Fleetwood Mac
Air Canada Centre
Toronto

By Ben Fisher
Post City (Canada)
Tuesday, April 16, 2013

For the bulk of their 40-plus years in the music industry, Fleetwood Mac’s lofty status as rock gods stemmed directly from their lead vocalist, Stevie Nicks. These days, the still-touring group thrives, and probably would with or without her.

Their Tuesday night date at the ACC was a collective tour-de-force in which the band’s bold sound carried an impactful, fluid rhythm from all four members. The beats of drummer Mick Fleetwood were consistently in flow with John McVie’s bass, which meshed perfectly with the notes that launched off of Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar strings. But it was clear that Nicks’ airy style was strangely at odds with what was a powerful, high-energy show.

That it was Nicks who served as the weak link in the chain is less an indictment of the 64-year-old singer and more of a commentary on the continued excellence of the group as a whole, and a testament to Buckingham’s stellar vocals. The band was often at its strongest when Nicks was an afterthought.

On shared-vocal tracks like “Without You” and “Go Your Own Way,” Buckingham easily overpowered and overshadowed his long-time bandmate and one-time lover. He was also game to show off a softer side, as demonstrated during a solo version of Tango in the Night’s “Big Love.” At other times, Fleetwood’s drums or Buckingham guitar riffs took centre stage. Buckingham let loose with an explosive solo guitar wrap to “I’m So Afraid,” enlivening the crowd of 15,000 that had grown quiet while awaiting the first of two anticipated encores. Shortly thereafter, Fleetwood took his turn in the spotlight with an ambitiously chaotic drum solo following “World Turning.”

Nicks fared much better when allowed to slow down the pace and lend some emotional heft to the proceedings. She dedicated “Landslide” to her two 11-year-old “fairy goddaughters,” which added both meaning and a personal touch to a song that the band has surely performed thousands of times before.

After two and a half hours of inspired rock, Fleetwood Mac probably deserved to go out on a better note than they did. After capping off their first encore on a high note with bona fide crowd pleaser “Don’t Stop,” they curiously and somewhat awkwardly shuffled back in for an unnecessary second encore. Though much of the crowd did show their respect and appreciation by sticking around through the final note, the final offerings of “Silver Springs” and “Say Goodbye” seemed decidedly anticlimactic.

Too bad. A show packing that kind of punch deserves better than to simply flicker out.

By Brad Wheeler
The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, April 17, 2013, 12:09 PM EDT

Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Venue: Air Canada Centre
City: Toronto
Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Fleetwood Mac takes its name from the rhythm section of the band, the wild-eyed drummer Mick Fleetwood and the avuncular bassist John McVie. But those two fellows were reduced to mere bystander status at the Air Canada Centre, where the drama was carried out by the pair of legendarily ex-lovers in front. “You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you,” Stevie Nicks sang and Lindsey Buckingham listened. “I’ll follow you down til the sound of my voice will haunt you.”

The song was the country-ish ballad “Silver Springs,” a condemnation and incantation attached to a broken relationship. Nicks’s voice was lower than when she first warbled the words on 1977’s blockbuster album Rumours, making the parting vow even heavier. And when Nicks sang that “time casts a spell on you, but you won’t forget me,” the sold-out crowd could only agree and join in on the enchantment.

It was some evening, with the Mac, a still-spirited band with no new album but no reliance on nostalgia. The high material presented as era-less – memories attached to the breezy melodies, bluesy or bouncy rock and poignant acoustic-guitar moments were identified seat by seat, person by person. Earlier, Nicks, with only the finger-picking accompaniment of Buckingham at her side, offered the gentle “Landslide.” Could she handle the seasons of her life? Could we? The crowd’s ovation said something.

The live ballad of Nicks-Buckingham reminded me of other rock-relationship moments. When The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend’s signed off a show at the same venue with the affective reconciliation of Tea and Theatre: “We did it all, didn’t we, jumped every wall.” And when the Guess Who’s Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings at Molson Amphitheatre closed with “no time for a summer friend, no time for the love you send — seasons change and so did I.”

The strong night had begun with “Second Hand News,” a pow-pow-pow rocker about breakup sex. At 63, Buckingham is lean, bronzed and every inch a 110-per-cent player. His hairline has receded, but nothing else about him has.

