LYNN — If there was one thing you could definitely say about Fleetwood Mac, it’s that the band was intriguing. Perhaps even unique.
There aren’t all that many co-ed bands, which means that there aren’t many chances for their dynamics to be ripped apart by sexual tension, breakups, and in-one-bed-and-out-the-other extracurricular activities.
In that sense, Fleetwood Mac was a worthy successor to the Mamas and Papas of the 1960s, whose sexual internecine conflicts fueled some of their best material.
Thursday, the Liverpool tribute band Rumours of Fleetwood Mac pulled into Lynn City Hall and gave a concert that was very heavy — and tremendously successfully so — on the word “tribute.” Actually, that might not be the correct word. Reverence might be.
And that’s fine. They did the material as it was recorded, with no embellishments, and no overt — save for Jess Harwood’s Stevie Nicks — efforts to nail down the personae of the original performers. And in the case of Harwood, with her flowing black dress and her accentuated movements, she had all the Nicks moves down, and she pulled it off without being too distracting.
Even though we’re now well into Year 41 since “Rumours,” the album, was released, the band, which is in the U.S. for the first time, paid a “40th anniversary” tribute to it by performing it in its entirety. This includes Nicks’ “Silver Spring,” which was left off the original multi-platinum pressing (but added in a later version).
The album speaks for itself. It didn’t reach such an exalted status because it was terrible. Just about every song on it — including The Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham chestnut “I Don’t Want to Know” from the early days before they joined the group — has become someone’s anthem. When you think of how many of those songs became the fabric of lives, from “Dreams,” to “Go Your Own Way” to “Don’t Stop” to “Gold Dust Woman,” it’s astounding. The group handled it all magnificently, with a real tip of the cap to Emily Gervers for the plaintively beautiful Christine McVie ballad “Songbird.”
But there was always much more to Fleetwood Mac than the sleek, L.A. sound that gave us “Rumours” and other records from the prime years of the band’s career. There was an entire early version of Mac, before Christine Perfect (McVie), Buckingham and Nicks came on board, and it was as rough, and rugged, as this version was smooth. These were the Peter Green years. And for this portion of the show, David Goldberg (who resembles a younger version of Mick Fleetwood just a tad) stepped from behind his keyboard and up to the mic to sing, among others in the brief, four-song set, “Black Magic Woman” and “Oh, Well.” It’s too bad the group didn’t bridge the gap that came between Green’s stint and the arrival of Buckingham/Nicks, or else we might have had the Bob Welch-inspired “Hypnotized,” which is a personal favorite. Alas, that was not included.
When Harwood and Gervers came back onto the stage, the band returned to the post-’75 period of its recording days (the original band still tours and will be in Boston in March, sans Buckingham, who was given the heave-ho), with material ranging from “World Turning” and “Landslide,” to “Sarah” to “Gypsy” to “Lies” and “Everything.”
Perhaps the evening’s true highlights were Harwood’s emotional “Rhiannon,” which almost sounded better than the original; and a rocking, stomping version of “Tusk” that closed the show with savage gusto. You got an appreciation for how important Mick Fleetwood’s (or, in this case, Allan Cosgrove’s) drums were, both to that song and to the band in general.
Others in the entourage were Etienne Girard, who handled John McVie’s bass lines beautifully; James Harrison on guitar, who sang Buckingham’s parts; and Scott Poley on second guitar and backup vocals.
I’m not always a fan of tribute bands, but in this case I’d make an exception. This was a tribute concert in the best sense of the words.
