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Old 06-10-2019, 11:52 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Default Werchter - the tale of 2 opposite reviews

i woke up saturday morning and the first thing i saw when i opened my LB search was this weird, highly insensitive, sick title. how sad can some people be to direct this at the guy who had a heart attack over what the band did to him?

http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20190...vvjILgjXVl2sGM


Eat this, Lindsey Buckingham!

09/06/2019 at 10:53 by Floor Deckx

Eat this, Lindsey Buckingham!
Photo: Koen Bauters

Let anyone announce that his next song is a 'song of unity' and our bull**** radar will take off immediately. But then Neil Finn put in "Don't dream it's over" and our skepticism melted like the ice blocks in our far too big gin-tub: faster than we loved. And "Don't dream it's over" wasn't even a Fleetwood Mac song.

It is a detail that says a lot about this concert. More specifically about the relationships between the band members and how they have been shaken by the arrival of two new members. Little necessary interpretation for those who have not graduated in the Applied Fleetwood Mac sciences: "relationship" is a loaded concept in this context. There are graphs about the composition of the band and the internal struggles that have been the basis for the departure and return of some members over the years - that is how complex history is. We are not going to reconstruct them here (interested people can sign up for the slide evening), but for a good understanding of this review we have to explain the last episode.

Last year guitarist / vocalist Lindsey Buckingham was thrown out of the band and replaced by two new members: Neil Finn from Crowded House and Mike Campbell, for years from the regular sidekick of the late Tom Petty. Well, those two turned out to be crucial for the resurrection of a Fleetwood Mac that didn't sound as tight as it is today. There was speed in the set, the vocal harmonies sounded downright heavenly and although this was already their fifty-eighth concert of the tour, it did not seem routine. Retired at age sixty-seven? Not if you're with Fleetwood Mac.

Tom Petty

If we have to name one weak link, that would be the vocal qualities of Christine McVie. When she sang solo, she sounded fragile and not always in tune. She was less able to hide her limitations than Stevie Nicks. The latter also did not get the high notes in 'Rhiannon', but sought refuge in other keys to disguise it. At times this even became the Great Stevie Nicks Show, because what a charisma this woman has! How she made a real act of 'Gold dust woman' with her golden scarf, or paid tribute to Tom Petty with her interpretation of 'Free fallin': pure class.

That also applied to Neil Finn. The fact that he opened with 'The chain' - allowed to open -, a song with a pronounced Buckingham signature, shows how much trust there is. Nicks and Finn brought together a catchy, intimate, acoustic version of the famous Crowded House song "Don't dream it's over", and no one had to be encouraged to sing loudly "hey now, hey now" on the meadow.

It seems strongly that the new musical blood has provided new impulses. The early seventies of Fleetwood Mac just came to show how that should be done, to give a heart-warming and unparalleled concert.
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