Lindsey Buckingham - Live at The Bass Performance Hall
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008I wouldnt be surprised to find that Lindsey Buckingham coined the phrase “criminally underrated” just so he could use it to describe every aspect of his musical career. Even when people talk about the Buckingham/ Nicks era of Fleetwood Mac the only time they ever mention Lindsey Buckingham is when they talk about his Stevie Nick’s relationship. Sometimes they talk about how he produced Tusk all weird but thats it. They never talk about the fact that he wrote many of their best songs, that he produced Tusk, in my opinion Fleetwood Mac’s best record and that he is the most phenomenal rock guitar player that no one ever ever ever ever ever ever even considers talking about.
This live record chronicles one of his shows during his Under the Skin tour last year. My Dad (OneVoice) and I were lucky enough to see him play pretty much this same show at Mohegan Sun. Its a double disc record and DVD collection. Im watching the DVD as I write this. I am unimpressed with the DVD not because of anything Lindsey is doing but the camera work is literally the worst I have ever seen in a concert DVD. However, the music is Terrific and the new solo arrangements of oldies, anything not off the new record, like Trouble, Go Insane, and Big Love are amazing. He makes Go Insane sound like its being played by a mid-evil band of Lute-ists and mandoliners. The Holiday Road is fun but unnecessary and the new tunes are so good that they mix perfectly with the classics. Go Your Own Way was underwhelming at the show I saw at Mohegan but here it rips and Tusk, in any version, is on my list of Top 50 tunes of all time.
I would like to share two things that I think are funny. One is that after any song that rock particularly hard Lindsey, while taking off his guitar to switch for another, likes to jump up and down and scream at the audience. This pleases me a great deal. One day I hope to have earned enough respect with my fans to that they will find the times I “Go Insane” endearing. Two is that in the middle of this set before Cast Away Dreams, a song off his newest record, he tells a story about how he wrote the song after his wife joined him on tour with a reunited Fleetwood Mac a couple of years ago. They got into a fight about not being able to let go of something, she flew back to LA and he wrote the song. The song and the fight are obviously about Stevie Nicks, so are a lot of the songs on the new record i might add, which means that 30 years later he still hasnt gotten over her. What the hell Lindsey? Its only Stevie Nicks. Shake that beast free and write yourself some new tunes so you can make another record and live record as good as Bass Hall and Under the Skin.
