Concert Review: Lindsey Buckingham

by Mike Orren

FORT WORTH — As is often the case, there was an interesting mix of people at the Bass Hall for last night's Lindsey Buckingham show. There were three distinct groups:

• Fleetwood Mac fans
• Die-hard LB fans / guitar geeks
• Die-hard Fort Worthians who go to see whatever's at the Bass.

All three groups had reason to be happy at different points last night. Buckingham, who is touring behind his first solo album in almost fifteen years, played a set with selections from across his entire catalog, naturally heavy on his new album, Under the Skin. The Fleetwood Mac contingent was clearly highest during selections from the band catalog. The Bass Hall folk loved the frequent compliments Buckingham tossed out to the venue.

While I think those compliments were sincere, their volume was a little cloying -- Buckingham often had to stretch for stage banter as HDNet was in the house filming the show for a later broadcast, requiring several technical speedbump delays through the night.

Buckingham is a guitar virtuoso first and foremost, and he showed it best in his solo acoustic numbers like the three songs he did before bringing his three-piece band to the stage. "Big Love," was a particular standout -- causing my wife (who was not a big LB fan, but got me the tickets as a Christmas present) to remark that it was "truly remarkable": she'd never heard anyone so completely fill the Bass Hall with sound.

Buckingham was at his best when he let the songs lead the way. His stage banter was filled with the sort of therapy-speak that seems to be de rigeur for aging rockers. (I call it Fogerty's disease.) And the quality of the songs seemed inversely proportional to the length of the explanatory intro.

The other statesman-rocker cliche that grated a bit was the over-build on popular classics. The extended drum hype leading into "Go You Own Way" could only have been justified for a full reunion of the Beatles performing "Get Back." Maybe it's because I'm one of those LB fans who was never that much of a Fleetwood Mac fan, but the bombast and accompanying middle-age dance party on some of the Mac numbers was distracting.

And, unfortunately, once you've seen "Tusk" with a marching band, a synth just doesn't do the job.

But those are minor quibbles: Buckingham's pop-Segovia guitar work and open soaring chords put him solidly in the pantheon of wall-of-sound geniuses like Brian Wilson and Phil Spector. And he can still bust an electric solo that stands next to anyone. He had a capable band, particularly one multi-instrumentalist who carried bass, keyboard and vocal duties.

High points for me were the aforementioned "Big Love," "Second Hand News" (my favorite Mac track and the only reason I bought Rumors years ago) and "Holiday Road" (better known as the song from National Lampoon's Vacation). Buckingham took the gutsy tack of closing the show with newer, acoustic material, bringing the room back down after a rollicking end to the main set.