Patriot Ledger

September 22, 1997

By Jay N. Miller

Friday night's Fleetwood Mac concert was as much a gleeful reunion as it was a musical event. The band's classic lineup is back together for the first time since 1983, and if the 150-minute performance proved anything, it proved that this quintet creates some gloriously moving rock 'n' roll.

Fleetwood Mac, the band anchored by the rhythm section of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, has been through more incarnations than Dennis Rodman. But the best-known, and most hugely successful lineup was the group that recorded 1977's ``Rumours'' album, became incredibly rich, and soon began fraying with all the accoutrements of fame and unconscionable wealth. That classic quintet includes Christine (Perfect) McVie on keyboards and vocals, Lindsay Buckingham on guitar and vocals, and of course Stevie Nicks on vocals.

After 1983, the various members went to solo careers, Nicks' being the most successful, and by the early 1990s there was a revamped Mac on the road with a new front line. But none of the new music ever quite measured up to the ``Rumours'' and ``Tusk'' period, either artistically or commercially.

Subsequent memoirs have detailed how members battled drugs, internal band jealousies, and intra-band romantic upheaval as the classic unit was imploding. But everyone seems to have their lives cleaned up in 1997, and as Buckingham invited Fleetwood to work on a solo album, the idea for a reunion took hold. In the past few months a new album has been released, there's an MTV concert from earlier this summer, VH-1 did a special on the 20th anniversary of ``Rumours,'' and now the original lineup is on a tour which opened last Wednesday in Hartford.

All of which brings us to Friday's show, which featured the happiest, friendliest bunch of 19,900 music fans I've seen this year. The demographic might've been skewed a bit towards 30- and 40-somethings, and teenagers seemed rare, but there was no lag in the audience enthusiasm. Let's not quibble about whether Fleetwood Mac played rock or pop, or how slick it might've been. These five people write and perform superbly melodic music, with genuine emotional touchstones, that has the power to move large numbers of people. And they do it professionally; Friday's sound mix was the best of the year at Great Woods.

There were plenty of old hits among the 26-song set list, but also a good dose of new material. Christine McVie seems to have really hit her stride as a songwriter, along with being the only member to actually look younger -- and her segments were riveting. Buckingham has emphasized his guitar work, and some of his solo moments were impressive. Nicks is slimmer than she has been, and still the most arresting singer with her vulnerability and tone of trashy innocence. Fleetwood and John McVie are the most engaging rhythm section in rock, two old warhorses banging along in their own unconventional way, and obviously relishing every moment.

There was a feeling of old pals returning, weary but wiser, from some strange sojourn they can't fully explain. The crowd seemed so happy to see them, and the band seemed so thrilled to be back together, that it often felt like the superb music was a bonus.

Even with old tunes the band, augmented by an inobtrusive backing quintet of extra keyboard, guitar, percussion and two vocalists, used new approaches. ``So Afraid'' culminated in a cataclysmic Buckingham guitar solo that was pure exhilaration. Christine McVie's ``Temporary One'' rocked from her sizzling piano. Buckingham did ``Big Love'' and ``Go Insane'' as solos, and his intensity and unvarnished anguish gave them new meaning. The duet he did next with ex-lover Nicks on ``Landslide'' was thus one of the night's most poignant episodes.

Christine McVie's stately keyboards were the perfect backdrop for her ``Oh Daddy,'' and ``Rhiannon'' was the predictably biggest-response Nicks vehicle.

It was an exhaustive reunion, but one none of us would've missed.