Hollywood Bowl thoughts?

[dontlookdown]

Went to the show last night. The Heartbreakers were great - as usual.
I thought Tom seemed like he's slowed down a bit. Definitely shyed away from the high notes and has mellowed a lot with his delivery. Still a great band nonetheless. There were some fantastic Grateful Dead moments that I loved.
Stevie sounded great. Insider was phenomenal. I do wonder though, if her presence takes away from the purity of the Heartbreakers. I wonder if it would have been better if she just did the two songs (Stop Draggin and Insider) rather than I Need To Know and the other songs she does back up on.
It almost felt like she was drawing too much attention to herself.
Just my thoughts. It was great to see them together again. It had been 25 years since I saw them on the Hard Promises tour.

I'm not trying to be critical for the sake of being critical - I just wonder if
within the context of the Heartbreakers, Stevie might be better off just standing at the mic and singing (as she does on Insider) instead of busting out the hat w/ the feathers and the shawls, and the spins, etc. The crowd was riveted - not a soul was talking in the entire Hollywood Bowl (except for the drunk asshole in front of me who decided to deconstruct the history of Fleetwood Mac during the entire song). And I wonder if all the Stevie Nicks cliche stuff detracts from her stellar singing. Her secret weapon is her gifted vocals. And sometimes I think it would be refreshing to just see her use her voice for what it is - argueabely the strongest rock voice we've heard since Janis Joplin. I think it's quite astonishing that Stevie still has such command of her singing - it might be better and stronger these days then it ever has been.