Buckingham was firm and urgent on the plod and stomp of “The Chain,” with harmony from Nicks, the stiletto-wearing songstress who intoned that chains would “keep us together.”

Couldn’t help but notice that Nicks announced “this party starts now” when it came to her turn to take the spotlight, as if Buckingham’s moments were something introductory. The springy “Dreams” involved wandering: “You say you want your freedom, well who am I to keep you down.” The scarf-loving Nicks rounded down her vocal lines; it was a reasonable concession to the passage of time.

“Sad Angel,” Buckingham (a chatter) explained, was a new tune to be released at some point as part of a newly recorded EP. It’s an angular, tightly coiled number straight out of the 1980s — something to which Billy Idol could dance, possibly with himself.

Couldn’t help but notice that Buckingham hung back by his amplifier during the tired version of “Rhiannon,” as if he wanted no part of it. The crowd cheered anyway.

Buckingham described “Big Love” as “particularly significant,” in that the one-time meditation on alienation was now recast as a rumination on the power and importance of change. It was done solo, and involved two hands working as four on one of his many custom-made guitars.

He used the same acoustic on the night-closing “Say Goodbye,” a gentle departure. A fan behind me cracked “great, he’s gone Gordon Lightfoot on us.” I would have said Glen Campbell, but Lightfoot will do in regard to a mellow send-off that had Nicks and Buckingham in wistful, harmonic agreement: “That was so long ago, still I often think of you.” But then, we knew that already.

Fleetwood Mac plays Ottawa’s Scotiabank Place, April 23; Winnipeg’s MTS Centre, May 12; Saskatoon’s Credit Union Centre, May 14; Edmonton’s Rexall Centre, May 15; Calgary’s Scotiabank Saddledome, May 17; Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, May 19.

Set list

1. Second Hand News
2. The Chain
3. Dreams
4. Sad Angel
5. Rhiannon
6. Not That Funny
7. Tusk
8. Sisters of the Moon
9. Sara
10. Big Love
11. Landslide
12. Never Going Back Again
13. Without You
14. Gypsy
15. Eyes of the World
16. Gold Dust Woman
17. I’m So Afraid
18. Stand Back
19. Go Your Own Way
    Intermission
20. World Turning
21. Don’t Stop
    Encore
22. Silver Springs
23. Say Goodbye

Fleetwood Mac: A band that still enjoys performing together will sound like one

By Kevin Ritchie
Now Toronto
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 12:53 PM

NOW RATING: NNNN

Early in last night’s Fleetwood Mac’s concert, Lindsey Buckingham introduced a mini-set of songs from the California rock group’s 1979 album Tusk — the experimental follow-up to their mega-selling Rumours LP — by explaining that the band has always worked to subvert the formulas record execs insisted they submit to.

But after 35 years of ups and downs, an inescapable formula prevails: the Mac remains a band of highly distinct musical personalities that offers a little something for everyone.

Now that singer Christine McVie has retired, the dynamic has refocused on singer Stevie Nicks and singer/guitarist Buckingham’s tempestuous relationship. It’s familiar subject matter for many, yet clearly still vital, as the band filled their two-hour-plus set with a virtuosic energy that tapped into the biting sentiment simmering beneath their deceptively pretty harmonies.

A trio of Rumours hits was a warm-up for new song “Sad Angel,” a rollicking countrified tune tailored to play up Buckingham’s precision finger-picking – foreshadowing for his astonishing, five-minute solo during “I’m So Afraid.”

Clearly still basking in the recent critical re-appraisal of Tusk, they revived “Not That Funny” and “Sisters of the Moon” with pounding aggression. Nicks and Buckingham might sound huskier, their phrasing rougher, but their reverence for each other kept, oh say, a brilliant acoustic rendition of “Landslide” from careening into a phoned-in greatest hits trap.

If Fleetwood Mac has mastered another formula in their longevity, it is this: a band that still enjoys performing together will sound like one.

Good to know that Fleetwood Mac is not taking the burden of still being Fleetwood Mac in 2013 lightly.

By Ben Rayner
Toronto Star
April 17, 2013

Old dogs don’t tend to have a lot of new tricks left in ’em.

