Atlanta 12/17/2014

[lulu28]

So are any other Ledgies going to the concert tomorrow night? It's a first FM concert for my little girl, and we are both so excited!!

[J.Miller]

LauraTN and I are going. I am excited because this will the first time that I will Christine with FM.

[deluge]

I'll be there, and am excited about the show. This is the first time I'm getting to see the classic "Rumors" lineup.

The first time I saw FM in concert, Lindsey had left the band and was not there. Then, each time I've seen them since, Christine hasn't been in the band.

This was a tough ticket. I wish the band made great seats available to fans to buy without having to pay $750 for a MF meet & greet ticket or $500+ for a Platinum ticket. Those are too expensive! But I'll be there, even if further back than I typically would be, 18th row floor. And I'm looking forward to it.

Enjoy the show, Ledgies!

[jbrownsjr]

Hope you have a great time. I can say this much: All three singers sounded amazing. The Chain gave me chills. Mick drummed his ass off. Stevie and Lindsey seem to be warming up to each other. And Christine and Lindsey have been a love fest.

Biggest surprise for me was how less nasal Stevie sounded. Landslide in LA was way better than even the 1997 versions.

Songbird was amazing, too.

Dive in!

[J.Miller]

Everyone sounded great. I am trying to post some videos to YouTube but our hotel wifi is very slow. I got some decent footage of Christine's songs because the videos during her songs made everyone's face show up better.

[MoonSister75]

Originally Posted by lulu28

So are any other Ledgies going to the concert tomorrow night? It's a first FM concert for my little girl, and we are both so excited!!

It must have been amazing. I'd love to hear how it went. My daughter is 5, a bit too young for me to take. It must be so exciting to go with your little girl

[stevierocks87]

It was great. It was so much fun hearing Christine's songs, and I was actually really suprised by how great Stevie sounded-really better than she has in years and years. There was some more nuance in her voice and she threw in little vocal suprises (and it lights up the night....not quite the powerful high note that she hits in the Dance but something about it was different). LOVED Sisters and Seven Wonders, the Rhiannon cape is beautiful and adds so much to the song. Epic Gold Dust as always this tour. Lindsey was SO into it and pumped up after all of his songs. And he added so much to Songbird with his electric strumming. Just the best way to end a FM show.

The few negatives....those damn screens that randomly come down above the stage. They are completely pointless (as another reviewer has said screensaver-like illustations) and actually blocked the view of Stevie, Lindsey, and Christine for several songs for those of us up high.
-Big Love- seriously, do the album version. Would have fit in so well with the other TITN songs.

But very few complaints overall....being there the energy is just so incredible, YouTube videos could never do it justice. Loved Stevie's Gypsy intro and her long talk at the end. Also at the beginning she welcomed us by saying "My father always used to say the most beautiful women come from Atlanta, Georgia!" Of couse very few people that live here are from here anymore, but still a sweet gesture. There was a funny moment- Christine or Stevie told us Mick had a cold-( which you NEVER would have known-the drum solo was SOOOOO good! SO glad he's not doing the stupid vest thing and is sticking to the drums. And then those voice-overs kick-in- amazing!!!) and he almost forgot to introduce Christine because of it- he totally saved it though.


Great, great show- the energy just feels complete with the 5.

[WildHearted]

Had a wonderful time. They were in great form and there was an awesome energy both in stage and in the audience.


Chris was so good. So glad I was able to see her with FM at last. Her songs were definitely big crowd pleasers.

I'm So Afraid blew everyone around me away. I was in the first section up from the floor, and it seemed like the people there were mostly just casual fans and they started out sitting for that song but by the end of it were on their feet and hooting and hollering and raving about it afterward.

Mick forgot to introduce Christine during the band intros, so the other four all stood in a huddle with their arms around each other and jokingly glared at him and scolded him, which was hilarious.

Stevie said her dad used to say that all the beautiful women came from Atlanta, GA... To which she would respond, "But Dad, I'm not from Atlanta" and he would just shrug. So she dedicated Landslide to all of the beautiful women from Atlanta GA.

Say You Love Me and Landslide seemed to be the biggest sing-a-long songs. During a landslide EVERYONE had their phones out to film it and was singing... It was somehow touching.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by WildHearted

Had a wonderful time. They were in great form and there was an awesome energy both in stage and in the audience.


Chris was so good. So glad I was able to see her with FM at last. Her songs were definitely big crowd pleasers.

I'm So Afraid blew everyone around me away. I was in the first section up from the floor, and it seemed like the people there were mostly just casual fans and they started out sitting for that song but by the end of it were on their feet and hooting and hollering and raving about it afterward.

