The Salt Lake Tribune

October 29, 1997

By Lori Buttars
The Salt Lake Tribune

More than a decade after they went their own way, Fleetwood Mac is back.

The reconciled, most-popular five members of the 1970s supergroup -- John and Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks -- took over the Delta Center Tuesday night as part of one of the year's most unexpected reunion tours.

Some rock bands take the stage weighed down by their past hits, carrying audience nostalgia like a burden they can't wait to unload. Not Fleetwood Mac. This group seems to be liberated by its largely autobiographical songs.

Any notions of lingering antagonisms within the band were laid to rest in the opening number, "The Chain," with the lyrics "If you don't love me now, you'll never love me again . . ."

Longtime fans will remember that it was the fussing and fighting of husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend and best friends that fueled the band throughout the '70s. In an echo of that, Buckingham and Nicks, two members most conspicuously absent from the group in recent years, entered the arena holding hands, keeping fans guessing about exactly how reunited the group and its couples are.

Nicks greeted the crowd of about 12,000 (mostly hand-holding couples themselves) with a simple "Welcome. Thank you for coming, everyone" and said it was nice to be back in the town where she once lived, dedicating "Landslide" to her junior high school friend, Karen.

Some things don't change. Nicks was draped in a loose black outfit to accent her swirling and twirling at center stage, though the swirls were much more subdued than those of her hardcore "Rhiannon" period.

The rest of the band was also in sharp-dressed black and white, with Buckingham sporting an Art Garfunkle look at the crown.

All were in strong voice, trading off lead vocals among Nicks, Christine McVie and Buckingham (John McVie was content to stand in the background plucking on his bass), with Fleetwood, the wild-eyed human drum machine, pounding out the pace.

Buckingham, with a virtual arsenal of guitars, headed off into frequent solos, overtaken only once by drummer Fleetwood. In fact, at one point Fleetwood was so unstoppable that Buckingham laid down on the side of the stage to wait him out.

But it couldn't last. This group has learned that it does its best work together and they were all on the same page. So were the fans, who sang along with every number, from 'Say That You Love Me" to "Gypsy."

Yet after an hour or so, the show became almost lackluster in its predictability, giving the ticket holders everything they wanted and nothing they didn't expect. It was as if the band, in the end, couldn't escape its own familiarity.

A pounding "Tusk" and finale of their new single "Silver Springs" provided only warm-up for the inevitable and necessary "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)" encore. But despite the urging, everyone was happly lost in yesterday.