They’ll leap up at your throat from time to time, though, just to keep your mind on your business and to let you know that they’re still there, lurking beneath the porch. So, hi, Fleetwood Mac. Good to know you’re not taking the burden of still being Fleetwood Mac in 2013 lightly.

Fleetwood Mac easily could, we know. Until Michael Jackson’s Thriller came along, the California combo had bragging rights to the biggest-selling album of all time in the form of 1977’s Rumours, and that album was evidently the lingering, epicentrical source of most of the adulation thrust stageward when Fleetwood Mac as it exists today — drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, inimitable frontwoman Stevie Nicks, three supporting players and two background vocalists — took on a sold-out Toronto crowd at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night.

Rumours is it. So even though there was a lot of water under the Fleetwood Mac bridge before that record came along 11 albums in to its recording career and even more has passed beneath during the 25 years since — the group is currently operating without classic-era fixture Christine McVie and has witnessed the deaths of former members Bob Weston, Bob Brunning and Bob Welch since 2011 — the band diligently hit all the expected Rumours marks in its 2.5-hour ACC set, along with appropriate bookend selections from 1975’s Fleetwood Mac and 1979’s weirdo-reactionary Tusk, without ever really coming across as totally jaded and done-with-it-all.

One new song, an easily digestible and familiar-feeling ditty called “Sad Angel” from an EP — and perhaps a new album featuring, Buckingham claimed, “the best stuff we’ve done in a long time” — appeared near the top of the set. The rest of the time, though, Fleetwood Mac did a more energetic and invested job than most of its contemporaries on the nostalgia circuit doing the same-old, same-old night after night. It even appeared, heaven forbid, to be enjoying itself while it went through considerably more than the anticipated motions.

Rumours standards “The Chain,” “Dreams,” “Never Going Back Again” and an impressively churnin’-’n’-burnin’“Gold Dust Woman” that properly let the witchy, whirling Stevie “mystique” out to breathe burst forth as far more enthusiastic than programmatic, even though Buckingham took pains during the run-up to such comparatively neglected Tusk selections as “Not That Funny,” “Tusk,” “Sisters of the Moon” and “Sara” to point out that that record remains the “line drawn in the sand” that better satisfies Fleetwood Mac’s ambitions towards art over music-industry commerce.

An acoustic interlude featuring a solo Buckingham version of Tango in the Night’s “Big Love,” a tingly reading of Nicks’s golden “Landslide” dedicated to her two 11-year-old Toronto “fairy goddaughters” in the room and a “lost” 1974 tune from the former couple’s Buckingham/Nicks days entitled “Without You” was presented with a generosity of spirit lacking in the syrupy ickiness that typically bedevils arena shows when they go “unplugged.” Buckingham, meanwhile, pulled off the kind of extended, screeching guitar burnout at the end of “I’m So Afraid” — and Mick Fleetwood his own galvanizing, shouty solo sojourn behind the drum kit a few minutes later — that reminded you why everyone let the so-called “excesses” of ’70s rock embodied by Fleetwood Mac run as wild as they did in the first place.

This wasn’t a particularly wild night on the whole, of course, although a late-set “Go Your Own Way” finally did propel the supportive-but-staid crowd of Boomers and wine-slurping young ladies in Stevie drag onto its feet toward an encore that predictably exploded with “Don’t Stop.” It was far from the sleepwalk through the past it could have been, however, and a performance that lent some credence to Buckingham’s claims that there are “still chapters to be written” in the Fleetwood Mac story.

Live Nation and FleetwoodMac.com are officially reporting that Fleetwood Mac’s October 25 concert at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki has been canceled.

Here is the official statement from FleetwoodMac.com:

Due to production and logistical reasons Fleetwood Mac’s concert in Helsinki at Hartwall Arena on the 25th of October is now cancelled. There is no replacement date for the concert. The tickets can be returned to the outlet where the tickets were purchased.

Live Nation apologizes for the inconvenience.

