WKFM in Cincinnati [I know, lame joke lol]

[sodascouts]

What a night! I have never seen Stevie so energetic and into it - not even at AHI! I think her hip must be feeling better, because she walked around and danced more, smiled and made eye contact with people in the audience, and even bent to touch hands at the end! And she cheered happily at the end when Mick cried "THE MAC IS BACK!"

Lindsey was his usual manic self (although not as much as AHI or some of the other earlier shows. Still going strong, though). Vocally they both were stupendous. Most of the sellout (no empty seats that I could see at least) crowd stood ALL THE TIME. Sometimes pockets would go down but there was never a time in the concert where less than 75% of the audience was standing! There was a lot of beer flowing and one drunk guy in the front had to be escored out, but there were no other "incidents."

After the chain, Lindsey gave a speech similar to AHI but with different wording (gasp) and a little less verbose, lol. HE said something to the effect of, "When Stevie and I were living in San Francisco and first discovering how to best use our talents, we moved down to South L.A. and were lucky enough to meet these two [gestures behind him towards Mick and John]. And it's been a long, sometimes strange trip... but the important thing is, here we are!"

A lot of Stevie/Lindsey interaction. Riverbend is an outdoor arena, and the heat and the humidity were KILLER (I felt so bad for the people on the lawn!) Lindsey kept looking over at Stevie and mouthing "Hot? Are you hot?" Throughout. (At one point, Stevie went to get a sip of bottled water, and acted like she was going to pour it on herself).

He also sang with/mouthed a lot of the words and reacted to them. For instance, during "Dreams" he looked right at her and mouthed "Women they will come and they will go" and gave her this kind of wry smile. He nodded at her when he sang "When the rain washes you clean you'll know." Rhiannon, Stand Back, all those he was mouthing a lot of lyrics with her, and I just love it when he does that! Shows he's paying attention. And the "wouldn't you love to love her" mouthing is sexy, IMHO. lol Sevie also danced during Rhiannon, with her beautiful guazy sleeves blowing, so dramatic!

There were air conditioners stationed right in front of them, blowing on them, and Stevie's hair was blowing back and her sleeves were flowing and she looked STUNNING. During Gypsy she took off all her layers except for the black strap top and wore the lovely pink Gypsy shawl over that. She stayed like that the remainer of the night. Best I've ever seen her. She sang the "do-do-do-do-dos" during Gypsy, by the way.

They sang NGBA to each other, as well as SHN (But they usually do that one to each other a lot of the time).

I couldn't believe how responsive this audience was to the new songs. They were literally dancing in the rows to "What's the World Coming To" and there was tons of applause for "Peacekeeper" as well. Although I was surprised that no one seemed to know the SYW hand motions.

They seemed to be connecting a lot. During Landslide, Lindsey focused totally on Stevie and, besides Say Goodbye, it was the only time he didn't do any of his front-row-flirting. At the end, when she got to the "Snow....covered.... hills" she turned towards him and they just look at each other, and then slowly they reach for each other and interlace fingers and then Lindsey lifts her hand to his and kisses her fingers. Afterwards, Stevie turned fully and he kissed her on the cheek - so close to the lips I thought he HAD kissed her there until someone with better eyesight told me different, lol. It was still so tender and special. I loved it, of course, lol.

Stevie deliberately turned herself so she could sing the last part of Silver Springs looking directly at Lindsey, but not in the accusatory way of the Dance. It was more of a... well... almost statement of fact way. And he eats it up, folks. He totally loves it when she does that, the look on his face was like "Yeah, baby!" lol I think it is even more special for him now that it is rare. Once again she sang "Am I still a fool?"

Come was once again extended - not as long as AHI, but pretty darn long. It totally rocked, of course, lol. I think it's sexy when he puts his hand to his face while singing the verses, like he's actually feverish.

Lindsey was so hyper at the beginning of ISA that he was yelling at Mick at the drum intro like "YEAH!" or something several times, lol. And that was just the beginning!

Stevie held this note and trilled it at the end of Beautiful Child and it was one of the best live versions of the song I've heard. Lindsey also focused on her very intensely during this song. I was watching Stevie more than Lindsey but every time I glanced at him, his eyes were on her. She seemed to choke up a little afterwards.