Mick forgot to introduce Christine during the band intros, so the other four all stood in a huddle with their arms around each other and jokingly glared at him and scolded him, which was hilarious.

Stevie said her dad used to say that all the beautiful women came from Atlanta, GA... To which she would respond, "But Dad, I'm not from Atlanta" and he would just shrug. So she dedicated Landslide to all of the beautiful women from Atlanta GA.

Say You Love Me and Landslide seemed to be the biggest sing-a-long songs. During a landslide EVERYONE had their phones out to film it and was singing... It was somehow touching.

SYLM and Landslide were the two most sing a long at the Forum, too. Glad you liked it.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by WildHearted

Mick forgot to introduce Christine during the band intros, so the other four all stood in a huddle with their arms around each other and jokingly glared at him and scolded him, which was hilarious.

Oh, sounds hilarious. Mick can blame it on the cold medicine.

Glad you had a good time.

Michele

[lulu28]

Originally Posted by MoonSister75

It must have been amazing. I'd love to hear how it went. My daughter is 5, a bit too young for me to take. It must be so exciting to go with your little girl

Oh My Goodness, it was incredible!!! Everyone around us was so excited that my daughter was only 10 and seeing The Mac for the first time. She started crying when Stevie came out on stage and believe me, she had three rows of adults crying with her! Everyone in our section was so much fun and stood up, singing and dancing the entire time. The band was on fire, even with Mick having a nasty cold. He did get in trouble for not introducing Christine and all of them ganging up on him was hilarious! I have approximately 1000 pictures between two cameras, so I will try to upload some of the decent ones this weekend if I have time. I was so excited, I was shaking, so I have lots of blurry pictures, I'm sure! Ha! Stevie and Christine were beautiful as always, John looked well and seemed to be having a great time, and Mick and Lindsey were in rare form. My favorite song was Gold Dust Woman and Stevie's crack head dance was epic, though we were on Christine's side and she moved across the stage on Lindsey's side to do the dance. If you are close to Atlanta, I would highly recommend going to Philip's Arena for the March show. Easy parking and we were out of downtown and on the interstate within 20 minutes of exiting the venue. Now we are anxiously awaiting the Knoxville, TN concert in March! For us first timers, this was an EPIC concert!

[MoonSister75]

Originally Posted by lulu28

Oh My Goodness, it was incredible!!! Everyone around us was so excited that my daughter was only 10 and seeing The Mac for the first time. She started crying when Stevie came out on stage and believe me, she had three rows of adults crying with her! Everyone in our section was so much fun and stood up, singing and dancing the entire time. The band was on fire, even with Mick having a nasty cold. He did get in trouble for not introducing Christine and all of them ganging up on him was hilarious! I have approximately 1000 pictures between two cameras, so I will try to upload some of the decent ones this weekend if I have time. I was so excited, I was shaking, so I have lots of blurry pictures, I'm sure! Ha! Stevie and Christine were beautiful as always, John looked well and seemed to be having a great time, and Mick and Lindsey were in rare form. My favorite song was Gold Dust Woman and Stevie's crack head dance was epic, though we were on Christine's side and she moved across the stage on Lindsey's side to do the dance. If you are close to Atlanta, I would highly recommend going to Philip's Arena for the March show. Easy parking and we were out of downtown and on the interstate within 20 minutes of exiting the venue. Now we are anxiously awaiting the Knoxville, TN concert in March! For us first timers, this was an EPIC concert!

Thanks for the report - it sounds wonderful. I'm so glad your daughter enjoyed it, and it sounds like she was very moved by seeing Stevie and what must have been an incredible atmosphere

[nicepace]

So sweet to see some real pictures, and not the usual crappy cell phone snapshots. Well done!

[deluge]

@nicepace, thank you. Concerts are challenging because of low light, spotlights, and fast action (drumming, guitar strumming, etc) - combined with no strobe (NEVER use a flash at concert, it is distracting to the artists).

Even my iPhone 6 Plus wasn't able to do an adequate job capturing quality images.

So I was using a compact camera. Any decent relatively recently made compact camera should get the job done, and the one I used is several years old. There are some really amazing new compact cameras out that are almost as good as a 35MM, but I don't want to spend on a new camera right now. Anyway, push the ISO to a high setting, for best results in low light.

If I could have used a 35mm digital camera, my images would have been much better. But most venues aren't going to allow that time of camera.

