Amazing!!

I attended the Anaheim concert last night. It was AMAZING! In moments I was brought back to so many powerful memories that were laced with their music. As I'm about their age, they are quite a role model about age only being a state of mind . . . Thanks for a truly powerful night.

They're Back All Right

ALL the pistons were firing tonight. The show rocked with precision abandon, which seems like a contradiction in terms, but it seems to be what happens when the music is ingrained in your muscle memory and you don't have to concentrate on that, just on the crowd. And I think the crowd was key.

The first 10 rows were allowed up and it seems like half of them were standing in front of the stage in a crowd 6 feet deep, almost 30 minutes before the show even began. They seemed to greet more songs with raucous familiarity than previous audiences I'd seen had.

As we waited to go into the arena, I saw a woman selling those tambos. There are two versions. One has a penguin and the other has the 4 heads we've been looking at for the last 6 years. I better write a notation about that in my will. If I die, my well-meaning family might want to slip something related to Fleetwood Mac in my coffin and it just better not be any of those SYW photos. I can't look at those for all of eternity, because I already have!

Anyway, I wanted to take a picture of the tambourines because someone here asked, but I was supposed to be hiding my camera. I couldn't risk getting it confiscated before the show even started!

Monday Morning: Maybe I imagined it, but it seems like there was a longer wait before the song kicked off. You saw the four of them standing there in readiness and just heard a lone, steady percussion sound for several moments. That continued longer than I remember, before the music roared to life. It seems to me that during the early shows, people were enthusiastic about Monday Morning, but more because it was the first song of the set and they were still cheering the start of the concert than because they loved the tune itself. But tonight I think they really got into it. Obviously, The Chain was greeted wildly, but MM didn't seem to be just a tolerated stepchild.

Lindsey kicks things off with his signature silliness, shouting "1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4," but slurring the words, pausing, teasing, yelping. He's a ham, no doubt about that. People should start throwing cloves and pineapples. But he's also not taking himself that seriously. Much of his routine is self-mocking. It's almost as if he's watching us, watching him and reflecting the kudos he's getting back at the fans. He's playing more than preening.

Stevie's mic problem seems to have been improved, because I could hear her on MM this time around.

Dreams: Stevie says they never get tired of knowing that we come out here to see them when there are other places we could be. [Yeah, there's a Dodger game I'd rather be at, actually]. Then she says, "Let's get this party started," but lowers her voice and says it huskily.

She is very playful and smiley. I can only see her from about the shin up and it doesn't matter what kind of boots she has on in the least. She laughs, circles and kicks and doesn't seem the least bit sleepy, unhappy or feeble. I wouldn't say she limped when she was moving, but I will say that during her GDW poses it looked to me as if she was putting more weight on one foot. Almost as if one might be shorter than the other. But that was more noticeable when she was standing in one spot, than when she was in action.

I notice that Lindsey stands about 2 feet to the right of his mic often, when he's not singing, frequently closer to Stevie on the stage than he had been when the tour started.

IKINW: Lindsey says that having grown up in Northern California, he never thought he'd be living in Los Angeles. Of course, he's right. It's a hell hole compared to Palo Alto! But he says that Los Angeles has a way of drawing you in on its own terms, just like Fleetwood Mac does. They take breaks from each other, but when they're rejuvenated, with a sense of forward motion and possibility.

Gypsy:Stevie talks about joining Fritz in 1967 and says when she asked what kind of band it was, the drummer told her it was a hard, hard rocking band. With that she remembers exclaiming, "I'm in. I can do that!" Was Fritz really that hard rocking? The next day she was at Lindsey's house. They rehearsed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then performed on Friday and Saturday. She wrote this song 10 years later and it was about the Velvet Undergound in San Francisco. The room with paper flowers, they had in their house in Los Gatos, with hers (and Lindsey's) bed on the floor. When she adds that possessive bed detail, it's like she wants to tell everyone who might not know already that she and Lindsey used to sleep together.


Go Insane: Honestl,y this is better than its ever been. A masterpiece. At one point, Lindsey is mimicking Brett's keyboard with his own fingertips. Playing air piano.

Rhiannon: I'm not really into rating the strengths of Rhiannons or comparing them, but at the end Stevie gets more passionate than I've seen her in a while, stomping her feet and fiercely shaking her head, shouting, "silly dreamer, dreamer". It's not one of the exorcisms of old, but I'd say there was just a hint of foam at the mouth beginning.

Second Hand News: Lindsey says, "If memory serves me right and I have to admit it doesn't always . . . " but he's fairly sure that SHN is the first song they started recording for Rumours. He said the song has what they had when they were making the record, emotional opposites, who reconciled their problems with humor, optimism and "a good dose of aggression." Stevie plays the air drums for the "ba ba ba bam" parts.

