Oct. 10, 1975 review: Fleetwood Mac at the Century Theater

 


The last time Buffalo got to witness Fleetwood Mac in so intimate a venue. When they next came to town in 1977, they filled Memorial Auditorium. 

Oct. 10, 1975 

Suddenly It’s Success, Sellouts

For ‘Mac’ – Surprise, Surprise 

          Dialing up the Century Theater an hour before the show Thursday night guarantees there’s plenty of tickets left for Fleetwood Mac. So why all these kids shuffling away from the place?

          “They’re sold out,” grumbles one of the departees, slouching at the rear stage door. There’s a roar of amplified guitars inside. It’s Weekend, a Buffalo group of seven years standing.

          Weekend favors shiny British pop-star clothes and a distinctively shimmery three-part harmony that flows like ginger ale. Keyboards and a synthesizer thicken their sparkling texture. They sound good.

* * *

NEXT: The Amazing Rhythm Aces, whose “Third-Rate Romance, Low-Rent Rendezvous” just ended a trajectory back down from the Top 20.

          They resemble a clan of mountaineers, all lanky and shaggy, except for Russell Smith. The diminutive writer, lead singer, harmonica player and guitarist looks like an old-time railway agent.

          The six Aces hail from Memphis, where they’ve absorbed rhythm and blues the way white Chicagoans absorbed Black urban electrified blues.

          They play hot, lazy, jiving, torchy, all the R&B angles, getting Allman-style guitar from Byrd Burton and a nasty hum from the sound system.

          A 50-minute wait for Fleetwood Mac, a revamped veteran British band whose current album became a hit as suddenly and unexpectedly as this show sold out. Then lights at the keyboards. It’s singer-songwriter Christine McVie.

* * *

“IT’S LIKE they’re a different band,” shouts Rich Sargent of Amherst Records, who saw them here in June. They’re so potent it no longer matters how late it is.

          New guitarist Lindsay Buckingham is one reason. The other is new vocalist Stevie Nicks. She’s blonde like McVie, with black veils for sleeves and a top hat.

          McVie carries most of the lead, right through the encore, “Hypnotized.” Her singing flows with tender concern, like a mother’s caress.

          Nicks is the opposite. She buzzes and strains with intensity. “It’s about a witch,” she blurts as the dark chords rise for a chilling masterpiece called “Rihannon.” It zaps the full-house crowd, suddenly and unexpectedly. Even Fleetwood Mac is surprised.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Fleetwood Mac in performance November 1975 in San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Fleetwood Mac made a major change in direction as guitarist Bob Welch departed in late 1974. The group relocated from England to California and went casting about for a new guitar player. Their producer turned them on to Lindsey Buckingham, who said it was no deal unless his girlfriend came along with him.

          Buckingham’s pop instincts helped make their next album – their tenth, the eponymous “Fleetwood Mac” – a winner, but it was girlfriend Stevie Nicks who really lit the fire. They toured relentlessly in 1975 – as noted, they already stopped at the Century Theater in June, a month before the album came out – and by the time they returned to Buffalo they were climbing the charts.  

          Here’s the setlist from their date the following night at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island: 

Get Like You Used to Be (Chicken Shack cover)

Station Man

Spare Me a Little of Your Love

Rhiannon

Monday Morning

Why

Landslide

Frozen Love

Over My Head

Say You Love Me

I’m So Afraid

Oh Well

The Green Manalishi

World Turning

Blue Letter

(encore)

Don’t Let Me Down Again

Hypnotized 

* * * * *

FURTHER NOTE: All of these transcripts of old feature articles about the Buffalo music scene can be found in a somewhat more legible and searchable form here on my Blogspot site: https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/4731437129543258237.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 6, 1974 Review: The first Summerfest concert at Rich Stadium -- Eric Clapton and The Band

Image
  This was the summer that rock ‘n roll came to the brand new Buffalo Bills stadium in Orchard Park . There was a lot of official nervousness about this kickoff event.   July 6, 1974   Hassle-Free Clapton Concert Scores a Pleasant Success             Rich Stadium got its baptism in rock ‘n roll Saturday evening and it all went off so well that the home of the Buffalo Bills football team should be bouncing to the big beat for many summer nights to come.           It was a star-studded event – stars above and stars on the stage. The Band, honed to near perfection as a live act, cranked out a happy, raucous set. And guitar idol Eric Clapton, who announced that he was drunk (indeed, he was very drunk), took a laid-back set that left many of his worshippers perplexed.           But the real heroes of this show – the first of four in the Summerfest ’74 series at the stadium – were promoter Jerry Nathan and his Festival East organization. * * * THEY TURNED the near-impossib
Read more

Feb. 2, 1974: The Blue Ox Band

Image
  One of the major local rock bands of the day and predecessor to some equally wonderful aggregations down the line.   Feb. 2, 1974 Blue Ox Wants Aggressive, Bitey Sound   AS BLUE OX themselves will tell you, a lot depends on the crowd.                    One night they’ll be sitting there in the Bona Vista on Hertel Avenue like good old boys and girls on the bayou, bobbing in their private dreams to the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin.’”           A few nights later, at an even more tender hour, the tiny dance floor is full of folks boogieing their heads off to the very same tune. * * * “IF YOU LISTEN for a whole night,” guitarist-organist Charlie O’Neill says, “we go through all kinds of styles. But sometimes the slower stuff is rough when you’ve got a bunch that wants to bounce around.”           Variety, for Blue Ox, has been a matter of trading and balancing between a club crowd’s boogie urge and the band’s own preference for subtler, more complex tunes, including a fe
Read more

August 9, 1976 review: Elton John at Rich Stadium, with Boz Scaggs and John Miles

Image
  Now that all the organizational issues for Rich Stadium concerts were ironed out, Mother Nature decided to throw a curve. August 9, 1976 Elton John Pours It On For Rain-Soaked Fans Elton John was amazed. “I thank you for standing out in the rain and sitting out in the rain,” he remarked as he strode out in a Stars & Stripes Uncle Sam outfit in Rich Stadium Saturday afternoon for the first of three encores. “You deserve a medal of honor.” Instead of medals, the drizzle-soaked, wind-chilled crowd of 52,560 got a whale of a concert from the supermost superstar of the ‘70s. In fact, such was the energy of that first encore – everybody shouting along to the chorus of “Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting” – that the rain faltered and it seemed like the sun would awaken for a guest appearance. But it didn’t. It was miraculous enough that Superfest 10 beat the deluge. The promoters rushed to fit it all in, forestalling an epidemic of rockin’ pneumonia and the boogie-w
Read more