UNCASVILLE – Fleetwood Mac brought their On With the Show tour to the Mohegan Sun arena this past Saturday night for a sold-out performance that had the band playing for more than two hours.
Fleetwood Mac was formed in 1967 and continues to tour with the lineup that brought them the most commercial success. This lineup consists of Stevie Nicks on vocals, Christine McVie on keyboards and vocals, John McVie on bass, Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and vocals and Mick Fleetwood on drums. Through the years the band has had many personnel changes and members coming and going. We’ll just stick with the live review…
Fleetwood Mac made its way to the stage a little after 8 p.m. to the delight of the crowd. The band opened with The Chain and the sound was impeccable. Every instrument was clearly evident through the sound system, but most impressive was the drum sound – booming would be a good word for it. Also sounding amazing were the lead and backing vocals.
Chrisine McVie took the lead vocal duties on the next song You Make Loving Fun. McVie just recently rejoined the band after a 16-year absence and really provides another great voice to compliment Nicks and Buckingham. She also sings some of the more popular Fleetwood Mac songs. This is one of a handful of bands where more than two members of a band sing lead vocals and most of those bands were from the 70s also.
The song Dreams followed with Nicks on lead while Buckingham took his turn on vocals after that with Second Hand News. The crowd really came to life with the drum intro to Tusk that had Buckingham howling like a mad man and running the stage.
After a few more songs, all the band members left the stage except for Buckingham who pulled out his acoustic guitar as the lone spotlight shined down while he sang Big Love. He is an amazing guitarist and really does not get as much recognition as he should for his playing. Keeping with the acoustic theme, Nicks joined Buckingham on stage for a phenomenal version of Landslide.
Mick Fleetwood decided he wanted a little of the spotlight on him for a change as a set of drums was brought to the center of the stage for him to play during the song Over my Head with McVie back singing.
Nicks took center stage thanking the crowd for sticking with the band for all these years and acknowledging how much they appreciate the fans. Nicks then had a great introduction to the song Gypsy and talked about visiting a small clothing store in San Francisco when she first started out and thinking this is where the likes of Janis Joplin and Grace Slick had visited. She got this feeling that something good was coming her way soon. You don’t really think about Nicks in the same time frame as those other legends, but she has been doing this since the early 70s.
The band finished out the set with Little Lies, Gold Dust Woman, I’m So Afraid and Go Your Own Way before leaving the stage and thanking the crowd. The first encore consisted of World Turning, Don’t Stop and Silver Springs. After leaving the stage again, the band came back for a second encore and truly finished the night with Songbird.
This was a great concert from an extremely talented group of musicians. Fleetwood Mac is currently writing some new material and claim to be about 75 percent finished with eight songs. This is good news for the diehard fans as the band doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.
Please feel free to send your comments and suggestions to [email protected]. Mike’s Rawk Report delivers updated concert news and reviews from throughout the New England area.
