No Buckingham, no problem for Fleetwood Mac at Fiserv Forum
Three years ago, when Fleetwood Mac played the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Lindsey Buckingham told the sold-out crowd the band was beginning "a profound, poetic and I believe prolific new chapter."
Little did he know it would be without him.
In April, Buckingham was fired from the band. He filed a lawsuit this month, but the show goes on for Fleetwood Mac, which returned to Milwaukee Sunday to play the 12th concert of its new tour at Fiserv Forum.
Is Fleetwood Mac without Lindsey Buckingham still Fleetwood Mac? Answers differ depending on who you ask, but everyone can agree how critical Buckingham's songwriting and guitar playing was to the group's success, and how vital his presence continued to be in concert.
I also suspect most everyone who attended Mac's Milwaukee show Sunday would say the band was in incredible form. And as someone who attended the band's two most recent Milwaukee appearances, I'd say this recent one was infinitely better.
Under the shadow of a new ugly chapter, a revitalized Mac performed Sunday like they still had something to prove.
And the remaining classic lineup members — Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood – proved it with two replacements for Buckingham, Neil Finn and Mike Campbell.
As the new lead male singer, Finn had perhaps the most daunting task, but in vocal tone and sentiment, he confidently inhabited songs like "Monday Morning" and "Go Your Own Way," and clearly had a ball doing it.
He also had a natural chemistry with Nicks, particularly for a zippy "Second Hand News," while Nicks lent some gravitas singing duet with Finn for a gleaming, sparse rendition of Finn's gorgeous original "Don't Dream It's Over" from his Crowded House days.
Nicks led another cover, to honor Campbell, and Campbell's longtime bandmate, the late Tom Petty. No words were said about Petty Sunday, but no words needed to be said. The great admiration for the man and his music was deeply felt and beautifully expressed during a soaring rendition of "Free Fallin'," with pictures of Petty young and old gracing the screen above the stage as Campbell played the guitar lines.
The zealous Buckingham often makes it obvious to a crowd when he's playing a dazzling guitar part. Campbell, behind his shades and under that signature top hat, was as cool as a cucumber. The Heartbreaker handled all the signature guitar passages with ease — no surprise there — and proved, at this show at least, to be the more adventurous player, especially for three throwbacks to Fleetwood Mac's early days as a progressive blues band.
Zigzagging renditions of "Black Magic Woman," "Tell Me All the Things You Do" and "Oh Well" were meaty without ever being meandering, and beyond giving Campbell space to strut, they pushed the rest of the band to branch out from the hit-churning routine.
For Nicks, that meant reinterpreting "Black Magic Woman" from a female perspective, while a grinning Finn tried to keep up with Campbell on rhythm guitar for "Oh Well." And one of Campbell's rollicking guitar parts during "Tell Me All the Things You Do" doubled as a playful challenge to Christine McVie, who responded in kind with her own soulful jam on keys.
Taking lead for her Mac signatures like "Everywhere" and "You Make Loving Fun," McVie was in better form than her at-times-shaky showing in Milwaukee three years ago, when she was still relatively new to live performing after a 16-year absence.
Fleetwood stepped it up, too, behind the drums. He couldn't help himself from performing a gratuitous drum solo during "World Turning" that stretched five minutes (at least), but the version Sunday displayed more technical skill, and was less reliant on the audience-bating scat speak and call-and-response that served as a smokescreen.
And while Nicks didn't try to reach those higher notes during "Rhiannon," she remains the band's beautiful beating heart, infusing "Dreams" and "Gold Dust Woman" with the wide-eyed romanticism that only she can conjure.
Fleetwood Mac could get away with filling arenas without Buckingham. But without a doubt, Fleetwood Mac at this point really wouldn't be Fleetwood Mac without Nicks.