On September 17, 2022, Stevie Nicks performed at the Sea. Hear. Now. Festival in Asbury, New Jersey. Stevie headlined the first night of the two-day festival, with Green Day closing it out on Sunday.
Rock and roll photographer Danny Clinch organized the festival along the North Beach Asbury Park, located on the famous Jersey Shore. Stevie thanked Danny after welcoming the crowd, saying “To have a festival right on the ocean is pretty spectacular.”
Stevie dedicated “Landslide” to her goddaughter Tessa, Mick Fleetwood‘s twin daughter (from Mick’s third marriage to Lynn Frankel). She mentioned that both Mick’s twin daughters, Ruby and Tessa, are her goddaughters, but only Tessa was in the audience on Saturday night. “I don’t see you very often, my angel, but I’m always with you,” Stevie said, her voice cracking with emotion.
At this show, Stevie removed “Soldier’s Angel” and “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)” from the set list. “Free Fallin'” moved from the first encore position to the regular set, playing between “Bella Donna” and “Stand Back.”
Videos
Special thanks to Jim Powers, Stephanie Heffelfinger, and Annia Kay for sharing your videos!
Outside the Rain (Jim Powers)
Dreams (Jim Powers)
“Welcome, Everybody! Welcome, Asbury Park! Is this the world of Bruce Springsteen? I don’t know!? Okay, we’re driving through and then there’s a street sign and I’m like, I asked that same question. Nobody really answered me, at least not like you guys just did!
“All right, anyway, I would like to thank Danny Clinch for putting on this amazing, amazing music festival. To have a festival right on the ocean is pretty spectacular. I live on ocean so for me it’s like I feel like I’m right at home. And so that being said here on the Jersey Beach Shore, let’s get this party started.”
If Anyone Falls (Jim Powers)
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (Jim Powers)
“Thank you. This next song was the first song off of Bella Donna and without the song it is, we might not be standing here today. Thank you, Tom Petty, for this song, ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.'”
For What It’s Worth (Stephanie Heffelfinger)
“So this next song is a song that I actually recorded in May and it’s coming out in the next two weeks. … So what it is, it’s a song that was written in 1966 by Stephen Stills and it really wasn’t a political song. It was actually written about the riots on Sunset. I hadn’t moved there yet. I was still in San Francisco, so I wasn’t there for this. But there was riots because the police came in and said, ‘Hey, you guys gotta get out of the streets. People in the hills don’t like it.’ And they’re like, ‘Ugh, what? At what time?’ And they said, ’10pm,’ and they’re like, ‘Oh. Okay, right. You’re just gonna come tell us when we can go to bed.’ So Stephen Stills wrote this song. Okay, the things that you want to talk about, right? I just thought that sometimes music saves the world and this would be a good song for right now, so I hope you enjoy it. I hope you enjoy the song. Whatever, I love it! So here it is. It’s called ‘For What It’s Worth.'”
Gypsy (Stephanie Heffelfinger)
Landslide (Annia Kay)
“Thank you for that.
“So this next song, I’d like to make a quick dedication to my friend Mick Fleetwood, one of his two twin girls; her name’s Tessa. She’s my goddaughter. They’re (Ruby and Tessa) both my goddaughters, but only one is here tonight. So… (inaudible) When she was four, looked at me and said, ‘Come sit with me.’ I fell in love with her on that day. So Tessa, this is for you, and I don’t see you very often, my angel, but I’m always with you. So this is for you, this is ‘Landslide.'”
Free Fallin’ (Annia Kay)
Stand Back (Stephanie Heffelfinger)
Gold Dust Woman (Stephanie Heffelfinger)
Rock and Roll (Jim Powers)
Review
As the ocean breeze fluttered the scarves and chains dangling from her microphone stand, Stevie Nicks gazed out over the immense crowd — some 30,000 strong stretched a quarter-mile down the beach, a vision of late-summer Jersey Shore serenity — and described the scene as only she might: “a fairytale.”
“Is this the world of Bruce Springsteen?” Nicks asked early in her 90-minute performance, egging on the crowd. While The Boss did not appear, no shine was lost from Nicks’ emphatic set, which echoed effortlessly over the waterfront expanse and beyond the waves painted green, pink and blue by filtered lights. Attend enough festivals and you’ll learn some artists’ voices just don’t carry well in such monstrous settings. But Nicks, 74, was in full command, unloading a mix of solo classics and Fleetwood Mac staples, twirling in place and traipsing around the stage as her eight-piece band played on.
The night’s single-most affecting moment came, perhaps unsurprisingly, during “Landslide,” which Nicks tearfully dedicated to Tessa Fleetwood, Mick Fleetwood’s granddaughter and her goddaughter, who was in attendance. The crowd belted along, many eyes similarly dampened.
More explosive were the crashing renditions of “Gold Dust Woman” (with flecks of golden dust swirling on the big screen), and her synth-laden solo cut “Stand Back.” And of course, “Edge of Seventeen” ignited the audience once more. Nicks sang “Free Fallin’” as a tribute to her close friend Tom Petty, who died in 2017, with happy images of Petty and Nicks on the screen.
She also unloaded a sharp cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” preceded by a funny quip: “I hope you all like it, whatever, I love it.” I’ll take Stevie’s attitude eight days a week.
And the set finished with a rousing take on Led Zeppelin’s “Rock N’ Roll,” sending the audience off on a high. It was a propulsive performance, noticeably more high-octane than her solo tour I covered a few years back, and surely the most memorable headlining set in Sea Hear Now’s young history. Pure joy and power.
Bobby Olivier / NJ Advance Media for NJ.com / Sunday, September 18, 2022
Set List
- Outside the Rain
- Dreams
- If Anyone Falls
- Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
- Enchanted
- For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield cover)
- Gypsy
- Wild Heart
- Bella Donna
- Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty cover)
- Stand Back
- Gold Dust Woman
- Landslide
- Edge of Seventeen
ENCORE - Rhiannon
- Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin cover)
Bella Donna (4), The Wild Heart (4), Fleetwood Mac (5), covers (3)
Band
| Lead Vocals | Stevie Nicks |
| Guitar and Musical Director | Waddy Wachtel |
| Bass | Al Ortiz |
| Drums | Drew Hester |
| Guitar | Carlos Rios |
| Keyboards | Ricky Peterson |
| Keyboards | Darrell Smith |
| Background Vocals | Sharon Celani and Marilyn Martin |
