AXS TV’s first season of The World’s Greatest Tribute Band just wound down. Season 2 was just announced today, but the finale for season one was quite excellent, as the crowd in attendance went back in time to a 1977 Fleetwood Mac concert and relived a great moment in music history.
The band Rumours is a very authentic recreation of Fleetwood Mac during a period primarily focused on the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album and the incredible Rumours album, which truly is one of the greatest recordings of all time (released on 4 February 1977). They faithfully recreated a live show from the tour from the undeniably classic album.
In interviewing the “Lindsay Buckingham” of the band (Taylor Locke), along with Rumours’ “Christine McVie” (Rebecca Fishman) last week in full costume and character (and it being a quite believable experience), they stressed how there were three lead singers and songwriters in this 5 piece band that all wrote great music and were essentially competing with each other to get their songs on albums. And if you are familiar with the band, you know of all the nonsense, infighting and weird, scandalous stuff that went on with the band during this period. Wild times. Ken Caillat (yes, Colbie’s dad) came out with a book last year called “Making Rumours” , in which he recalls details about producing the album. I attended his “Making Rumours” book signing around this same time in June last year (almost to the date – 360 days ago).
There was another sizeable crowd on hand for the event. Not too long ago, Rumours actually enjoyed a “mini residency” of sorts at this same venue (The Roxy).
They nailed it with their look, speaking voices, accents, and mannerisms, as their costumes, equipment and moves were a perfect way to go back in time and reflect on how huge and incredible the Rumours album was when it was released. And it’s truly stood the test of time.
They opened with”The Chain”, which was actually written by the entire band. The majority of the remaining songs in the set were written by Stevie Nicks (“Gypsy”, “Landslide”, “Dreams”, “Silver Springs” and “Rhiannon” with four songs written by Christine McVie (“Don’t Stop”, “You Make Loving Fun”, “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me”) and two by Buckingham (“Second Hand News” and “Go Your Own Way”).
Christine McVie played by Rebecca Fishman
John McVie played by Nic Johns (Ben Lee, Margaret Cho)
Lindsay Buckingham played by Taylor Locke (Rooney, Taylor Locke and the Roughs)
Mick Fleetwood played by Ned Brower (Rooney, Mike Viola)
Stevie Nicks played by Jesika Miller
SET LIST/ SONG INFORMATION:
The Chain
You Make Lovin’ Fun
Dreams
Second Hand News
Over My Head
Don’t Stop
Gypsy
Landslide
Say You Love Me
Silver Springs
“Silver Springs” was actually released as a “B-side” to “Go Your Own Way” (bonus points for knowing what a B-side is – it means it was the other side of a small vinyl record album that had one song on each side). It was never actually released on the Rumours album, but became a huge hit in 1997 when Fleetwood Mac reformed for “The Dance” (I caught two stops on that concert tour – one at the Hollywood Bowl and the following week at Irvine Meadows October 17 – it was quite spectacular). And, ironically, they played every song on that tour that Rumours played tonight with the exception of “Over My Head”.
COMMERCIAL BREAK:
Rhiannon
Go Your Own Way
Full Set List:
“The Chain” “You Make Loving Fun” “Dreams” “Second Hand News” “Over My Head” “Don’t Stop” “Gypsy” “Landslide” “Say You Love Me” “Silver Springs” Encore” “Rhiannon” “Go Your Own Way”
The musicianship was excellent throughout. Buckingham’s guitar parts were played exceptionally (he received a lot of praise from guitar players after the show) and the rhythm section was just fantastic. Given how great the players in Fleetwood Mac are, that’s not an easy task. The facial expressions and mannerisms of “Mick Fleetwood” were priceless. You couldn’t help but giggle at how funny and accurate he was with his portrayal. Seeing “John McVie” playing bass right behind “Christine McVie” was pretty cool (they divorced shortly after the Rumours tour). Their keyboard/piano and bass parts sounded great. The use of the vintage equipment from that era really brought the spirit and sound of the band to life. Great job.
Several of The World’s Greatest Tribute Bands “All Star Vocalists” (past performers/ lead singers from Season 1) photo-bombed the stage towards the end of the set:
side note: Buckingham also wrote “Monday Morning” and “Never Going Back Again” during the time period, which are two of their best songs ever. Had the set been longer, those are two more songs I would have wanted to hear. Another really great song from that era is “I Don’t Want To Know”, which was written by Stevie Nicks. And since they ever so slightly broke out of the time frame by playing “Gypsy” from 1982’s Mirage (introducing it as a “new song that Stevie has been working on”), it would have been super-cool if they had played Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” from the Vacation movies. Not ever likely, but that song rules.
