Fleetwood Mac plows through a 22-song set like gleaming pros.

Photos by Daniel Petty

If you’re like me, and it’s not impossible that you are, you grew up vaguely aware of Fleetwood Mac. You thought of the band’s music as something primarily designed for parents, like chardonnay or station wagons. It wasn’t until you listened to it at a party in college, surrounded by people who were a bit older and cooler than you, that you realized it was also something for you. Something that deserved the critical praise and karaoke treatment it always got. Something really good.

Those thoughts wouldn’t leave me last night as I watched the band play its second, capacity Pepsi Center show in the span of four months. The Rumours-era lineup, which includes recent and utterly indispensable returning member Christine McVie, plowed through a 22-song set like gleaming pros. Most of the audience was middle-aged and seated, and happily so. But despite the frequent, between-song nostalgia from Stevie Nicks (resplendent and witchy), Lindsey Buckingham and a circumspect McVie, the band proved its music doesn’t belong to one generation. We all own “Rhiannon,” is what I’m saying. And it owns us.

The band’s got its moves down, but it wasn’t just going through the motions. How many times has Stevie Nicks twirled in circles to “Gypsy,” her frilly black cuffs brushing the beaded necklaces on her mic stand? This is show business, not a feel-good creative lark, but it’s clear these things occasionally overlap. Scrutinizing the band members’ faces as they talked about the drama, breakups, rehab stints, etc. only reinforced how mysterious they remain. This was show No. 73 of their current tour, an improbably energized Buckingham told the audience near the beginning. But the 10-piece band (which included some truly great backup singers) belted out every golden, honeyed melody, aurally iconic riff and tumbling percussive passage like it was their first in years.

“Let’s get the party started!” Nicks encouraged us, adorably, after “Dreams.” The tie-dyed dads and toe-tapping moms obliged, mouthing every word to “Second Hand News” and “Big Love.” Mick Fleetwood’s subtly insistent drumming was the heartbeat. Buckingham’s leads were the neural electricity. Hearing these classic songs rendered so impeccably was like watching Salvador Dali re-paint one of his masterpieces from memory, on demand. The band found an expert balance between slavish imitation of its 39-year-old recordings and melodic variations of well-worn choruses — even if Stevie took the vocal low road on a few songs.

How does a band successfully revive something so embalmed in our memories? Fleetwood Mac is entirely conscious of its legacy, which it gently attempted to revise with each practiced, between-song speech. Buckingham never actually said, “We were all sexually cannibalistic cokeheads while we were making this music four decades ago.” But he talked around it in his socially-conscious, post-hippie SoCal spiritual way. As his frenzied solos unfurled, it was hard to not wanna hug the skinny little proto-emo freak. Nicks smiled wisely during the “Landslide” line “I’m getting older, too,” which was dedicated to a family member in the audience going through some drama. Her theatrical rendering of that song and Buckingham’s “Never Going Back Again,” which he slowed down and teased the audience with, gave me chills. I saw tears on the faces of more than one person. We all had chills.

Set list:
The Chain
You Make Lovin’ Fun
Dreams
Second Hand News
Rhiannon
Everywhere
I Know I’m Not Wrong
Tusk
Sisters of the Moon
Say You Love Me
Big Love
Landslide
Never Going Back
Over My Head
Gypsy
Little Lies
Gold Dust
So Afraid
Go Your Own Way

Encore:
World Turning
Don’t Stop
Silver Springs

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John Wenzel is an A&E reporter and critic for The Denver Post. Follow him @johnwenzel.

John Wenzel / Denver Post / Thursday, April 2, 2015

Powerhouse band returns to Denver’s Pepsi Center, where Lindsey Buckingham steals the show.

Photos by Brandon Marshall
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The Pepsi Center was moving and shaking on Wednesday evening to the smoky sounds of the infamous Fleetwood Mac. The night was filled with velvet-draped microphone stands, beards, vests and the crackle of big personalities.

Although the group seemed to be in high spirits, there was a suggestive tinge of emotion drifting between the bandmates throughout the show. Christine McVie, once married to bassist John McVie, has not been a part of the band for over sixteen years, but she began touring with it again in September. The event mainly focused on Christine McVie and her return — something Stevie Nicks seems to have had enough of.

Nicks began by saying that McVie had been gone for a decent amount of time, but now Denver was their 73rd show together. “I can safely say she’s back.”

The rockers’ dynamic was a little off-putting throughout the evening. But the group began their set with “The Chain,” and continued to give the audience what it was looking for. It is absolutely astonishing how many hits Fleetwood Mac has made over the years. This band is a powerhouse. The band, whose members range in age from the late sixties to early seventies, played for over two and a half hours, fully engaged in the crowd and musicianship.

The first half of their set was more rock-oriented. By the middle of the set, the band exited the stage — eveyone except Lindsey Buckingham, who stood front and center with an acoustic guitar.

Beforehand, Buckingham had given a little history behind the song “Big Love” — the first single off of Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night. He explained the history of the time when he wrote it and what it has meant to him over the years. “To me, it is a mantra; it’s the power and importance of change,” explained Buckingham. He then played a solo version of “Big Love,” giving the song a more backwoods, folky feel, compared to the 1980s hard-grooving rock tune that was recorded on the album.

Thereafter, Nicks joined Buckingham on stage, and they performed “Landslide.” This was a very powerful moment. “Landslide” has so much emotion and ghosts permeating it, and it let off energy blasts between Nicks and Buckingham. By the end, the two were holding hands.

The rest of the bandmembers resurfaced, and Mick Fleetwood was positioned center stage with a smaller drum kit than his extensive main one to perform “Gypsy,” which led into “Little Lies.”

As I said, every one of these musicians are at the top of their game. Fleetwood Mac 2015 sounded as good as Fleetwood Mac 1968, but Lindsey Buckingham stole a good majority of the show with his incredible guitar playing, accompanied by some signature moves as well as some borrowed over the years, such as the classic Chuck Berry duck walk.

The band closed the evening with some encores, among them “World Turning.”

The members gave this time to the youthful Mick Fleetwood, once again all of them leaving the stage, diffusing the electric chemistry that encases them when all founding members are together. Mick Fleetwood led the crowd through a tribal call-and-response drum solo, keeping perfect time and shouting out emotional cries for the crowd to repeat.

Fleetwood Mac is not just a band that has created multiple hits throughout its career. When you experience its live act, you find a feeling of family and relationship. You experience the love and heartache between five individuals who have shared their lives with each other for nearly fifty years.

Alex Warzel / Westword / Thursday, April 2, 2015