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Fleetwood Mac
#1
@ Oracle 5/20/9

I haven't felt this way I feel
Since many a year ago


Prior to this show, FM canceled 4 gigs, 2 in Calgary, WA & Sacto.  I think they just played Oaktown because they knew they could get a decent doc thru RM.  To cover for Christie's absence, they used 3 of Stevie's backup singers, a guitarist and a keyboardist.  And they still fell short.  I used to not care for Christie's honey dulcimer singing, but FM was a gestalt of L.A. coke-soaked break-up 70's sound and C's counterpoint to Lindsay's wacked out guitar approaches, Stevie's trashed party-gypsy voice and the powerhouse Mick and John, who put the Fleetwood and Mac in FM.  The did a tour a few years back where the replaced Lindsay with two young guitarists and I can't really say which was worse.  FM is a five-piece and any more or less just kills it.  My ol' gal Stevie has probably burned out all the cartilage in her nose now and on top of some plastic surgery, it's changed her voice to be slightly nasal.  She doesn't move like before at all, but she still commands a crowd of imitators, as well as centerstage.  Of course, hearing her again brought back so many memories - Sara, Gold Dust, Stand Back (I think the only non-FM tune).  She totally got me with Storms.  Lindsay has defaulted to being extremely hammy, but can still jam it out in the end, proving himself in a sizzling Oh Well.  Mick is still insane, looking a lot like Dumbledore, perhaps even better than Harris or Gambon since he embodies that madness more like the book character.  He banged out this amazing solo for World Turning.  John needed to be louder in the mix.  He still plays like a purring cougar.  The mix was off at first, way too tinny, but the eventually recovered.  FM spent too much time talking about their songs when introducing them.  They should have just played.  No need to talk about it.  Just play.  After the soulful Storms, they went into Say You Love Me, with S and L trying to carry C's lead and it was such a buzzkill, I had to exit the auditorium.  But still, the band is legendary and they still retain their chops, if not some portion of their glory.

Did you hear they just covered that Smashing Pumpkins song?

RM was mellow and I was trippin' on being the eldest there in terms of years spent volunteering.  The next up was nearly half a decade less, and there were only three of us with more than a decade under our belts.  With the Dead last week, Star Trek this week, and then this, I've been sucked into some nostalgic time warp.  At one point, I was with a crew of new vols and started thinking that I was just like old Spock in the new Star Trek, seeing RM reimagined and rebooted, with a new generation.
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#2
Would they have covered a Smashing Pumpkin song since SP covered Landslide? Something the Dixie Chicks covered because they hated the Smashing Pumpkin version so much.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
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#3
landslide is such a cocaine song
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#4
They did cocaine?! Quell Horror!
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
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#5
Quote:I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
till the landslide brought me down
Oh, mirror in the sky
There were these hanging projection screens during the show. At one point, they were projecting these images of swirling white powder. It was very amusing.
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#6
Who said subtlety is dead?
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
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#7
Quote:Rock on Gold Dust Woman
Take your silver spoon
And dig your grave

Many years ago, ZZ Top (which is more of a crank band than a coke band - there is a significant difference) had this awesome sphinx head set. When the show began, all the instrument stands (all three of them) were covered with white sheets. There was a big snorting sound, and the white sheets were sucked up the sphinx's nose. The crowd went wild. Back in the day, ZZ threw a spectacular show.
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#8
I'm driving around last night taking sunset shots of the Antrim coast and listening to Lindsay Buckingham on RTE2 talk about being in Fleetwood Mac. Is he ever going to look back and enjoy that experience?
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
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#9
...his hair is receding so now he looks like Art Garfunkel.
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#10
We paid $100 a ticket for the worst seats in the house - stage left, nosebleed seats - they were at an angle to the big TV screen so we really couldn't see it. Actually they weren't the worst seats - we were about half a dozen rows in front of the worst. The show was sold out tight. We went as a family. FM was S's first concert, the Tusk tour, which she saw as a teen at the Cow Palace. T learned of FM through Glee but developed a respect for them as that was a launching pad for me to share some of my old FM CDs. We got to the SAP super early. There was more grey hair and walking canes there than at the Cruz symphony. A grisly Nix-chick shuffled by with her black lacy shawl, her blonde wig, her T-cane, and the face of Dorian Grey. We joked with T that she was the youngest attendee in the house (actually not true but we made a game of finding other teens, which was quite a challenging game). Once in our seats, I watched this old woman struggling to climb the stairs, huffing like a fish out of water, and my RM instincts kicked in. Sure enough, she collapsed right in front of us (we had aisle seats) and I reached out and helped the guy behind her catch her. She fell backwards, and would have surely split her noggin, had we not saved her.

I've been following FM since Junior High. This was the first time I saw FM with the entire Rumours band together. I saw them without Lindsay several times. I saw them without Christine as mentioned above. I saw Stevie solo several times. In fact, if memory serves, Stevie was my 3rd rock concert ever.

My lawd. They were AWESOME! :rock:
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#11
Lindsay Buckingham: L was the best I have ever seen him. He was jumping around stage, running back and forth and throwing high kicks. It made me wonder if he was still doing blow. His musicianship was incredible, especially in a solo acoustic version of Never Going Back Again that blew T's mind (she's noodling with guitar now and was all like "how is he doing that?! it's not right.") and a scalding jam on World Turning. There were two back-up guitarists, but they were lost in the mix, totally useless IMO. He gave one long talk between songs that was completely nonsensical, but we'll forgive him that as it was entertaining. L is sorely overlooked as one of Rock's greatest guitarists.