I used to own a sports magazine, and I did a lot of basketball and football photography myself. I don't know as much technically about photography as the professional photographers who were around me, but I found that 90% of success came from knowing about the sport and athletes, and being able to anticipate the action. And since I was able to do that, I was often able to get better photographs than most of the professional photographers. I find that concerts are similar - 90% of success with photography comes from knowing the band and the musicians, and being able to anticipate the action. I look for small bursts of emotion on the musicians faces to capture.

All a hobby for me, though. And really, just for fun. My main focus was on enjoying the concert! You can miss a lot of the concert if you're looking through the camera viewfinder too much.

Originally Posted by nicepace

So sweet to see some real pictures, and not the usual crappy cell phone snapshots. Well done!

[michelej1]

Concert review: A fresh, fun Fleetwood Mac dazzles Atlanta

 December 18, 2014 BY MELISSA RUGGIERI

Fleetwood Mac has never been considered a “fun” band.

Between the tempestuous relationships among its members and the differing opinions about musical direction over the decades, the collective of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham was never the cheeriest bunch.

But wow, did that drama make for some amazing music.

The band returned to the road in October after taking some off late last year for John McVie to combat cancer, and this time they had a secret weapon that has elevated Fleetwood Mac to a new level of vitality – Christine McVie.

Back with the gang after a 16-year gap, McVie, an unbelievable-looking 71, injected a palpable energy into the band, both by allowing them to further open their songbook and by providing Nicks with her perfect female vocal foil.

When was the last time you heard Nicks girlishly squeal, as she did when welcoming McVie with an enthusiastic, “She’s baaaaaack!”? For that matter, when was the last time Mac fans heard “You Make Loving Fun” and “Everywhere” played live (OK, it was 1997’s “The Dance” tour, but you get the point)?

From the moment part-time artist Fleetwood ushered in the band’s standard opener “The Chain” with his heartbeat bass drum, to more than 2 ½-hours later when McVie closed the show with her tingly “Songbird,” the show felt fresh and alive and yes…fun.

The sold-out crowd at Philips Arena Wednesday night erupted into cheers for McVie before the complete opening phrase of “You Make Loving Fun” – “Sweet wonderful you” – exited her mouth, setting the appreciative tone of the night.

Of course, the other major benefit of McVie’s return is her contributions as a vocalist. She added another layer of harmony to the silky “Dreams,” steered the sunshiny “Everywhere” and helped “Rihannon” breathe as Nicks donned a black shawl to drape over her jagged-edge black dress as she sang an invigorated version of the song.

While the female energy on stage resounded mightily, that isn’t to diminish the continued awesomeness of the band’s tortured musical genius, Buckingham.

Whether bouncing on the balls of his feet during “Second Hand News” or unleashing primal yells during “Tusk” – the band’s most polarizing song that was balanced by Fleetwood’s unrelenting beat and Christine McVie on accordion – the Twizzler-thin Buckingham was a riveting presence who sounded robust after shaking off some initial hoarseness.

And what a hoot that at 65, he still has groupies who basked in his aura at the front of the stage and even requested a couple of his onstage towels.

By giving fans a well-paced, 24-song set, Fleetwood Mac was able to liberate its extensive catalog and demonstrate the differing tones each member brings to the forefront.

McVie’s sweet pop tendencies soared on “Say You Love Me,” Buckingham tore off a finger-blistering solo during “Big Love” that almost sounded symphonic and Nicks twirled and grinned during her ethereal “Gypsy,” after sharing a lengthy – yet interesting – story about its origin.

For a certain generation of Fleetwood Mac fans, the moments between Buckingham and Nicks prompt the greatest pangs of wistfulness. The twosome didn’t disappoint as they stood alone on stage for “Landslide,” with Nicks’ warble sounding poetically perfect and Buckingham’s gentle guitar strains lovely as always; the pair then stayed together for a hushed duet on “Never Going Back Again.”

With the full band back onstage (not that Buckingham ever leaves it), the easy-going, hip-shaking “Little Lies” led to Nicks’ defining moment of the show. She absolutely smoldered with sensuality as she snaked through “Gold Dust Woman,” saturating the song with an intensity not heard from her in years (the band’s 2013 appearance at Philips featured some fantastic moments, but none compared to this).

Eternal fan favorites “Go Your Own Way” – featuring Nicks in her traditional black top hat – and “Don’t Stop,” their anthem of cheerful optimism, provided the show with a final jolt, as did Fleetwood’s fluid drum solo in the middle of “World Turning.”

It’s almost a relief to know that Fleetwood Mac will be back at Philips Arena in March, because who wouldn’t want to see one of – if not the – best concert of the year one more time?

Yep, yesterday’s gone indeed and a new Mac has been born.