Sara is lovely. I recall Louie remarking that Stevie seemed pained singing it with FM the last time around, but there was no pain tonight. And I would say that while the wistful air is part of the song's charm, the message tonight seemed less of a wistful plea to lost love and more like a pledge. She and Lindsey are looking at each other and singing just before she holds out her hand and sings, "I'll be there" and it comes across as a promise being made, not broken. Enchanting.

Big Love: I don't remember Lindsey giving Big Love an introduction earlier in the tour. This time, I expect because his family is in the audience he'll say how because of them he's not living alone in a house on the hill anymore. But he doesn't mention them. He just talks about how the meaning of the song has shifted over the years and now it has 2 points. He says that it was the first single from TITN (I almost fear he won't remember the title) and it started off as an ensemble piece, but became a template for things to follow. Once it was about alienation, but now the song has shown him the "power and importance of change."

Landslide: Stevie says that there are "way too many people" that they love in Los Angeles that she can't dedicate the song to one person as she usually does. So, instead she'll dedicate it to all of her fairy god daughters. Her little girls: Ruby, Tessa, Stella, Lee Lee . . . She names 2 more that I don't remember and she tells them: "Carry it on girls."

Storms: Stevie says that when they started rehearsals on January 5, of this year they decided to do a song they had never done before and this one is a dark and stormy song about dark and stormy people in dark and storm relationships. After that somber notes, she smiles and says it's a great song, which they call "Always Been a Storm."

Say You Love Me: Wow, this song is really different from the first two times I heard it. Maybe its the audience. They were singing along with it much more than people in the past did and to hear all those voices wooing at once really made this one a show stopper. It was exciting. Plus, Lindsey and Stevie seemed to know it too. At the end, as Lindsey drew out the "falling, falling, falling," and pantomined the drop downwards he laughed into his mic and Stevie laughed too. I will say that I think he is still ruining the verse he sings and takes the audience out of it. That's very annoying.
But everything except his verse . . . it sweeps me up and back to heady FM times.

Gold Dust Woman: Incredible, evolving arrangement. It's longer now. The musical interlude between verses is extended and echo-y. Stevie holds the notes like never before. Lindsey, like a pre-charge bull on a spring, stamps his feet and is shouting "did she make you cry, make you break down" part, just before Stevie throws back her head and wails. Then, as she sings draaa-aaa-gon the back up singers are still chanting "woman, woman, woman." It's as if there are 3 pots on the stage, all doing different things, but all coming to a boil together. They sing "running to the shadows." I think they used to say "through" but not anymore. At the end, when Stevie slips into her silhouette, she doesn't stand still, but continues to toss her head, letting the drum beat slap it back and forth for long seconds.

Oh Well At the end Lindsey goes to the kit and almost lays his head on the nearest drum. Afterwards, John points at him and smile and Lindsey grins widely. Very nice.

Stand Back: I'm not sure, but instead of the man saying "take me" Stevie seems to have changed the words. Now, the man says: "come on."

When Lindsey comes to the mic to (pretend to) say goodnight to the audience, he is just screaming. "Anaheim, you were out of sight. Good night." The guy just shouts at the top of his lungs. I'm no longer worried that his voice will give out. He's been doing it for so long. I just marvel at the wild, crazed charm.

John is the first one off the stage. Lindsey is behind Mick as the walk off, snatching and bear-hugging at the big guy from behind.

For the band introductions, Mick tells the audience that this might be the last time we get to see them like this. Then he clutches his heart and pretends to keel over. Lindsey turns to the crowd and shrugs as if to say, "What is wrong with him??" Mick says he is just kidding. After he introduces the rest of the band he says that as Stevie and Lindsey have alluded earlier, it's such a pleasure to be with these 3 people. Lindsey and Stevie look at each other, gesturing and laughing, as if to say, "I never said that." Mick introduces Lindsey as our mentor in the studio [yeah baby] and our maestro on the stage. He says Stevie is their first lady and poet. Then, he says that that's about it and pretends to forget John. Then he confesses that he is kidding again and says that John is the backbone of the band and his lifelong friend.

Silver Spring I see what you mean about Silver Springs. They used to like to close with a ballad to "calm" the audience at the end of the show. SS is done harder now and gets quiet at the end. I like it.

Lindsey says his goodnight. "See you next time," he bellows. I'll hold him too it. Then Stevie and lastly Mick. Stevie waits in the wings for Mick to finish and they walk off together.

The show was incredible. I know they'll try to take it up a notch for Los Angeles, but I hardly think that will be possible.

Michele