Sorry - this turned out to be a big post - but I'm new here, and have waited so long to post, that all my built up thoughts are just spilling out....warning...turn away, run like the wind if you don't want to read a novel.
"The Dance" for me was almost like a small rock and roll miracle. After years of witnessing this line up of Fleetwood Mac go through love affairs, drug and alcohol addiction, creative difference, industry excess and ego, it was a coup that these 5 individuals - Stevie and Lindsey especially - were able to get together and sing again.
For me, knowing how much Lindsey couldn't stand Stevie for so long, and knowing how cautious Stevie was of Lindsey all these years of he not speaking to her - made seeing them connect during the show, and during "Landslide" especially, a blow-my-mind experience. I blubbered uncontrollably back in '97, and am still in tears when I see it today. There they were - 20+ years since that song was written by a young Stevie pondering her love for Lindsey - after all they'd been through - singing it again. To me, the only true performance of the song is when Lindsey plays it alongside her. No one else. That's their song. Sorry Dixie Chicks..no way. Sorry Billy Corgan, I love ya...but nah. When she sang that last verse, and they paused and looked at each other, almost as if to say.."Can you believe we're doing this after all these years?" with tears and love in their eyes...FRIENDS AGAIN? Holy crap...that was priceless.
Another thing that totally blew my mind back then was the re-appearance of "Silver Springs". Some of the post-Dance fans might not understand how difficult it was to find that song throughout the years. It used to be played by DJ's on FM radio, back in the old days of FM radio, when the DJ was like a friend, only speaking to you. (And by FM - I don't mean Fleetwood Mac - I mean the band/frequency). They'd play this beautiful treasure called "Silver Springs", and talk about how Mac had to leave it off the Rumours album because of lack of room. It showed up on various albums, but it was an ellusive song....and so gorgeous...that it made you want to hunt it down even more. It was on the B side of the single "Go Your Own Way", but for some reason - after a while, I think they didn't issue the single with that B-side song anymore. Whatever the case - I always had trouble finding it until it was released on the Mac box set "many a year ago" (to quote Stevie).
Then suddenly, here comes "The Dance", and those beautiful piano chords of Christine's, waving over the opening bar, and we hear the beautiful "Silver Springs", sung by an older and wiser Stevie, sounding more remorseful than the young woman we hear in the original recording. It's slower, sadder, more recriminating than ever before, as she sings to Lindsey, admonishing him...ripping him a new one...so to speak. It's a catharsis...I'm shaking and crying still - after 9 years of watching this performance. And you could tell, in every part of her being, that after all those lost years, she still held these feelings that needed to be expressed to him. During the whole "Dance", she always looked to Lindsey, not just to keep time with the harmonies, but as an anchor.
And that just blew me away.
Let's get this straight. I adore Buckingham/Nicks as a duo and individuals. I root for their friendship and any romance because they are like old friends to me, whom I love, and want to see happy. Yet, although I'm more of a Buckingham/Nicks era Fleetwood Mac fan, I don't want to just dwell on them. The whole band sounded incredibly tight during this performance. Obvious, due to the professional surroundings and the extra back up singers and session men. However, seeing the joy in Mick's face - the grandaddy of the drums - that lovely wide eyed, open mouth jubilation he expressed with every pound of the drum...oh man...that was worth the wait. Thank God he found his way out of all the drug crap, and is lucid and wonderful again. He's such a lovable rocker....may he and the Mac live on. And, my LORD, Christine just looked and sounded smashing. How I miss her on "Say You Will". Her talent and voice were and are such an important dynamic in this band. And I swear I cannot hear John McVie's voice on "Say You Love Me", but amen to him. He's a quiet soul, and it's his signature bass lines that keep this group thumping.
That's "The Dance" to me.