During Tusk, Lindsey was his usual wild self (Gets more and more exaggerated every time!) He seemed to wanna knock John over, and when he went after Stevie, he pulled his chord out and kind of twirled it at her like "You're in for trouble, here I come!) Then there was the usual circling and square do-se-do-ing, lol.

Before Stand Back, during the long intro, Lindsey got a little... overstimulated, I think. He started thrusting against his guitar to the beat, and then actually started grinding against it! I had a view of his tight butt moving around and liked what I saw, lol, but it was a little... odd, lol, to get that turned with your guitar! lol! Lindsey also did some boogy-ing during the actual song. (10 twirls for Stevie, BTW). Later, he just stood in front of the fan (I think this is like the only time, except for during Mick's solo, that Lindsey gets a little off time) He closed his eyes and let it cool some of that sweat off of his body.

GYOW ended pretty wildly as well. Lindsey put the guitar over his head, then brought it down in front of him towards the floor, stopping just before he hit the floor with it, several times. I honestly wondered if he was going to hit the floor with it like some kind of heavy metal guitarist gone crazy, lol, but he refrained.

At the end, during "Don't Stop," someone threw a beach ball onto the stage. It landed near John, who kicked it towards Stevie, who bent, picked it up, and tossed it back into the crowd! I am telling you, she must be feeling tons better physically. And she smiled and laughed so much.

For Goodbye Baby, they came out with Lindsey's hand encircling her waist and pulling her with him. They did quite a long bow and when they finally straightened, Lindsey turned to Stevie and fake-pouted "Ow!" She mouthed "I'm Sorry." I guess she accidentally pounded his back too hard?

Other info: No tourbooks (still!), merchandise actually started running out of certain sizes in certain T-shirts and stuff. Mick introduced Mindy as "Mindy Stein and son" so know we all know the sex of the baby. Stevie wore no boots (who can blame her in that heat! She seemed pretty affected by the heat at the very end, but went off during Mick's solo and was reinvigorated when she returned). There were no "special effects" screens, doubtless because the outdoor venue couldn't accomodate them.

Despite the fact that I was 12th row off to the side and has some jerky "Camera Nazi" as Darlene called him yelling at us for trying to take photos all the time (I think I got off about 5 the few minutes he had his back turned) it was definitely an AWESOME show. I'm so glad I decided to go!

[Merf]

Nancy, thank you SO much for your review-- I always love yours because you pay attention and catch EVERYTHING I hope you weren't too uncomfortable in the heat but I have a feeling you didn't mind!! It sounded like an amazing show overall, thanks so much for taking the time to review for us~ again.

xx Meredith

[macmar71]

Great Review
Thanks for sharing.
Still no tour books , what is going on here? I hope they will get them back in circulation as it would be nice to get one.

[dissention]

GREAT review, Nancy! Sounds like an awesome show! I can't wait to hear the bootleg!! LOL

