Concert Review: Fleetwood Mac "On With the Show" 2014 Tour

Concert Review: Fleetwood Mac "On With the Show" 2014 Tour - Madison Square Garden New York City

- October 09, 2014

Fleetwood Mac put on a spectacular show at Madison Square Garden, the second of two New York shows, with a third area appearance to follow in New Jersey on Wednesday night.

This tour is a special one for Fleetwood Mac & the fans, as they welcomed back the great; Christine McVie. This making it the classic Fleetwood Mac line up from the mid seventies through the late nineties. This is the line up which brought them to success & super stardom. This tour focused on the Mac's biggest albums from their golden era; Fleetwood Mac (1975) Rumours (1977) Tusk (1979) Mirage (1982) & Tango In the Night (1988).

In case you did not know, the Rumors album was number one on the US chats for 31 weeks in 1977 & has sold 45 million copies to date. It is the sixth most selling album of all time. Overall the Mac has sold over 100 million records & is one of the biggest rock & roll bands of all time.

Mick Fleetwood on Drums

Fleetwood Mac has toured without McVie in recent years but there was always something missing. With McVie back there is less time for Stevie Nicks & Lindsay Buckingham songs, which deleted this set list from some deeper tracks beyond the hits.

The great Stevie Nicks

As a die hard Stevie Nicks fan, my favorite female singer, I would have have like more Stevie Nicks songs. But it is what it is & there is only so much time in a single concert. This set list seemed to be more straight forward, 24 songs is incredible & the fact that they are all well known songs is even more incredible. This tour seems to be more focused on just the songs without much musical exploration.

I loved the Mick Fleetwood drum solo during the encore, Fleetwood is a much under rated drummer, a master of his craft. He along with musical partner (bass player) John McVie, are the back bone & the ground floor of all that is Fleetwood Mac. McVie stands in the back ground almost hiding behind the speakers as he plays his bass all night, following along with the animated Fleetwood on drums.

The ladies vocals are spectacular, Stevie Nicks voice always getting better & stronger. She was perfect on Silver Springs, Gypsy, Sisters of the Moon, Landslide & Gold Dust Woman. Gold Dust Woman may have been one of the strongest efforts of the night for Mac, complete with Stevie doing her dance & twirls in a musical trance from the band.

It was strange to see the Nicks classic: Rhiannon get played with out it's slow piano & vocal intro as is usually the case in concert. Again the songs tonight were straight forward, to get them all in. Dreams was also straight forward & done a bit too quickly in my opinion.

Stevie was dressed in her usual black attire, with black boots & scarves hanging from her microphone. The Queen of Rock & Roll, was once again in top form. She may do less dancing & twirling around in her later years, but her vocals are more than perfect. When she does dazzle us with her moves, the crowd still cheers & goes wild as the silhouette of Stevie Nicks twirls around, shining in the shadows of the stage lights. The music goes into a mesmerizing trance during Gold Dust Woman & Gypsy, as Stevie is at her best.

Stevie Nicks doing Gold Dust Woman-

The encore saw Stevie wear the classic top hat that we love her so much in, yes this was classic Fleetwod Mac!

Christine McVie

Christine McVie's lovely voice is just as when she left. The songstress was incredible herself with You Make Lovin Fun, Everywhere, Say You Love, Over My Head & the beautiful; Song Bird which closed out the show. The bands classic; Don't Stop written by McVie is now done correctly with her on most lead vocals along with Lindsay Buckingham.

The crowd was really welcoming to McVie as her return is the highlight & theme of the whole tour. Not that any of this should take away what a great band this is, their library speaks for itself. Their live performance speaks even louder & is one not to miss if you are a fan of any of their music.

The two voices of Stevie Nicks & Christine McVie together make for wonderful harmonies. As your watching the show, it hits you as you see them sing to each other. This was much missed without McVie on recent tours.

Sharon Celani- Stevie Nicks & Lori Perry Nicks

The back up singers add another layer of beautiful harmonies as well. These include Long time singers Sharon Celani & Lori Nicks, who have been singing with Stevie Nicks (solo & with Mac) since 1979.

Almost lost in the shuffle is Lindsay Buckingham, his songs in which he sings lead, are now curt down to a mere few. The ladies lead vocals have taken over the popularity of the show. That said, Buckingham is the musical leader with his guitar, he leads some other backing musicians behind the back bone of the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood & John McVie. Lindsay's guitar playing was excellent, most notable on I'm So Afraid & Tusk. Now his vocal songs seemed to be fillers in between the big classics. He did a fine job with Second Hand News (my fav Buckingham song of the night) Big Love & World Turning. Of course the biggies: Go Your Own Way may be his master piece.

Lindsay Buckingham

The show was phenomenal & worth it's expensive price tag for those of us in the first level of Madison Square Garden. It was certainly an older crowd, mellow & very much educated in the Fleetwood Mac musical history.