they doing anything beyond being a nostalgia act? No. But, I knew that going in. I wasn't led on with any allusions that they just might be doing something new. (as I was with The Dance) Did they present their songs in new & different ways? A couple of songs, yes; mostly, no (other than they were considerably shorter and played at a significantly lower volume). Did they rake in cash? Yep...and for good causes, too. Jack Bruce was hurting for cash due to his illness and Eric still has to fund his Crossroads drug rehab center. Didn't hear of Fleetwood Mac funnelling a portion of their profits into charitable causes other than "family income".

16th...I had seats next to Henry VIII & Ann Boleyn.

Yeah but Fleetwood Mac did have new songs...My Little Demon, Temporary One, Bleed to Love Her, and Sweet Girl....AS WELL AS a new arrangement of The Chain (without the capo!)....Big Love and Go Insane obviously...and the never before heard live Silver Springs. That's a pretty far cry from not doing, or at least attempting to do something fresh. And from *this* fans standpoint...the Dance sounds really tight to me. Despite all the arguments you can get into about overdubs, etc....they looked good, and the sound was killer. I much prefer that "version" of the band than say, Tango in the Night era. Based on all that, I'd say The Dance was much LESS of a nostaligia-feast than Cream's recent re-uniting. Regrettably, I missed those shows too.

For the record, carrying over from the other thread, I agree with most of this. While I'll always bemoan Fleetwood Mac's insistence to adhere to the same script night after night after night, I think The Dance was relatively fresh and interesting, in the context of a reunion tour, and in the context of having the same setlist every night. Four new songs, an old rare B-side and a handful of new arrangements made for a pretty interesting mix. My chief complaints are with the SYW tour, which I think was sub-par even in the context of playing the same thing every night.

Nope...they'd played it a number of times during the Rumours tour (even documented on a few bootlegs), but, alas, they dropped it after a few shows.

If the video of the soundstage concert(s) was "it", then yeah...they attempted something fresh. But, after seeing the subsequent tour, they became stale INCREDIBLY quickly...they should've just set up a screen on the stage and projected the soundstage show up there. Yes, Lindsey WAS (and still is) that robotic.

I think he means "live" as in exposure to a major audience (Brandon, correct me if I'm wrong). No one had really ever heard of it until The Dance.

Interesting. I didnt know that. Regardless...even that song aside, there was much to "The Dance" that allowed it to climb higher than nostalgia package. As far as I'm concerned...the "Time" era of the group was more that than the Dance era. *prepares himself for unholy wrath of Chili*

you know what? I didn't even think about that til you just said it, but I think you're right! Remove the 2 central figures of the band and replace them with 3 sorta kinda unknowns...

Say it truthfullly, YOU hadn't heard of it until The Dance...there were millions of people who "heard of it" when they bought the "Go Your Own Way" single in 1976...and later.

don't presume to tell me how to say anything or infer that my statements were not truthful.

you are correct, but it did not have the exposure it received from The Dance