New review -Syndney Morning Herald

[Livia]

Edit: Forgive my misspelling of Sydney in the thread title - I can't fix it....grrrr

http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/ste...888744902.html

Stevie Nicks
Review by Bernard Zuel
February 27, 2006

Entertainment Centre, February 25


More consistent ... Stevie Nicks (in Melbourne).
Photo: Justin McManus

What does Stevie Nicks do when she leaves the stage during her shows? The first two breaks (after the second and fifth songs) were about three to five minutes long while the third was nearer 15 minutes. Is there a Dan Brown novel she can't tear herself away from?

Back in the day that time would have been to "revive" herself with some fine South American product. But Nicks gave that stuff up a long time ago. Perhaps it was a costume change? But Nicks just changed jackets the first two times and a skirt the third time. It's probably nothing more than a toke on her Ventolin puffer and a splash of water on that unlined, relatively movement-free face.

Why am I asking? Well, that's a lot of thinking time for an audience, particularly when the longer break features a percussion solo, followed by a drum solo, followed by a drum and percussion duet which in turn is followed by a long guitar solo. (What, no bass solo? Call the musicians' union.) To be fair to Nicks - whose reedy voice, while short of its former range, has held up remarkably well given her active lifestyle in the '70s and '80s - she was more consistent than she was on the 2004 Fleetwood Mac tour when she didn't hit some of the high notes until after a long break late in that concert.

And anyway, the pattern of fine moments breaking up periods of longueur was one well established in this solo show. Between the high points of excellent pop songs such as Dreams, Rhiannon and Stop Dragging My Heart Around were what legitimately could be called doldrums.

Here we were reminded how it is still possible for a generic '80s sound for a generic '80s song like Stand Back to say as little as it ever did. Here, also, we were prodded to think how a song as genuinely personal for her as Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You, written for the Eagles' Joe Walsh after he guided her through some rough times, could still hover between insipid and inspired.

Still, for those who look to Nicks for guidance (and judging by some of the outfits of witchy/wispy hue, that's still a good number) there was some comfort offered during her absences. "Even when I'm not here," she said, "I'm here with all of you."

Which is nice, don't you think?