
FANS ARE NOW RATING THE SHOWS AS WELL
1-5
5 BEING THE BEST
Rated "5" by Barbe Hunteman
Lindsey Buckingham has never sung better than at this concert on Sound Stage! His voice was gorgeous!
Lindsey chose a beautiful, eclectic selection of his music which accentuated his guitar prowess. He is the best guitarist in the business today!
His band for this PBS event consisted of Taku Hirano – percussion, Neale Heywood – guitar, and Brett Tuggle – keyboards.
During verbal interludes, Lindsey came across as charming, highly intelligent and humorous --- with impeccable comic timing. Great audience interaction throughout!
Gems performed:
Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind (unreleased)
Steal Your Heart Away
Big Love
Go Insane ( with Lindsey’s dramatic poem as introduction)
Trouble
Peacekeeper
Red Rover
Frozen Love (just first two lines by Stevie Nicks)
Never Going Back Again (with Stevie Nicks)
Say Goodbye (with Stevie Nicks)
Murrow Turning Over in his Grave
Go Your Own Way
I Am Waiting (Rolling Stones cover from their “Aftermath” album)
Down on Rodeo (unreleased)
Bleed to Love Her
Save Me a Place
Rated "3" by Patrick
Lindsey Buckingham is probably the best guitar player alive and working today. His precision is like nothing I have ever experienced. As such, I was expecting an awesome 5 star show — intimate venue, Lindsey and Stevie. But stars needed to be taken away for certain things.
The first star is taken away due to the lack of spontaniety. Each song was performed twice, likely to ensure a "perfect" television broadcast. However, I think it would have played much better with Lindsey doing a lot of songs and leaving in the mistakes. Leave perfection for the studio. Plus, although he has a definite stage presence as a musician, he has very little charisma. With the exception of talking to/about his wife and kids, everything he said and did was very banal and rehearsed.
The second star is removed because of Stevie Nicks. Boy did she seem pissed about something. She, like Lindsey, doesn't have natural charm and personality at her shows, but she seemed unusually surly at this show. What a crank. Plus she should have rejoined him at the end for "Go Your Own Way" or at least done an encore with him. An oldie from "Buckingham Nicks" would have been cool.
Half a star was almost taken away because of "Murrow Turning Over in His Grave". It started out awesome — this song plays great live — but the ending guitar solo was the same as the one from "I'm So Afraid" and "Tango in the Night". After he performed it the first time, he said something under his breath about "stealing from himself". He redeemed the star when he repeated the performance though, it had a more original ending.
All in all, it was a great evening. "Red Rover" and the aforementioned "Murrow" play very well live - they weren't my favorites on the record. The sound was good, the venue really cool and Lindsey's guitar playing was absolutely outstanding.
by mjackson866
Lindsey came out in his uniform, the black jeans, white t-shirt, and necklace, only it was topped with a leather jacket. There were screens surrounding the stage and they showed various visuals during the songs. Sometimes they showed the woods, other times they just showed Lindsey's name, there was one picture of him that they used on the screen. It was gorgeous, but it was from 1990 or so, when his hairline was from much further down.
At one point, someone called him to the side of the stage to adjust his make up. He shook his head and said, "TV!" As if he hasn't been known to wear make up when he's NOT on tv. He wiped his head with a towel and someone did ask him to throw it, but he said he would wait until the end when the show got more "tasteless." He then mimicked wiping his under arm with the towel, before tossing it aside with a laugh.
Lindsey was loose, self-effacing and quite funny throughout. After he finished the first song he said that he felt much safer with the audience there. He said it was going much better than it had that afternoon at rehearsal. He said that he heard other acts that did Soundstage had done as many as 30 songs, but since he didn't have time to prepare that many he was only going to do about 14. He said that 14 was in keeping with the amount of time they had on the show, which is only going to be an hour long. The Channel 11 people said that the show would be in HDTV with 5.1 Dolby sound, but they didn't mention when it would be aired.
After "Big Love" Lindsey flexed his fingers and said, "I don't think we'll be doing THAT one twice." To introduce "Big Love" he said it was written when he was a lonely man living on a hill in a house. Now, he still lives on the same hill, but he's in a new house with his new family and the song has an entirely different meaning.