Rac Brasti, Devadip Chunga, Marco Iannetta, Andre Jevnik, Florian Koch, Luis Logrado, Andrea Mattia, Manuel Prota, Jacob Randall & Guiseppe Sallusito!
grand prize : $10,000 in gear and prizes from DW, Meinl, Ahead Armor, Audix, Vic Firth, Remo and Drum Channel! PLUS – their spot at the Big Drum Bonanza!
I am cracking up over the people responding to this and commenting about what I thought about this show in an angry, mean-spirited way. I didn’t really like this show (except the few songs I did know, which were cool to hear). I’ve talked to some friends that thought this show was absolutely great and others that felt more like the way I do about it. I’d like to clarify a few things about this show and my attendance:
This is what got me to go the show (which I attended on a WHIM) and why I thought I’d see the songs that I did (and may explain/ clear up some of my “confusion” below):
Patsy here calls me a “douche”. Real classy. Thanks, Patsy.
Here,some guy named Ken from Sacramento accuses me of being high. Hilarious! It seemed like the people that were high were the ones enjoying the show.
And congrats on being “a real Kinks fan”. I’m happy for you.
This is my favorite. I guess I’m going to start a blog on cooking.
Here’s the one comment that wasn’t mean (and I do give Dave credit for getting out there):
I do give him credit. At 66, I think he’s doing an OK job, but if you were to check reviews about this show from more “credible” and “in the know” people, then you’d see they though the show was kind of bad as well.
I go to almost any show I can and, no, I don’t always know everything about every band I see. I enjoy live music and there’s a lot of it out there. Sometimes I take chances on shows I see and this was one of them. Sometimes, the experience of being there is better than the show itself.
The crowd was mostly comprised of cranky, drunk people, which now, isn’t such a surprise. After hearing music I didn’t like and being in a crowd with intoxicated, rowdy people, I only wanted to stick around for the encore thinking the advertised songs would be played.
I do like how passionate Dave’s fans are about him and his music. That’s great. Always speak up for what you believe in.
As far as I’m concerned, his solo material didn’t sound good live and I don’t think I’ll be buying Dave’s solo album. Actually, I know for sure that won’t be happening.
I went back to my car to put my camera away after taking a few pictures. The tour manager was running around asking people to put their phones and cameras away, so I honored her wishes and decided to take my camera and jacket to the car, as I no longer required either. On my way out, I saw one of the people that had too much to drink and got kicked out. I sat down and witnessed the altercation:
I can’t help but think that the people that commented about this show to me are a lot like this lady.
If Ray comes to town, I’ll go see him.
Read some people’s reviews of this show. They were of a similar opinion about his voice.
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Here’s my recap that has angered so many of you (and no, besides editing Dave’s name where I inadvertently typed Ray’s , this is unedited):
I kept thinking of Ray Davies. I wasn’t really sure which one was which. I think Ray wrote most of the good songs.
Dave started out and wasn’t sounding too great. Every song would start up with what seemed to be a familiar riff, then it would be something I wasn’t familiar with. His voice had issues.
Anyhow, the Kinks did have some great tunes. There’s obviously “You Really Got Me”, which Van Halen covered. I completely forgot they also covered “Where Have All The Good Times Gone?” on their “cover album”, Diver Down. He played that song towards the end of the set. It probably sounded the best of all the tunes.
I didn’t hear him play “Lola” or “Tired Of Waiting for You” or “Come Dancing”. Maybe he played all three of these songs when I went out for air. It was pretty packed and kind of hot in there. I think I did miss “Tired of Waiting for You”.
Ed P. Reyes, an LA City Councilman came out and presented Dave with an award and declared today Dave Davies Day (Say that 5 times fast!) and then proceeded to jam with the band! Incredible!
Hearing some of The Kinks classics was great and made it worth attending the concert, but overall, this really wasn’t too great of a show. Not regrettable, but kind of forgettable. Dave is 66 and has had his share of tough times, so it’s cool he’s still out there rocking. No shame in that.
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