Ticket refund
The tickets bought from Lippupiste for the concert should be returned to the same Lippupiste outlet where the tickets were purchased from. Tickets purchased from the Lippupiste web store or R-kioski should be sent to the following address: Lippupiste Oy, Kalevantie 2, B-talo, 33100 Tampere. Enclose the tickets with bank account information and contact information where the money should be returned to. Electronic tickets purchased from the Lippupiste web store can be returned to li********@***pu.fi address. Enclose the tickets with bank and contact information where the money should be returned to.

CANCELED CONCERT:
Fleetwood Mac Live 2013
Friday 25.10.2013 Hartwall Areena, Helsinki

Fleetwood Mac performed its lucky seventh concert on Tuesday night at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, the band’s first Canadian stop of the tour. Toronto Sun music critic Jane Stevenson was in the crowd to give the play-by-play of the show via Twitter.

“This party starts now!” Stevie exclaimed before launching into “Dreams,” with the crowd cheering in delight. Lindsey Buckingham fueled the excitement by telling the crowd, “Every time we come together it’s different. That’s part of the beauty of this band. There are still chapters to be written.”  By the end of the concert, the band had performed 23 songs in two and a half hours, including the new songs “Sad Angel” and “Without You.”

Stevie dedicated “Landslide” to her “fairy goddaughters,” one of whom appeared in Stevie’s documentary In Your Dreams. Earlier in the week, Stevie promoted her documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) by participating in a pair of Q&A sessions after two sold-out screenings of the film. During the sessions, Stevie teased the audience that she planned to tour solo in 2014, digging deep into her catalog of material to create the set list.

Fleetwood Mac returns stateside on Thursday for what looks to be an emotional night at the TD Garden in Boston, following Monday’s horrific bombing attacks at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 180 others. The band is expected to speak briefly about the incident at the concert.

Fleetwood Mac returns to Ontario next Tuesday to perform a show at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa.

Fan reaction (via Twitter)

@SidewalkHustle
The amazing, goosebump inducing @FleetwoodMac positively killing it! @ Air Canada Centre

@wecreatehoopla
Sing it Stevie!!! #fleetwoodmac amazing! -R @ Air Canada Centre

@IhateBenRayner
New stuff: “Sad Angel.” “The best stuff we’ve done in a long time,” sez Lindsay Buckingham. We shall see. #fleetwoodmac #ACC

@suzietoth
Why did it take me this long to see #fleetwoodmac in concert?!

@HuseM
Her mic stand is decked out w jewels! #StevieNicks

@chazato
Stevie can still belt out those killer tunes @fleetwoodmac #acc fabulous concert

@BWheelerglobe
“Yes I’m getting older too.” Stevie Nicks, singing at ACC. If she ran for any election at this moment, she’d win by Landslide. #fleetwoodmac

@Q107Toronto
Stevie singing #landslide. Not a dry eye in the house! #acc #fleetwoodmac

@DyaneCampbell 
Amazing!
@taranoellephoto #fleetwoodmac @ Air Canada Centre

@mccartney17
@fleetwoodmac I may be in the nosebleeds but its still Heaven,my dream concert since I was 8! #FleetwoodMacLIVE #Love

@bananarams
Silver Springs. Arguably the greatest breakup song of all time #fleetwoodmaclive

@Tashyygirl19
Fantastic!! Stevie Nicks was timeless. Lindsay was a guitar god. John was amazing. And Mick was his crazy incredible self!

@tinekemeow
4 encores thank you so much #fleetwoodmacLIVE I love youuuuuu

@detroitdan1982 23m
Worth. Every. Single. Cent. #fleetwoodmacLIVE

To read more fan reviews from the tour, visit The Nicks Fix.

Toronto set list

1. Second Hand News
2. The Chain
3. Dreams
4. Sad Angel (new song)
5. Rhiannon
6. Not That Funny
7. Tusk
8. Sisters Of The Moon
9. Sara
10. Big Love
11. Landslide
12. Never Going Back Again
13. Without You (new song)
14. Gypsy
15. Eyes Of The World
16. Gold Dust Woman
17. I’m So Afraid
18. Stand Back
19. Go Your Own Way
20. World Turning (first encore)
21. Don’t Stop
22. Silver Springs (second encore)
23. Say Goodbye

