Concert Review: Fleetwood Mac at Sprint Center, May 8, 2009
BY DANNY ALEXANDER
Fleetwood Mac gave precisely the kind of show everyone wanted to see Friday night, which was its strength and weakness. Without a new album to support, the band played most fan favorites back to 1969’s “Oh Well,” with Lindsay Buckingham admirably playing the Peter Green role and original member Mick Fleetwood’s face lighting up in response to that old, familiar call, I can’t help about the shape I’m in/I can’t sing, I ain’t pretty and my legs are thin.
Of course, as that Zeppelinesque ditty showed, immediately trumped by a high energy “I’m So Afraid,” this 2009 Fleetwood Mac frontman is in pretty damned good shape. Despite his often labored theatrics, Buckingham showed no signs of flagging energy after two and a half hours of performance, and he almost never left the stage.
The one time he might have (aside from the encore breaks) would have been during “World Turning,” when Mick Fleetwood did an extended drum solo. This was a refreshingly spontaneous moment, including mostly incomprehensible calls from the drummer to the audience, “Are you blah blah blah?” That back and forth gradually worked its way from ’70s nostalgia to something close to hip-hop with Fleetwood’s beats all but scratching in response to sampled bits of the Buckingham and Nick’s vocals. When what now sounded like a turntable battle reached near fever pitch, the band retook the stage to close out the song.
