When the regular set has been played, Stevie Nicks happily accepts yet another ovational applause.
“There are no live recordings of us,” says the singer and then laughing: “There’s just us,” in other words, loosely translated: “You’ll just have to make do with this.” Even before the encores have to be played, the audience in the Ziggo Dome is on its head, ‘standing yes’ because despite the fact that the floor consists entirely of seats, everyone has stood up from the start so as not to miss anything from this ‘cosmic diva’ and all her actions on stage.
Blues Jazz Scenes was present on Friday evening at the performance of Stevie Nicks and her fantastic band in the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam.
“They were excited that they could play in Amsterdam today,” as she looks with pride at her band members around her. “And even for someone like me who has played in just about every city in the world, it felt special when I realized: wow I’m in Amsterdam, it’s such an awesome thing.” The frontwoman of Fleetwood Mac knows better than anyone how to captivate her audience. The same woman who recently seemed to feel very much at home in Dublin and even declared in Manchester last week that she was looking for new accommodation. For a moment it was still exciting whether tonight’s show would go ahead after it was previously announced that the performance in Antwerp was canceled. The European leg of the tour initially included six performances but has now been reduced to five. Via Ireland and England it will be the turn of the Netherlands tonight and there will be a closure in Scotland.
At exactly 8:15 p.m., the house lights go out and Tom Petty’s ‘Runnin’ Down A Dream’ sounds loudly from the speakers. The intro was not just chosen at random. Petty was extremely important to Stevie Nicks’ career when she was kicked out of Fleetwood Mac after a bad period of personal suffering and wanted to make a new start as a solo artist. From ‘Bella Donna’, the first album that was subsequently released in 1981, ‘Outside The Rain’ now sounds and we see, in addition to drummer Drew Hester, Al Ortiz on bass, keyboardists Ricky Peterson and Darrell Smith and Carlos Rios on guitar, even some musicians on on stage who were also there in the studio more than forty years ago, such as backing singer Sharon Celani and Waddy Wachtel as guitarist and musical director. Wachtel, one of the most successful session musicians in the world and once part of Keith Richards’ backing band with drummer Steve Jordan as X-Pensive Wino, also takes over the vocal role of Tom Petty in ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around ‘. Petty gave the track to Nicks at the time to use for the debut album. The beautiful visual decoration takes the audience back to that time, and it is extra nice for fans to know that the singer has brought the same clothing line with her during this tour. The most diverse stories are presented and the audience is presented with the underlying information of each song in detail. Sometimes she even seems to have lost the thread for a moment. Rarely have I experienced that the story lasts longer than the song itself, but in the case of ‘Gypsy’ there is a lot to tell. The composition written by Nicks appears to have initially been intended for her solo album, but it ultimately became a big hit for Fleetwood Mac, which made an extremely successful restart with her arrival, and of course with her then partner Lindsey Buckingham. In the meantime, some daredevils have even stood up on their seats and the power of the classic pop song from 1982 is still evident. With ‘Dreams’ and ‘Gold Dust Woman’, those other classics by the band, you really realize how the singer time left its mark on the sound of Fleetwood Mac. In addition, it must be mentioned that tonight’s backing band is not at all inferior to the above. They are experienced forces who have also supported many other great artists in the studio or on stage. What a difference from Fleetwood Mac, who thought they were going to liven up Pinkpop’s fiftieth birthday party, but ended up rattling like a car with worn tires that threatens to spin out of control at any moment. The guitar parts such as Wachtel and Rios that alternate here are varied in style and dynamics but, above all, of astonishingly strong quality. The solos are regularly rewarded with applause from the audience.
Nicks has a lot to say and takes visitors on a journey back in time spanning no less than six decades. The choice for a rendition of ‘For What It’s Worth’ seems strange, but the story behind it makes a lot clear. “Buffalo Springfield really captured the imagination at the time. “I was 18 years old, had just left school and already knew, arrogant as I was, that I would record that song one day,” says the singer. “It’s known as a politically charged song, but I don’t think Stephen Stills meant it that way when he wrote the lyrics. Those hippies weren’t into that at all at the time. They were hanging around on the beach smoking until the police came to chase them away.” It would take more than fifty years before she would actually record it.
The exciting ‘Stand Back’ has always done well during Fleetwood Mac’s tours, but it really comes from her second solo album. With those heavily exaggerated Syths eighties at its best, it is a strong asset in the set and here too the band is on a roll, with the two backing singers in particular getting their deserved moments in the spotlight.
The question is whether she also has a surprise in store in Amsterdam tonight, after that previous spectacular surprise act in London where Harry Styles showed up out of nowhere. That appears to be the case, but it can be anything but spectacular. . She has brought Steve Real with her, so everyone is introduced to Stevie Nicks’ singing coach, who performs an otherwise very successful performance of ‘Leather and Lace’ with her. We would have preferred to have her ex-boyfriend and original singer there, but Don Henley is raking in some money for the very last time, but now for real, with his successful band during The Eagles’ ‘Long Goodbye Final Tour’. There is only real excitement when guitarist Waddy Wachtel starts the mighty intro of ‘Edge of Seventeen’ and continues for a very long time. Hard, raw and impressive, this remains an absolute audience favorite every time, in which Stevie Nicks also demands the utmost from himself vocally.
We regularly notice that Tom Petty’s work is still of great influence. Quite recently John Mayer played ‘Free Fallin’ here acoustically. Yet the emotional charge is greater tonight and the audience clearly feels this. With a beautiful collage of images from that time on the big screens, Petty is once again placed on a pedestal. He’s not the only one missed by Nicks. When ‘Rihannon’ has been played after the first encore, beautiful pictures of Christine McVie are shown during the beautiful acoustic ‘Landslide’. It is an emotional tribute to that other singer who would have turned 81 last week. “The loss of those friends has definitely left a mark,” Nicks recently stated in an interview before adding, “But when I get on stage, I seem to be able to tolerate it much better again.”
As long as the 76-year-old singer still manages to get the necessary strength out of this, she can really perform for several more years at a more than acceptable level, as demonstrated tonight in the Ziggo Dome.