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| From | "josh chasin" <jchasin@nyc.rr.com> |
| Subject | Fleetwood Mac; Jones Beach; 9-21-03 |
| Date | Mon, 22 Sep 2003 16:05:25 -0400 |
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I had the good fortune to see Fleetwood Mac last night at Jones Beach, an
excellent outdoor venue for seeing what is otherwise generally an arena
band.
Despite my unabashed love and hero worship of Lindsey Buckingham, I found
that the show managed to exceed my expectations. In part this was because I
had lowered my expectations in anticipation that the loss of Christine McVie
would be more sorely felt; on most of the vintage Lindsey-era Mac, many of
the best moments involve collaborations between the two of them (e.g., "Hold
Me"). But the band managed to realign itself around who was there, as
opposed to keeping a space for someone who wasn't, and so for the most part
she wasn't missed (although her presence would still have been a welcome
thing). Indeed they only played one McVie song all night, the last encore
("Don't Stop"), which after Clinton '92 is probably mandated for inclusion
in the setlist by law. Speaking of setlists:
The Chain
Dreams
Eyes of the World
Peacekeeper
Second Hand News
Say You Will
Never Going Back Again
Rhiannon
Come
Gypsy
Big Love
Landslide
Say Goodbye
What's the World Coming To
Beautiful Child
Gold Dust Woman
So Afraid
Silver Spring
Tusk
Stand Back
Go Your Own Way
World Turning >
self-indulgent drum solo
Don't Stop
There were many, many musicians augmenting the core foursome-- two
guitarists, a keyboard player who doubled on guitar, a percussionist, and
two background singers (most of the backing instrumentalists also sang).
However for the most part the backing musicians were quite low in the mix,
providing underlying texture; the four band members were all quite high in
the mix, so the majority of what you actually heard (or perceived at any
rate) was them. The only exceptions were the keyboardist on the songs with
a pronounced keyboard part; and the percussionist on numbers with that
twinkly, fairy-dust wind chime sound they sprinkle quite liberally over a
lot of songs.
Lindsey Buckingham remains a true rock star, a monster, a force of nature.
So much music pours out of him, sometimes its hard to believe. Nicks, about
whom I generally gripe, was quite impressive, although now in her 50s and
with a lower-register, smoky voice she may well be becoming the Lauren
Bacall of rock. The band used vocal arrangements that featured the two
voices to good advantage, recasting 3-part harmonies as 2-part; Lindsey and
Stevie did a lot of singing together, the vast array of backing vocalists
adding color. And with 13 Lindsey songs (I'm counting "The Chain") and 9
Nicks songs, the Nicks selections really stuck to her strongest material,
seldom wading over into twittishness. (Still, no one is going to stop her
from twirling around in scarf-draped circles on songs like "Gold Dust
Woman.")
Indeed, the chemistry between Lindsey and Stevie-- both musical and
personal-- was palpable. It would be easy to say that all the hugging and
dancing and affection was contrived (and I'm sure that they probably repeat
a good deal of it at the same spots every night). But too, if they
genuinely disliked each other, you have to figure they wouldn't bother.
Musically, especially on some of the Lindsey songs off of the new record Say
You Will ("Come", "Say Goodbye", "What's the World Coming To"), the band
seems to have found more space for Stevie to occupy. This is notable
because each of those tracks originally comes from Lindsey's aborted solo
album Gift of Screws, essentially intact; for Say You Will they simply
layered in a Stevie vocal track over the top (Fleetwood and John McVie were
already on the original Screws sessions.) Her greater presence live-- no
doubt the result of several months of road work-- makes the songs stronger.
Buckingham played a ton of guitar, at times violently attacking the
strings, at times delicately, expertly picking. I thought some of the
highlights were the opening "Chain" (full-band whomp); "Eyes of the World"
(an underrated Mirage song); "Never Goin' Back Again" (basically Lindsey and
John McVie; great picking); "Say You Will" (Stevie's best song off the new
one); the new Lindsey tunes "Say Goodbye" and "What's the World Coming To";
and the surprising Nicks Tusk choice "Beautiful Child."
I could have done with far less of Mick Fleetwood's annoying mugging. At
least I thought it was Mick Fleetwood; it could have been Marty Feldman.
Nevertheless, he and John McVie provide one of the most solid, distinctive,
poppy rhythm sections in rock.
On the whole, it would have been easy to criticize these dinosaurs of rock
for still rolling out the circus 26 years after Rumors (represented by 7,
count 'em 7, songs.) Except for the fact that they delivered the goods.
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