St. Louis, Scottrade Center

[michelej1]

The Examiner, March 29, 2015

***** 5 stars

Fleetwood Mac concert Friday Night in Saint Louis

Fleetwood Mac, one of the greatest selling acts of all time, brought their most successful lineup back to Scottrade Center for the first time in 18 years on Friday for a stop on their “On With the Show Tour” and the resulting show was a trip down memory lane.

Longtime vocalist/keyboardist Christine McVie had left the band after their successful 1997/98 “The Dance Tour” (Which played at the then named Kiel Center on November 17, 1997) to retire from touring.

While there have been many incarnations of Fleetwood Mac in their 47 year history their most popular and well-known has been with the lineup that was featured Friday night of McVie along with vocalist Stevie Nicks, vocalist/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, bassist John McVie and Founding member Mick Fleetwood on drums.

Each of the band members glowed about McVie’s return and noted that it was her 70th show back with them, bringing the band back to where they are their best.

The show opened with a simple stage setup with only a backlit screen behind them for the first several songs, starting with the unmistakable beat of “The Chain” and into “You Make Loving Fun” and “Dreams.” It wasn’t until 20 minutes into the show that they really started to use their multi-layered video screens to their capacity.

The band used the screens efficiently, providing appropriate images for specific songs, including a trippy giant floating Lindsey Buckingham head during the fanciful “I Know I’m Not Wrong”, to moveable front screens which came down during certain songs to produce a nice multi-layered 3D effect.

Stevie Nicks twirled in her familiar crowd-pleasing Gypsy style and performed tantric dances on some of the more psychedelic songs.

The setlist proved strong with nary a single droop or filler needed in the non-stop two and a half hour show, showing the groups longevity and ability to produce hit after timeless hit.

Nicks provided a background story into the origins of “Gypsy” and a store called the Velvet Underground which provided some of the incentive for her.

The band has come to terms with their tumultuous past and Buckingham even made light about it, describing how they were foolish in trying to act like they thought a rock band should act in order to make good music, but looking back on it realizing now that it was all rubbish.

With that grown up attitude and new found enthusiasm the band rocked their way through one of the more solid performances seen in a while, certainly setting the bar high for the year for acts following the way.

With all the members at or beyond the normal retirement age for most Americans they certainly didn’t act or sound like it onstage. It seemed like they found the fountain of youth throughout much of the show. McVie’s vocals were strong and delightful, John McVie’s bass lines were heavy and spot on and Buckingham showed his incredibly impressive axe work on an “I’m So Afraid” solo which drew a standing ovation from the packed Scottrade Center.

Nicks displayed her powerful chops throughout the night, especially on “Landslide” when it was just her and Buckingham in the spotlight.

Mick Fleetwood’s drum solo in the middle of “World Turning” was a 7 minute extravaganza that featured a Marco Polo-ish routine with the crowd while he performed most of the solo with his eyes closed. It is always a treat to watch his solos.

The key thing here is that every band member sincerely seemed to have fun and enjoy the stage with their fellow band members, something that hasn’t happened completely in a long time. Their enthusiasm showed and was shared with the crowd who was mesmerized with the performance.

It’s amazing what chemistry can do and for Fleetwood Mac the right chemistry was onstage Friday night.