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Fleetwood Mac - Live in Boston Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 7 Reviews)

LINDSEY'S "LIVE" TOUR DE FORCE FULL SKULL BABY!

FLEETWOOD MAC ROCKS THE ROOF OFF! Short of a decade later, Four Fifths of the superstar "fab-five" MIGHTY MAC RUMOURS era remain happily reunited and youthfully enthusiastic exactly thirty years after joining forces to become OUR beloved FM, circa 2004. Namesakes Mick Fleetwood and John McVie maintain their savagely hypnotic hard driving rhythmic pulse and propelling forces of the band, almost 40 years on! The "diamond" in the band's crown, Christine McVie, has flown solo(new album is due in 2004!), but, FM have reinvented, reenergized themselves successfully as a powerhouse rock band and carried on. Stevie Nicks, remains the "pearl" and one of the band's vocal and visual staples. The "ruby", and most brilliant gem in the band's crown has always been LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM, and on this LIVE IN BOSTON Dvd, he shines onstage brighter than all the band's parts as a sum. FLEETWOOD MAC embrace their star musician, guitarist god, arranger, producer and pay tribute to his immense talents and contributions throughout the ongoing 2003-04(possibly beyond?) SAY YOU WILL Tour. LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM takes charge onstage with all his boundless cosmic energy and dramatic vocal abilities. He explodes with 'gusto' all over the stage playing his frenzied guitar solos, one sweat drenched impassioned performance after another, like a broncin' buck bursting with the mighty spunk of a teenager whipping the audience into maddening enthusiasm throughout the show. LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM is FM's star entertainer and he comes on like a hurricane throught this LIVE IN BOSTON show! Hard to believe FLEETWOOD MAC have been around since 1967, with all this energy onstage! If FLEETWOOD MAC ever does a "Farewell Tour" that drags on in CHER-like proportions, CHRISTINE better jump back onboard or maybe even tour as the "opening act" - a "Farewell Tour" without Christine is NOT a true goodbye. Note: Lindsey & Stevie perform "DON'T STOP" quite well as the "encore" here.

Still One Helluva Band FULL SKULL BABY!

Buckingham's hair has a grayish sheen; Nicks, who I have seen several times as a solo act, is clearly a mature woman long past the days of her svelte Welsh Witch; John McVie and Mick Fleetwood lead both of them in age. Given this, one almost expects a "nostalgia" tour, but nostalgia be damned: even in the absence of Christine McVie, this is still one helluva band, and God help recent girl singers and boy bands who might be tempted to sneer: when Fleetwood Mac takes the stage, you get Big Time Take No Prisoners Rock And Roll.

I was fortunate enough to see Fleetwood Mac on this particular tour when the band played Biloxi, Mississippi--and I was even more fortunate to be sitting within arm's reach of the stage, directly in front of the wall of energy the band generates. While nothing can really duplicate the experience of a truly powerhouse live concert, LIVE IN BOSTON comes very close to capturing the authority of what I experienced that evening, and that says a great deal for both the band and this concert film.

Christine McVie's absence, the loss of her cool blue voice that so perfectly balances out Buckingham and Nicks extremes, the loss of her uniquely beautiful songs--that's regrettable, but I must say the band doesn't let it slow them down any. From such Mac standards as "Go Your Own Way" from the classic RUMORS to picks from the recent SAY YOU WILL, everything crackles with energy.

Nicks' voice, always a delicate instrument, has darkened with time and is no longer as ethereal as once it was, but her richness of tone more than makes up for the loss; songs like "Landslide" and "Beautiful Child" sound better than ever. Buckingham's poetry-in-motion guitar playing and electrically eccentric vocals combine with a manic physical energy to create a huge musical and physical presence. And while the unassuming John McVie fades into the background to work his wonders on bass, Mick Fleetwood is positively demonic in the star drum trap--and the two roll it out like thunder. It's just a knockout all the way.

The previous DVD of THE DANCE tour is perhaps more technically perfect--but while excellent, that performance was more formal in tone; LIVE IN BOSTON is simply raw rock and roll, ready to blow the roof off. True, the accompanying CD is weak--but CD or not CD, if you'll pardon the bad pun, is no major question. This is a concert DVD that will simply blow you away. Worth every cent!

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Now THIS is a Fleetwood Mac concert!!! FULL SKULL BABY! empty skull, sniff.
First of all, I wrote a review of THE DANCE that seemed to never get posted. It wasn't very complimentary. That show was very lack-lustre to me; it was too polished, too rehearsed, and severely lacked energy. It seemed more like a recital than a concert. But that's mostly because it was a one-off, "staged" show to record a live "reunion" album.

This new DVD is far, far superior to THE DANCE. The energy level is so much higher, and the performance is much more "real." Part of that is simply song selection, which is much better for this tour. But also, it was filmed in front of a real audience as part of a real tour. And it shows.

The hands-down highlight of this DVD is "Come." First of all, this song is one of the best tracks from SAY YOU WILL, and one of Lindsey's best tracks ever. But the performance of it here is absolutely incindiary. This reconfirms my notion that he is one of the absolute geniuses of modern rock music. BUY THIS DVD JUST FOR THIS ONE SONG. I'm not kidding!

But then, every song here from SAY YOU WILL comes across even better than the original versions. The music on that album was made to be performed live, and its a shame that they don't do more of it.

Other highlights include a great new version of "Eyes of the World"; a "Rhiannon" that is still pale compared to Stevie's excorcism rituals of the 70s (as Mick once called it), but much better than what was on THE DANCE; a really killer new rendition of "Never Goin' Back Again"; a mesmerizing performance of "Beautiful Child" (this is the first tour this song's ever been included in); a blazing "Stand Back"; and for me at least (I know I'm in the minority here!), Mick's solo during "World Turning."

This is an almost perfect Mac concert. I honestly can't think what I would have changed about this, other than to include 1 or 2 more tunes from SAY YOU WILL.

So why did I only give it 4 stars?? Because of the accompanying CD. On the one hand, I'm thrilled that they included a CD with the DVD. Brilliant move. But if they were going to do that, why in the hell did they just include repeats of the songs that were on THE DANCE CD???? That makes absolutely no sense. Out of the 10 songs, only 3 of them ("Come," "Eyes", and "Stand Back") are "new". We still don't have an "official" live version of "Gypsy" or "Gold Dust Woman", and those two sounded quite fine here and should have been included on the CD. As should "Beautiful Child". We certainly don't need yet another live album with "Rhiannon", "Dreams", "Landslide" and "Silver Springs", especially as these versions are in almost exactly the same arrangements as what were played for THE DANCE. Assinine. And why only one SYW song? Luckily, it was "Come". But "Peacekeeper" at least should also have been included.

So if I were rating only the DVD, this would get 5 stars easily, and I would wish that I could rate it higher. But a star gets taken off for making the effort to include a CD, but making it almost pointless.

A lot of people ranked THE DANCE very highly, which I don't agree with. If you liked that, you will love LIVE IN BOSTON. And wait 'til you see "Landslide"...it will make you cry. No lie.

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