[golddust]

~~~I'm one of those people who can't get enough details. So I thank you for taking the time to do a great review!~~~

[Jen77]

I went last night too! I stood up the whole time...I didn't drive 5 hours, and spend hundreds of dollars to sit down!!! The guy behind me got mad, and I said "When I don't know a song, I'll sit down!" Of course I know all the songs...so I never sat down! I took my 9 year old sister as her birthday present, and she LOVED IT!!! I thought the show was amazing...I've been to three shows now...and I'm working on going to a fourth!


Jen~*

[Gypsy-Rhiannon]

Thanks for the review Nancy! Sounds awesome!

Pip

[NowSounds]

Great review, I was gonna write one, but only got back home this morning.

This was only the second show I've seen. I saw Cleveland at the beginning of the leg and then Cincy this weekend. The show was much more polished, but I could tell that they were rushing a few songs. (To get out of the heat I guess.)

I'll just add a few thoughts since Nancy's review pretty much got it all on the nose.....

...Was it me, or were the sound people playing crickets before the show?

...Have they started playing Albatross after the show? THAT was a nice surprise, and it was nice walking to the car with that running through my head.

...Lindsey giving up on the sped-up, stale performance of Tusk and going wild running around the stage....that was awesome

...Why doesn't Stevie put the same energy into all of her tunes the way she does Stand Back?

...Where were the tourbooks? There were quite a few new shirt designs, but nothing all that great and I was really hoping to get a book.

...The Riverfront stage was very small, which made the show MUCH better. The backup band were set back more so that I barely saw them and the loss of the video backdrop made the show better, IMHO.

Altogether the show was amazing, one of the best I've seen of all the Mac tours I've seen. The only bummer was spending as much as we did on tickets and still we cannot seem to get any better than 30 rows back. I dunno how some of you Ledgies are doing it, but God bless ya, and I'm glad at least some real fans are getting up front instead of radio station employees.

I've seen a lot of bootlegs of this tour and nothing even comes close to seeing it live, even with ****ty seats.

[lasindy]

Nancy, Great review! I really enjoyed reliving the night. This was my 2nd show of this tour. I was in Seattle last month, which was also a great show, but Cincinnati really rocked. Lindsey was a maniac. Could he have had a better time? I was 7th row on the side towards Lindsey. I thought this would be great, which it was, don't get me wrong. I didn't factor in that he spends so much time turned towards Stevie. Which left us looking at his backside a good part of the concert ( not necesarrily a bad thing). We were close enough to get eye contact and a couple of smiles when he was turned our way. He is so into the audience on this tour.

Could it have been any hotter? I am just moving from Seattle where we think it is sweltering if the thermostat hits 80. We were standing and dancing like maniacs the entire show. My god, I haven't sweated that much since band camp. Luckily, We were surrounded by other FM maniacs who were all dancing and singing along to every song.

I may have to see them one more time on this tour. I can't help it. I'm addicted. What do you think I will have to pay for tickets? My right arm, my first born son?

[jwd]

I know this is kind of late, but like they say better late than never!

Thanks for the great review Nancy. I'll just add a little to elaborate.


I arrived at Riverbend two hours before the show was going to start and managed to snag a seat 10 rows back from the stage on Stevie's side, on the inner aisle at that, for $50 less than I would have payed through ticketmaster. It's definitely not first come first serve any more. Seems like there's some grubby little hands and foul play involved these days. Anyway, I spent the extra money on other "items" available at the concert that night. Well it was HOT and they say you have to stay hydrated! $35 on beer (it's not that much if you know what they charge for beer) and $15 for a coffee mug. And no I was not the drunk guy that had to be escorted out. Like Nancy said the crowd was FANTASTIC and so totally in to the songs, old and new alike. Cincy loves the Mac and Stevie and always give them the respect they deserve when they play here.

I have a new found respect for Lindsey. He was so full of energy all night long. He's not only a great guitarist but a fine showman too. He was even doing a boogie dance during the intro to "Stand Back" over by Mick's drum set. I thought that was hilarious. I guess my favorite Lindsey moment was when he went
into the guitar part at the end of "I'm So Afraid". I've always loved that, and to hear it in concert was like being in heaven. I didn't want that to end and I'm getting goose bumps just thinking
about it. Lindsey was on fire all night and just never stopped. "Come" drew a rousing applause from the crowd as he finished his demonic excorcism on the guitar. This song is "extreme" on the cd, but wait till you hear it "LIVE"... WOW! Lindsey is in fantastic shape, especially for a man his age. He doesn't even have a gut!

Well you all know how I love Stevie and she didn't disappoint. She's beautiful and so small, even with her platfrom reeboks on. Of course I loved getting my dose of "Rhiannon". There's just something magical released when she does that song and it'll never "run its' course" for me. If you've never seen her do "Beautiful Child" in concert, you have to. The delivery is right on and she adds inflection to the song like only Stevie can. It was very moving. But the only time I came close to having a tear in my eye, and I may have, was during "Goodbye Baby". It's such an appropriate way to end the show. Stevie's way of saying goodbye to her fans. Nobody wanted to leave, and didn't, until she was done with her goodbye ode. Stevie still twirls and weaves her magic spell, captivating her audience through her spoken words.

One last note is on "World Turning". I hope they never drop this song from the setlist again if it's done like it was on Aug. 16th. MY GOD I loved it. Mick goes absolutely crazy and brings the audience to a frenzy with his madman drumming and screams..."ARE YOU WITH ME?!". Lots of energy going on on stage
and it's probably the most fun song of the night, along with "TUSK" when Lindsey does his chasing and bumping antics.

I didn't sit the entire concert and haven't yelled that much in a long time. It was a blast and in this day and age it was much needed relief. Thanks Mac for a great show. For those of you yet to see it, you're in for the time of your lives. ENJOY!!!


Joe