Later he looked out in the audience and said his mother-in-law was there [wonder how old his mother-in-law is] and his "beautiful wife". They were sitting up in the balcony, which consisted of just one row of seats. He named some other people as being present like Matt and Rinelle [sp].
For "Go Insane" Lindsey did his little poem. In fact he recited it twice.
Boy, when he sang "Trouble" that had to be my favorite part. Lindsey has knocked this song himself as being the "obligatory" single, but it was gorgeous, not fluffy at all. He now sings, "come and keep your daddy warm." Believe me, he started out apologizing about the monotony of having to do some of the songs twice, but when it came to "Trouble" he could have done that five times and I wouldn't have minded. Someone in the audience yelled out that he should do it a third time and he laughed and said that he probably WOULD have to do "Rover" three times, because he doesn't think he can play and sing at the same time, "although that wasn't a problem in the studio."
He did "Peacekeeper," but they had to stop it because there was something wrong with Neale's instrument. Lindsey said, "Nellie!" Neale said, "I don't know what happened. It was ok when I bought it." So, Lindsey talked about having to do the intro twice and trying to remember what he said before [like he hasn't said the same thing 300 times]. He asked Neale to refresh his memory about what he'd been talking about and Neale said, "An Englishman and a Scotsman walked into a bar . . ." Lindsey started saying that, repeating after Neale, before reverting back to his real "Peacekeeper" opening. Lindsey told the audience that that instrumental mistake didn't count against his having to do the song another 2 times.
Poor Brett was sitting at the keyboard for Peacekeeper, but he had a guitar in his lap. He would stop playing one and start with the other. He was something.
Lindsey said that sometimes the equipment works against you and said that in FM's last 3 shows, he's been out of tune 50% of the time and there's just nothing you can do about it. Actually, to me when they have technical difficulties on stage during the regular tour, Stevie (or Chris) chats with the audience about it, but Lindsey puts up a wall and kind of removes himself or gets anxious. The glitches throw him off. But during the Soundstage taping, he couldn't have been more laid back.
He did "Red Rover." To me, I think they audited the voices a little electronically or maybe all 3 men were just singing very deeply when they got to the chorus, but it sounded good.
Actually, nothing sounded bad to me except the opening "Someone's got to change your mind" and "I'm Waiting." I flinched when we had to listen to THOSE a second time. Everything else I lapped up with a ladle.
So, Lindsey goes off stage again and returns and says that in many ways, musically and otherwise, this is the best time of his life. It just worked out that they asked them to do Soundstage when FM was in Chicago anyway. He repeated that they're on tour and that things have come full circle now. The band has re-invented itself in a way. He says their new mantra is "We're adults now. We can work out our differences. In keeping with that theme, I've invited someone to share the spotlight with me briefly. I'm known her a very long time, since I was about 17 [usually he says 16, but I guess he wanted to be on the EO17, this time]." Stevie comes out, to much applause.
He extended his hand as she passed and she clasped it briefly on her way to her mike.
While Lindsey was extremely loose for the taping, she was very formal. More reserved than she is on the SYW tour. She looked great. I only saw her when she came on stage. I was sitting to the side and her back was to me the rest of the time. I could see her red nails because she kept her arms behind her back most of the time. I could see the black jewelry adorning her hands and arms. But I couldn't see her expressions. I could see Lindsey's though. Obviously, when he had to sing THEIR songs twice, I didn't mind at all.
They did Never Going Back Again. I love this, but he's what I love about it. For a duet, I don't know why they didn't choose "Second Hand News" that showcases their harmony best. The band was not on stage for the songs with Stevie and maybe he thought it was easier to do NGBA by themselves. I don't know . . . Stevie has very little to do with this songs. She didn't even have a tambourine to keep her hands busy, so she hit them against her leg instead. She was wearing the black button down top and then her kind of flowing, layered black skirt underneath it, top layer is patterned velvet and the bottom sheer -- the usual Stevie garb. She had on her heels.
