Originally Posted by michelej1
Nicks certainly wasn't the vibrant, flaky, hippie Gypsy lady of days gone by. Her voice familiar, but when it wasn't buried in the mix, was only a shadow of what it once was - as a half-hearted Landslide and a remarkably tepid version of her solo song Stand Back revealed - and her stage presence that was neither the expected sexy nor even seemingly remotely interested,
If you'd ever seen her perform before, alone or with Mac, you'd have been left wondering whether or not she even wanted to be there or was merely punching a clock because this was where she felt comfortable.
And even drummer Fleetwood, in previous shows a fun and energetic ham who was more than happy to step up and take the spotlight that his name and talents afforded him, was little more than a bit player - his by-the-books encore solo only underscored that - albeit in a show in which there were no stars.
So the night, instead, relied on the tried and true plot, content to rarely if at all diverge from the recorded reminiscence of those songs, and when it did, it certainly didn't improve upon them.
Take another solo Buckingham on the glorious Never Going Back Again, which was little more than a pub performance that made you wonder if a dreary, Guinness-soaked, drunken shouted cover of American Pie was next.
Even a version of Tusk - one of the most underrated, upbeat and adrenalized pop songs the world has ever known - was a flaccid, cheerleader-less take on that great tune, and made you only want to go back to the original.
Three decades later, Fleetwood Mac, Friday night at the Saddle-dome, were old, worn and what once was.
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