For a band so relentlessly intent in telling us to forget yesterday – as in their 1977 hit Don’t Stop, Fleetwood Mac sure makes a lot of money keeping the past alive, as evidenced by the full house at Rexall Place Saturday night on their current “On With the Show” Tour.

In the years before hooking up with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac was a plodding and increasingly irrelevant UK blues act that was chronically unable to hang on to a succession of gifted guitarists – from Peter Green to Jeremy Spencer to Danny Kirwan. They seemed destined for the dustbin of rock ‘n’ roll history – until Americans Nicks and Buckingham breathed new life into the band with their folk tinged, moody So-Cal sound, a life that continues to resonate loudly all these years later.

The band knocked the evening’s first chunk off the old ball of rock with The Chain, one of nine songs the band played off their 1977 magnum opus Rumours, and a reminder of the value of relationships through the years. Given the band’s storied and sordid internal history, the rhythmic tribal drumming, resplendent chorus, and energetic performance was evidence enough for the band’s current degree of musical viability. These aren’t spring chickens here – the average age of this band is 67.5, with Lindsey Buckingham tipping the young end of the scale at the OAS-receiving age of 65 – yet they sounded fresh and full of life, as if to tell us that living in yesterday is doing a pretty good job of keeping these guys alive today.

Fleetwood Mac GigCity EdmontonWhen your head is in the clouds, your feet aren’t always on the ground, as evidenced by Stevie Nicks in her little mid-set tale about her rise to rock stardom. Without the tiniest smidgeon of irony, she excitedly told the overwhelmingly middle aged crowd that they could live their dreams, too, and be rock stars if they wanted. I wonder how many 56-year-olds in the crowd planned to take her up on that one.

Philosophers – or realists – they aren’t, but musicians with significant pedigree they are. Their two-plus hour set focused mostly on songs from only two albums – including 1975′s self titled release – and as such was an easy listener’s wet dream. As the band effortlessly drove their way from Dreams to Rhiannon and back, Christine McVie – her 22nd show since reuniting with the band earlier this year – looked classy even with her understated stage presence, and sounded even better on Say You Love Me and You Make Loving Fun, a potential bomb of Captain & Tennille proportions for those of lesser ability and experience than her.

Band members seemed to know their roles, letting the other shine when it was their time, and coming in the spotlight when if was their turn. Nicks had her moments during Gypsy and Gold Dust Woman, trading off the image she has cultivated for herself over the years. If style could be trademarked, Loreena McKennitt would be sued for copyright infringement. “Iconic” is one of the few words to describe Nicks.

Buckingham, by far the most energetic member of the band, took off on numerous instrumental excursions – acoustic during Never Going Back Again, and electric during the minor chord driven tour de force I’m So Afraid. With his bizarre finger flicking picking style, it’s amazing how he is able to fret some of those notes accurately. Rest assured, thanks to Jumbotron, that was him blazing away in a solo that moodily wound its way up and around a spiral staircase into sheer musical ecstasy. Deservedly, the song’s completion brought the crowd to its feet.

The production company responsible for the projection screens above and behind the band deserves praise for stylish, sumptuous use of warm colours, and breathtakingly beautiful background imagery that was clearly constructed to evoke the particular mood of the song in mind. For a band whose members don’t move around much, the warm, arresting images definitely made for a more evocative performance. The show looked as fantastic as it sounded.

Fleetwood Mac’s success is akin to the success of self help books. People seem to have a bottomless desire to hear simple universal messages over and over and over again: Go your own way, don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, live your dreams, yes, we get it. While some may knock the redundancy in the art form, you can’t fault the band for playing to their strengths.

Derek Owen / Gig City / Sunday, November 2014

We can imagine the conversation:

“Hey, Chris, it’s Mick. You know that reunion tour you didn’t want to be part of? We made $68 million – US!”

“No way.”

“Way! And we want to do it again. With you there we can double that. Fans are begging for it. You’d only have sing lead on four, maybe five songs. Stand behind your keyboards for the rest of the time. Come on, all for one and one for all! Split five ways. You’ll be set for life.”

“(Whistles) OK – just as long as we’re not doing it for the money.”

“Ha, ha! You got it!”

High ticket prices were the main complaint coming into Fleetwood Mac’s nostalgia trip at Rexall Place Saturday night – and we should all just shut up because it serves us right for stealing music from the Internet. Quid pro quo, Clarice, quid pro quo.

What we got for our money was a delight for Baby Boomers of all ages: the magic line-up (more or less) responsible for some of the seminal songs of an entire generation: The witchy woman mojo of Stevie Nicks, the incredible guitar wizardry of Lindsey Buckingham, the competent rhythm section of John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, and at last, the missing sweet high harmonies of the reluctant Christine McVie for the first time in 16 years. Such chemistry is rare in any rock band.

The Chain – one of the many songs that causes seizures of incontinent nostalgia from merely hearing a couple of notes – was the first step on Maccian Memory Lane. With no new album to get in the way of the non-stop hit parade, a good deal of the show seemed designed to show off the gifts of its stars independent from one another, save for supporting roles. You know, like the Eagles. Among several impressive feats of guitaring prowess, Buckingham’s shining moment was his solo turn in Never Going Back Again, while Nicks was flawlessly, perfectly, scarfily raspy in her signature ballad Landslide. For all the guys in the crowd who had been expecting it, Mick’s inevitable drum solo was saved for the middle of World Turning, in the encore. And Christine got the final spotlight, solo at her piano for Songbird.

Rumours, that huge 1977 album without which we probably wouldn’t even be here, provided the main thrust of the fan devotion on Saturday night. The McVie-penned-and-performed You Make Loving Fun came early, showing the long-absent band member in reasonable form with a voice that only got stronger as the show wound on. Other highlights from that great record included Dreams – another signature Stevie song – along with Second Hand News (another Lindsey song) and Gold Dust Woman later on, featuring another epic guitar solo. The capper of the night was Don’t Stop, after which, ironically, it shortly stopped. It’s easy to tell who wrote what, in fact, some songs so different – contrast Nicks’ Gyspy with Buckingham’s Big Love – that it’s hard to believe it’s the same band. Maybe that’s what made them so special.

From the incomplete Fleetwood Mac experience in 2013 in this same building, two sets of exes were on stage here in the most famous rock ‘n’ roll love quadrangle of all time; everyone seemed be getting along in their advanced maturity. As Stevie said of her female foil, “She seems happy to be back.” Lindsey called this proper reunion a “profound, prolific and beautiful new chapter” in the history of the band.

If only! It was pretty good, not transcendent, not special or one-of-a-kind, as concerts go; more like just another gig. Another Fleetwood Mac gig, mind you. They didn’t pull out any extra stops than necessary to deliver the hits we all know and love. The sound was full, and little was left to chance, with two backing musicians and three extra singers, but there seemed to be something missing. You think they could’ve at least sprung for a marching band during Tusk instead of the canned horns, but what are you going to do? If you don’t love them now, you never will again.

Mike Ross / Edmonton Sun / Saturday, November 15, 2014