Ray's Review of: UNLEASHED-the Fleetwood Mac Hits Tour 2009

Stevie looks like she shrunk a bit and is possibly wearing a long blond wig. She wore this black, lacey, frilly dress coupled with black tights & black platform boots. My Mom said "why does she dress like Lily Munster?" For some reason she announced onstage that she is 62 years old (same age as my Mom) and Linsday was a grade behind her in highschool out in San Francisco circa 1965. So we got full disclosure from her. (Full disclosure from me: I had a huge crush on her in the 7th grade after seeing the "Tusk" video. Yes on her, not the guys in the USC Trojan marching band. You must search for that video on youtube. I believe it took place at the empty L.A. Coliseum. Absolutely one of the oddest pop hits of all time. In the eighth grade I saw Blondie performing "Heart of Glass" on a Saturday morning American Bandstand episode. From then on I had new wave crush on Debbie Harry, sorry Stevie). The British dudes mick FLEETWOOD & Jon MACvie looked to be a few years older than Lindsay & Stevie. Mick dressed like a pirate and pranced or shall I see ballerina danced around the stage. He kind of recreated the pose on the cover of Rumours. Christine McVie was back in England still counting the royalties from the greatest pop selling album of all time before MJ's Thriller--Rumours.

As far as the performance, I had no clue how fantastic of a drummer Mick is. He has some weird shaped sticks, and a sort of deep sounding tribal attack. Little bit of cowbell and a helping of occasional chimes to please Stevie. The bass was solid throughout. A bit understated but truly the foundation of the band. Stevie vocally was okay, and her twirling was cut down quite a bit. She was huffing and puffing after several tunes. Linsday-no pick whatsoever but a real powerful guitarist. The tunes were okay. They subbed synthesisers for the brass section in Tusk, blah. Unfortunately they insisted on "unleashing" a few solo 80's tunes that should definitely been kept on the leash. Linsday did his "I Go Insane"--absolutely dreadful. Stevie played "Stand Back." It was frightening to see Jon McVie be forced to play along on the bass to that disco/synth repeptitive eighth note crap. He did not look happy. The stand out tunes were "Rhiannon" and an absolutely sublime version of "Landslide."

Would I have paid to see this, NO. I had great seats, 5th row up right on the side of the stage. I give the band credit for not cheating. No teleprompters whatsoever. They were hawking t-shirts for $40, seats for $185 & beers for $10. No wonder there were quite a few empty seats. Overall rating B. Everyone should see a concert with their mother.

--Ray Beyda

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