Band members

• Lindsey Buckingham – Guitars, Lead Vocals
• Mick Fleetwood – Drums, percussion
• John McVie – Bass
• Stevie Nicks – Lead Vocals
• Neil Heywood – Guitars
• Brett Tuggle – Keyboards
• Sharon Celani – Background vocals
• Lori Nicks – Background vocals

Videos

1-3. “Second Hand News,” “The Chain,” “Dreams” (courtesy of ShakyShorty)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-gI_XvdjtY]

2. “The Chain” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99j9_kN9yRo]

2-3. “The Chain,” “Dreams” (courtesy of Ken Lyons)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_-adnlSemw]

3. “Dreams” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khXIdK5EpLE]

4. “Sad Angel” (courtesy of Shirleyf448)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVA2v7ogXE0]

4. “Sad Angel” with intro (courtesy of Ken Lyons)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MV0eoIej6Y]

4. “Sad Angel” (courtesy of MixedPicks)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeKQEoUW9hY]

5. “Rhiannon” (courtesy of Ken Lyons)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKXyQ0n4oi0]

5. “Rhiannon” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQQHzNQJVao]

6. “Not That Funny” (courtesy of Ken Lyons)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7zfoahCgyY]

7. “Tusk” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m00MgLtv8TY]

7. “Tusk” (courtesy of Ada Wong)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF3nT8jOauc]

8. “Sisters of the Moon” (courtesy of Theresa Salisbury Oldham)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5VeebP-t0U]

9. “Sara” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiUHBAgaWsk]

10. “Big Love” (courtesy of Andrew Summers)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsq2qR4zCoM]

11. “Landslide” (courtesy of Lindsay Bossin)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTehQ02xyYo]

11. “Landslide” (courtesy of Andrew Summers)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g4Xbj4b8MQ]

11. “Landslide” (courtesy of ShakyShorty)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-h3CZMIL3Y]

11. “Landslide” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q_UOXaoBvg]

12. “Never Going Back Again” (courtesy of Andrew Summers)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksnY5O0_3DQ]

12. “Never Going Back Again” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXTRMGXswCg]

13. “Without You” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URZQsx-ZDFY]

14. “Gypsy” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqpPkANpmuQ]

16. “Gold Dust Woman” (courtesy of TheConcertGoddess)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQS_ytt9iY4]

16. “Gold Dust Woman” (courtesy of Andrew Summers)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIUb8r7zLeE]

17. “I’m So Afraid” (courtesy of Andrew Summers)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sya0aOKiIjs]

19. “Go Your Own Way” -partial (courtesy of RetroKimmie)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA1hfuHRczw]

19. “Go Your Own Way” (courtesy of kaitystarr16)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kBoRX-H4AM]

22. “Silver Springs” (courtesy of Ken Lyons)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YibSe06rf0w]

23. “Say Goodbye” (courtesy of Ken Lyons)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDfAPPE_yCA]

Special thanks to Lindsay Bossin, kaitystaff16, Ken Lyons, MixedPicks, Theresa Salisbury Oldham, RetroKimmie, and ShakyShorty, Shirleyf448, Andrew Summers, TheConcertGoddess, and Ada Wong for making these clips available. 

By Greg Kot
Chicago Tribune
Sunday, April 14, 2013

It was billed as a Fleetwood Mac concert Saturday at the United Center, but it was really more about the California duo that Mick Fleetwood invited to join the band in 1974, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

Lindsey and Stevie were the Jay-Z and Beyonce of the ‘70s. They were an under-achieving folk-rock duo transformed into a power couple with Fleetwood Mac, a core ingredient in three multimillion-selling albums that provided 15 of the 23 songs performed Saturday: Fleetwood Mac (1975), Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979).

(more…)

Fleetwood Mac
KFC YUM! Center
Louisville, Kentucky
Thursday, April 11, 2013

By Pam Windsor
Louisville.com
Friday, April 12, 2013 12:34pm

With no opening act – which made it all so much better — Fleetwood Mac hit the stage and rocked the KFC Yum! Center for more than two hours with a high energy, dynamic performance of their greatest hits, some new music, and even a newly discovered old song from the Buckingham Nicks days. As the show got underway, it was difficult to tell who was more excited to have Fleetwood Mac back performing live for the first time in three years — the many thousands in the crowd — or Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.

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