Fleetwood Mac frontwoman was supposed to perform on Aug. 15, but fractured her shoulder.
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Stevie Nicks
Scotiabank Arena
Saturday night
RATING: **** (4 out of 4)
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No one can accuse Stevie Nicks — now 77 years old — of fading away.
So it should come as no surprise that the formidable Fleetwood Mac frontwoman with a unique style all her own began her solo show on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena with a cover of Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away.
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Backed by an eight-piece band including seasoned guitarist Waddy Wachtel — whose licks stood out on such highlights as Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, Stand Back and Edge of Seventeen — Nicks has lost the high heels on her signature black suede boots and the black top hat but otherwise remains quintessentially Stevie.
Head to toe black velvet top and chiffon skirt, check. Long shawls, check. Long blond hair in curls, check. Endearing commentary between songs, check. And that beautiful voice and those classic songs, check.
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After the Buddy Holly cover, Nicks ventured into solo territory on If Anyone Falls and Outside The Rain before getting to the night’s first big moment with Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams.
The next crowd-pleaser was Stop Dragging My Heart Around with Wachtel filling in on Tom Petty’s vocal parts.
Nicks explained she’d made no secret of wanting to join Petty’s band on more than one occasion and later performed his hit, Free Fallin’, while photos of them in concert together were displayed on a huge screen behind the stage.
She also paid tribute to her fallen Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Christine McVie, during the emotional show-ending Landslide which followed the Fleetwood Mac chesnut, Rhiannon, during the encore as photos of them on stage and off were shown.
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Nicks explained early on in the evening that the Toronto performance was a make-up show for a previously scheduled Aug. 15 date which had to be postponed, along with other concerts, after she fractured her shoulder, which required her to lie in bed for a month.
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THE TWIRL STILL THRILLS
Still walking gingerly around the stage during the one hour and 40 minute set, Nicks briefly performed her signature twirl a few times which caused the audience to roar.
And whenever she brought a new shawl out to wear — at last count three including a gold one for Fleetwood Mac’s Gold Dust Woman — it was like she had brought antiquities on stage for everyone to marvel over. (She explained they were originals from the time she recorded the songs.)
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Such is Nicks’ exquisitely designed myth-making.
She also explained that Fleetwood Mac’s Gypsy, which she also performed, was written while she and former love and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham were in the early stages of their careers with the requisite highs and lows. (They were Buckingham-Nicks before joining Fleetwood Mac in 1975, breaking up in 1976 and greatly contributing to the band’s juggernaut release, Rumours, in 1977.)
Nicks told us to make herself stay grounded during those early days she used to pull their mattress off its bedspring and put it on the floor with a beautiful cover she’d found and sit on it and say over and over: “I’m still Stevie.”
All these years later, she certainly is, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.
SET LIST
Not Fade Away
If Anyone Falls
Outside the Rain
Dreams
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
The Lighthouse
Wild Heart / Bella Donna
Stand Back
Free Fallin’
Gypsy
Gold Dust Woman
Edge of Seventeen
ENCORE
Rhiannon
Landslide
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