Nicks Proves She Can Still Cast Bewitching Presence On Stage (Tampa Review)

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Nicks Proves She Can Still Cast Bewitching Presence On Stage

By PENNY CARNATHAN
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TAMPA - Blond tresses glowing and lacy black wings flowing, Stevie Nicks twirled and cooed, rocked and reminisced to the loud appreciation of 7,500 fans at the Ford Amphitheatre on Wednesday night.

Her sandpapery alto mesmerized, and her multiple wardrobe changes - no less than five in two hours - aggrandized. At 57, Nicks seemed to have only inched away from the edge of 17.

The woman remains one of the ageless angels of gypsy rock.

"I dedicate this to you,'' she told the crowd, introducing "Landslide'' and singing against a backdrop of images from her youth. "I'm getting older, too,'' she sang.

Reaching back through the 1980s and into the '70s, she pulled out Fleetwood Mac standards including "Dreams,'' a dreamy rendition of "'Rhiannon'' and a muscular "Stand Back.''

She returned to the present with a bewitching "Sorcerer'' and "Fall from Grace'' from her 2001 album, "Trouble in Shangri-La.''

At times dreamy and graceful, her hands floating in hula undulations or curving in flirtatious come-hither beckoning, Nicks was contemplative ("Circle Dance,'' a Bonnie Raitt cover) and powerful ("Edge of Seventeen'').

When all was almost over, Nicks thanked her fans, moving along the length of the stage and bending to clutch hands and accept gifts of roses, stuffed animals, even a crescent-moon sculpture, which got the giver a "thank you.''

She returned for an encore performance, covering Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll'' and her own "Beauty and the Beast,'' against a multimedia backdrop of the old movie version.

Opening for Nicks' Gold Dust Tour was Vanessa Carlton ("A Thousand Miles''), an accomplished pianist with a girlish voice who offered an impressive mix of original music vaguely reminiscent of a young Janis Ian.

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