After NGBA Stevie and Lindsey had this big, low-voiced talk about whether they needed to do it again. "What do you think?" "I don't know what do you think" "I don't know, what do YOU think." Sometimes I think they pretend to talk to each other just for show. It reminds me of Siskel and Ebert. Ebert and Roeper really DO talk to each other as the credits roll, but Ebert and Siskel would only pretend to have a conversation. What Siskel would really be saying was "and blah and blah and blah . . ." as he gestured with his hand. Well, I think Stevie and Lindsey sometimes pretend to be more engaged in conversation when they actually are (i.e. when they are talking during Landslide on tour).
At any rate, Lindsey laughed and said they WOULD do it a second time.
When they paused between songs, someone screamed out for them to do "Frozen Love." Lindsey raised his brow. Stevie started singing, "you may not be . . ." the audience went wild. She only did the first 2 sentence and then she said, "that's all I remember." I'm not sure if Lindsey remembered ANY of it, but he said, "those songs had some great two part harmony though."
Then they did that, ah, acorn, "Say Goodbye." Lindsey carefully navigated the chords to put his right arm around Stevie at the end of the song. Then he kissed her. After the second performance of "Say Goodbye," they moved towards each other and he reached down to kiss her again for a long moment and then he kissed her again. Very sweet and I loved it, because I get tired of the perfunctory forehead temple kiss we get on the tour. I liked the more intimate stuff. As he released her, he said, "Stevie Nicks!" As she was leaving the stage, she stopped to stand behind him, her hands on his shoulder (their Landslide pose). As she stepped down off the stage, there was a big bodyguard waiting for her, but she did sign a couple of autographs.
After the break, Lindsey comes back on stage with Taku and Neale and says he's ready to go, "but we seemed to have lost our keyboard player." Brett finally comes out. During a break, Lindsey walks over to him with his hands on his hips as if to scold Brett for the absence. Brett said, "Sorry, I ate some bad chili." Then, he pretends that he didn't know his mike was on when he said that.
Lindsey has a long speech for Murrow about people purporting to report the news. What's interesting for Murrow and Rover is how they break down the choruses, with Lindsey singing parts that are barely audible on the CD, as Neale and Brett sing the rest. For Murrow, he did an extended guitar riff which was closest to what he does with "I'm So Afraid" on stage. When he said that he was going to do two of the ruder songs, I thought that "Come" would be one of them, but he apparently meant "Murrow" and "GYOW." They had to do Murrow again because Taku's drum went out. Lindsey said he didn't even notice, "all I could hear was the guitar."
He did a blistering GYOW. Twice. The second time he went over to salute each player, like he would do to FM on tour. This is the only song where he did his stage histrionics, raising the guitar over his head, etc.
After "Down on Rodeo" (beautiful) he introduces the band. He says that as a percussionist Taku is the best listenener he knows. He says that Neale was with him for the 1993 OOTC tour. He says that other than those 3 a lot of other people from the SYW tour have volunteered their time to support him as well. Lindsey told us earlier (when people were screaming out song requests for him) that after he finished the set proper, he would do some more stuff for us. He said he just wanted to be sure they had the material for the taping.
So, when he finished the set he said that there were a lot of things they couldn't do because they didn't have the arrangements with them, but since he heard someone say "Bleed to Love Her," he would do that. He did. Someone said that we should thank Kristen for letting us have him for so long. He shielded his eyes so he could look up past the stage lights to where Kristen was sitting and said, "did you hear that."
He then said he could only stay for about 5 more minutes because his wife was leaving tomorrow "and I . . . I need to be with her." So, he could only do one more thing.
Someone screamed "Miranda." He tried to get Miranda started, but couldn't. I really think that if the audience had just set there waiting, he WOULD have done Miranda, but then someone screamed "Save Me a Place" which was easier, so that's what he ended with. Neale and Brett accompanied him and I think they improvised quite well.
Lindsey is incredible. His fiery is one thing, but he's just as effective in a different way when his talent is on [i]casual[/i]
display, not to mention his personal appeal. I enjoyed the audience interaction that we got. Michele