Mick Fleetwood: M applies the kick-drum principle to everything he strikes, using his tremendous reach to punch out thunderous beats. He did a crazy solo during World Turning in the encore where he was trying to get some sort of call-response going and the entire audience was into it but we couldn't understand what the heck he was saying. "Don't be shy" was one of the comments. "Are you with me?" was another. The rest was just garbled yells and woops. There was a back-up drummer but Mick forgot to introduce him when he was introducing all of the back-up players.

Christine McVie: She's lost a little of her high range, but her voice is still honey sweet and her piano (and accordian) work was exemplary. There were many nods to her return after 16 years. We observed later that she's been out of FM for longer than T has been alive. One of the back-up guitarists also tickled keys, but like the other back-ups, he was lost in the mix and superfluous. She closed the show with Songbird, which felt a little rushed. A grand was brought out for her and she started solo, but then L chimed in a little towards the end. C & L were trading licks throughout the evening and that was amazing stuff, something I never heard before live.

John McVie: J was the only one without back-up. He's the backbone - purring like a Bengal Tiger - that fat bass line that dominated the late 70s. When listening to my old FM CDs, he really shines.

Stevie Nicks: Alas, my first luv. We were going steady when I was in middle school. Then she blew her nose on blow. She's lost a lot of her range and now sings very nasally, surely due to the damage done. It forces her to sing in an oblique manner to her original versions, which sometimes works but often fails. She had three back-up singers, two of whom have been with her since she went solo, although they did little to fill the gaps. She made a complete mess of Sister of the Moon. But all was forgiven when she delivered a chilling Landslide alongside L and his acoustic. She told a lot of long-winded stories about growing up in San Jose; they were very entertaining and genuine - her experiences as a student of SJSU, as well as watching Hendrix and Joplin perform. She decoded Gypsy, which is actually about clothes shopping at an old funky SF store where Janis and Grace Slick used to shop (I had that totally wrong).

Combined, FM still lives up to their legend, perhaps even more so than ever before. The 3-part harmonies of L, C & S were phenomenal. The jams between L & C were amazing. And that powerhouse R&B duo is so massive live. After the show, S immediately dialed up their tour on her iPhone, and toyed with the idea of seeing them again next week when they come back through to Oaktown (the Bay Area is still a tweener region for music). T was thoroughly entertained, although a little put out that she won't be able to share it with her friends at school as she mentioned it to several of them and they mostly said 'who?'
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#12
Brilliant review.

I love FM for 'Rumours' and "Tusk" (did I use the single-quotes and double-quotes correctly?) but their music never had a message I looked for from a band.

Lindsay Buckingham solo stuff is amazing and one of my favorite shows was him at Bimbo's just shredding the place with like, ten guitarists.

Did Mick do the 'body percussion' solo thing with torso sensors he hit to keep a rhythm?
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#13
Mick did not do the body drum thing. He wasn't as vigorous as he has been in years past. He still had his chops, only he was more conservative, playing more efficiently. Clearly, the years have caught up to every member of the band save Lindsay, who must have sold his soul to the devil to play like he does. Nevertheless, the band still has it - each and every member in their own special way. It was nostalgic and reaffirming.

I read a review in the SJ Merc where the critic dissed all of the jams. He hated the World Turning jam and loved Stevie's way-too-hammy-even-for-DM Sisters of the Moon. Stupid critic.

T is still rockin the Mac on spotify. Only one of her classmates knew who FM was. The others recognized them after she played a few tunes.
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#14
Quote:Fleetwood Mac is reuniting for a farewell world tour in 2018
September 10, 2017




Fleetwood Mac fans just got the news they’ve been waiting for. The iconic ’70s band intends to rejoin for a goodbye tour in 2018!
Keyboardist Christine McVie affirmed the news on the BBC TV show “The One Show” on Tuesday.
“We will begin practicing in March, one year from now,” she told host Alex Jones. “The tour is around June. It will be worldwide.”
Fleetwood Mac last featured a show back in November 2015. So fanatics of the band most likely feel like this reunion is long overdue!
Fleetwood Mac Side Projects Continue
Nicks continued with her solo career across U.S. this late spring.
Then, McVie and Fleetwood Mac singer Lindsey Buckingham as of late released a self-titled duet album. They chose to cooperate after the last tour, which welcomed back McVie after a long break from the group. She intended to resign from music, however it called her back.
 
Presently, McVie and Buckingham plan to promote their new album. The funny thing about this album? It likewise includes bandmates John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. Be that as it may, the album is certainly NOT a Fleetwood Mac work.
“John and Mick were nearby and we thought, ‘Well, this will resemble old-home week,'” Buckingham told Variety. “We didn’t really worry about what it was. We simply needed to seek after the process again and take advantage of that side of ourselves.”
 
“I’m dying for that reunion,” McVie said of “The Classic” shows. “I imagine that will be incredible.”
“Better believe it, it will. And after that obviously the Mac will go back out at some point probably summer of 2018,” Buckingham included.
Can’t get enough of Fleetwood Mac? Watch McVie and Buckingham play out the classic Fleetwood tune “Don’t Stop” with classroom instruments (and a group of students!) on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
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#15
Ha! Farewell Tour? Fake News.

In an article in the current Rolling Stone (Back Page) they interviewed Mick and said they aren't retiring. Christine is the one who doesn't want to tour after that tour.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

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