Your opinion: the Mac's zenith concert performance?
 

So if you could pick one song, from one concert that represents Fleetwood Mac at the top of it's game, at it's most Fleetwood Macness :laugh:, what would it be?

I began pondering this question while I was cruising youtube at work this morning. For me it will always be "Sisters of the Moon" from the Mirage concert in '82. To me that's Fleetwood Mac at it's crazed best. Stevie screaming in tongues in all her coked out goodness... babbling about stuffed animals living in her house, assistants pouring beer down Mick's throat while he plays :laugh:, John's absolute pounding bass riff, Lindsey's comical appearance yet SCREAMING guitar playing, Lindsey and Christine's exchanged sordid looks, Christine visibly being completely tanked... all tied together in arguably the hardest rocking performance of the Mac's career is what makes it for me. This one performance alone proves FM is NOT the California soft rock dinosaur that the press claimed them to be at the time. I listen to this song every single morning to get me going... I've heard it several thousand times I'm sure, and it is the one performance that NEVER fails to make me smile. It is just the complete essence of Fleetwood Mac tied up into one song, with each member of the band playing out their stereotyped role to it's max.

How familiar are you with other performances on the same tour?

Hell yes man. Great choice. I agree with your selection. I was even thinking about that one before I read your description. That would have been my choice if I didnt put the same concerts The Chain in front of it. Lindsey's guitar playing alone sets that song above Sisters. The solo is unstoppable. When I have a friend who nay says Fleetwood Mac, all I have to do is play that one for them and even if they wont admit they're amazing, will at least admit that Lindsey is sick. I dont think its possible to argue that anything shows the Mac at their musical best better than the Mirage tour. The frustration of everything around them was fueled through their playing. It definitely shows.

Good choice. But I'd pick their performance of "Tusk" in, I think, St. Louis, for the Tusk Tusk Documentary. That's primal. It's like nothing else the band did before or since--and unlike anything else in all of rock.

I'm not as familiar with the other performances from the Mirage tour. I just know that I love how assertive the entire band is for the Mirage concert video. Stevie really puts herself out there forcefully, confidently, and unapologetically with all her vocals (this is really the only time in Mac history your could say that), Lindsey is just insane with his guitars, and John knocks it out of the park with his hard driving bass. Even Christine seems to be visibly having fun on stage during this concert, whereas she usually comes across as rather indifferent. Everyone but Mick seemed to be at their ripest and best... but of course history proves you can only go downhill from there. What I mean by that is it seems everyone was enhanced by their substance usage, whereas Mick seemed like he was suffering from it, and it was well down the path to his addiction bringing him down.

So is there something else I should know about the Mirage tour? Was it better/worse than the Mirage concert video?

It's highly subjective, as you know, but I think that there were some performances on that tour which outstrip the videotaped Los Angeles stuff in terms of energy & passion.

I just love everything about "The Chain" from the Dance. But just about everything from the Tusk tour was amazing, too.

It would most deff. be Rhiannon for me. She would be so intense in that song.

The Chain from the Mirage video
 

I agree with JbbyStew86. That version of The Chain....WOWZA. It is an entity. In fact, I must listen to it right now. The energy is un-friggin-believable.

yeah since i wrote my response, ive listened to it a few times myself!!

The Chain, Go Your Own Way, Sisters of the Moon are all incredible on that video. Certainly my favorite version of both The Chain and GYOW.

I will agree that there are some other Mirage shows which capture even better what the Mac was about at that time...love the Denver and Oakland shows.

It's hard to believe that 5 years later the band would have such a completely different live sound.

Is that because Lindsey was no longer the lead guitarist?

Lindsey not being the guitarist certainly had a lot to do with it, as did so many other factors. Stevie was calmed the hell down due to being off cocaine, and totally zonked out on Klonopin. For all intensive purposes their power house front people were gone for that tour. Rick and Billy I believe ushered in a more soft rock/middle of the road sound to the band too. Tango era everyone was hitting their 40s too... so maybe they calmed down just a bit too? (of course Lindsey's exit from the band after Tango isn't a good example of this lol)

i think the change in guitar during Tango is the biggest reason for the different sound. just watch the Chain video from that concert series and compare it to the Mirage Chain vid and see the difference. IMO they utterly lamed out. Rick and Billy did seem to bring in a laid back type soft rock style.

on a side note, does anyone out there have an MP3 of the GYOW from the Mirage concert that was turned into the tape? Ive heard its spectacular and I would love to hear it. I have SOTM, Rhiannon and The Chain. Does anyone have anything else!?!!? HELPPPPP!:shrug:

Hard to find one song that "represents Fleetwood Mac", since we have 3 songwriters and singers (just to mention the Rumours lineup). And that's why Fleetwood Mac is my favorite band. Their complexity and variety.

So If I look for a song where the 3 of them are "equally" involved, it would be The Chain. Cause thinking in Rhiannon or GYOW doesn't show Christine at her "zenith". So The Chain is the most "band" song..

now the "zenith concert performance" in terms of a whole show could be any from the Rumours-Tusk era, in my opinion, followed by the Reunion Tour

btw, remember the tour was not called The Dance tour, but the Reunion tour, though everybody recall it as The Dance toour).