Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Nostalgia, the driving force that reminds us that Time is not always a kindly benevolent force, that the moment we find ourselves in must be seized upon, fully explored and the point between the tick and tock is all to fleeting; love, if it is found in that moment, should be dived into regardless of the consequences. Nostalgia, it is what keeps the brain coming back for more of what it needs and the soul for what it loves. In the music of Fleetwood Mac, in whatever form and guise across the decades, is the love that brings many people together and it is with a nostalgic glint in their eyes that Fleetwood Bac play to the audience at the Epstein Theatre with.
The maestro’s of British Blues in the 60s, the perfect company during Prog’s seizure of the charts in the 70s and the big, bold and brash sergeant at arms, the leader in its own field in the shoulder padded infused 80s, Fleetwood Mac strode across the decades with a few scars, battle weary in some skirmishes but never once falling to the outside world, even if their bust-ups were legendary.
In Fleetwood Bac, the music that was timeless gets another airing, that stride of passion in which songs such as Big Love, Second Hand News, Songbird, Don’t Stop, Everywhere, Little Lies, Tango in the Night and Seven Wonders were greeted like a missed lover seen across a foreign beach and the turning of Tusk, Man of the World and The Green Manalishi were hugged in an open space as if life depended upon it.
Fleetwood Bac don the clothes, they take on the personas and the times in which era the band found themselves in, there is no sense of the underlying tension that caused so much friction between the members of one of the greatest Rock acts of all time, but what they have is the sparkle, the drive to bring out the best in the music and make nostalgia a word of beauty, not one that others who find themselves bereft of a soul would sneer and scoff at.
The Epstein audience, never ones to be shy when urged to dance, found their voice and their bodies swaying in time to the band’s call and the electricity pumped out invisibly into the air. Nostalgia, it might be about remembering the past, grateful to have lived through such memories, however it is also about celebrating life and Fleetwood Bac gave that life to the crowd.
An evening of great entertainment and the celebration of one of the finest bands to ever take to the stage, Fleetwood Bac to the audience back in time and let them wallow in the perfect nostalgia.
Ian D. Hall