L7, July 17, 2015 at the Fonda

L7 were yet another band I missed back in the day.  (Judging just from how times I’ve started entries with that line, especially lately, it might seem like there were a lot of bands I missed, which is approximately the case, except that there are a lot of bands I’ve been into in different periods so proportionately it doesn’t come to so many, but more the case that a lot of shows we go to anymore are to see bands I didn’t catch originally, with the trend of reunions by ‘90s bands, some of which I missed at the time and won’t make the same mistake again.)  They were on my radar from Bricks are Heavy, though at the time Nirvana was as much grunge as I could get into (if not sludge, as could be more appropriate), but I got attached to Triple Platinum: The Beauty Process, but too late, though I remember an ad for an L.A. show they did on that tour that I might have been able to swing (if I could have convinced myself that I might survive an L7 show.  When my brothers and I used to play a game in picking who on MTV would win in a fight against each other, L7 was always the trump card that ended it).  I might have even seen them for Slap-Happy, had they done an L.A. show for it, if they weren't already disregarded by then.  When they became yet another ‘90s band to reunite (and the third, in under a year, comprised of mostly women and that I loved but missed the first time), I was already in.  I would have taken the Echo show, of course, but the Fonda was just as good, and even better for being on a Friday night.  So I finally got to see “Shitlist” by its originators, which easily made the show a victory, even if they also didn’t go near The Beauty Process, which would have been disappointing if the show hadn’t been so representative of them at their snarling best, years be damned.  If they had or hadn’t aged well -- looking rough was always part of their visual aesthetic -- the music still stood up.  (Who ever thought they were really ever going to go major-label, mass-market big?  As if a band could make it big just on their music, especially something that heavy and pissy and, above all, female.  Their music was abrasive enough to stop their rise before they started, but it’s a testament to how badass and awesome they ever were that they went as far as they did.)  Which is more than I could say for myself, since I drank enough before and during to be only barely able to remember being at the show.  (The goal, as I learned, is not to go straight for the beer with the highest APV just to get your value in drunkenness.  Also, limit drinking while taking antibiotics (my next-day self exclaimed).)  Skating Polly opened, and maybe we could have checked them out -- and maybe we did -- but I could have been saving my coherence for the main act (or using the time to drink more).

L7's set-list:
"Deathwish"
"Andres"
"Everglade"
"Monster"
"Scrap"
"Fuel My Fire"
"Diet Pill"
"(Right On) Thru"
"Freak Magnet"
"One More Thing"
"I Need"
"Slide"
"Shove"
"Mr. Integrity"
"Shitlist"

"American Society" (Eddie & The Subtitles cover)
"Pretend We're Dead"

"Fast and Frightening"

Smokey Robinson/L.A. Philharmonic, July 4, 2015 at the Hollywood Bowl

The 4th of July show at the Bowl is always an option for the holiday, and I always look forward to seeing who will be playing there that night because it’s not only often a possibility but the show on that night is always a great event, sometimes not even for the main performer (we saw Josh Groban one year, remember) but for the fireworks and the grand event of one of the best nights of the summer in a place where they make such a big deal out of it.  There’s also the attendant picnic before, or even during, the show, even if it’s been just me & Carla, but even better when we have more of our drinkers' group out.  This year, Rachel offered tickets from her LiveNation contacts and we were in.  We got a good-sized group out, with the usual great food and wine to share before the show.  The performance by  the philharmonic has become pretty rote by now, though still impressive, as any performance by such a magnificent and large orchestra can be, but the fireworks are still a sight, even if they’re the same every year, and this coming from a fellow who is not easily impressed by a fireworks show.  This year's musical performance was the Smokey Robinson, and even though it didn’t completely matter who was playing as long as we were seeing a 4th of July show, it was still great to witness a living legend.  He’s slower than he probably was in his hey-day but he still has plenty of moves, and enough hits to pack a show with songs that every person knows and enough swagger to make ladies swoon.  Unfortunately, his set seemed far too short, even shorter than most bands get in sharing a bill with the orchestra.  It’s hard to complain since we’re there for the whole night and not just one performer, but at least it was enough to get in and out without it dragging.  We probably wouldn’t see Smokey on his own (at least not without our parents), and seeing a truncated show in place of a full one was a mild let-down, but seeing the man while he’s still with us, along with friends and fireworks and wine and the rest on such a slendid summer night, was great for another holiday.

Sleater-Kinney, May 1, 2015 at Palladium

For as much as we've been big fans, Carla & I had never seen Sleater-Kinney together, though only because the group had been broken up for the beginning of our relationship.  (Though we had seen them separately, at numerous shows, well before we knew or knew of each other.)  We had been fine keeping up with Corin’s solo work, and I would have gotten into the Wild Flag album if I had been able to find it more easily, since we don’t lament a band being broken-up or on hiatus (as it might as well be either), but it would have been nice to see a band we adore so much together finally, if to have that as part of our shared history at last or just to see the band one more time.  S/K did one better, coming back with a new album, No Cities to Love, that we dug, perhaps cementing that this wasn’t just a lazy cash-grab reunion and that they were actually a force again instead of just another show.  An album might have been necessary, since they didn’t have enough hits (or really, any) to flog for anyone who would pay, but it was material as strong as most of the rest of their stuff, to continue the trajectory they had been following pre-hiatus, if not just picking up right where they left off.  The new stuff had also turned down their screeching fury in favor of virtuosic precision, which was a little less punk rock but their sound was aging as well as they were.  The fans probably would have been happy with trotting out all the old stuff -- as if there was a rush to get out the new stuff -- but everyone was just pleased they were back together, whether or not they turned out much worth hearing, so getting a decent show was just a treat.  They had always been indie-rock royalty, as fickle and relative as that description could be, but they still had enough cred to be able to ably fill the Palladium, and without having to bother with cashing in one some kind of ‘90s nostalgia reunion (as if there had been a call for them to lower themselves to such a thing).  Even Carrie being more famous these days for Portlandia didn’t stand up to the blast of volume and power they were putting out, as they always have had.  There was not necessarily any promise that they would stay together or put out more new material, but that night, to have them back together and laying it down as intensely as they ever had, we were fortunate they had decided to do it in the first place.

Sleater-Kinney's set-list:
"Price Tag"
"Fangless"
"Oh!"
"What's Mine Is Yours"
"Youth Decay"
"A New Wave"
"Get Up"
"Surface Envy"
"All Hands on the Bad One"
"Bury Our Friends"
"No Cities to Love"
"The Fox"
"No Anthems"
"Light Rail Coyote"
"Sympathy"
"Words and Guitar"
"Entertain"
"Jumpers"

"Gimme Love"
"Dig Me Out"
"One More Hour"
"Let's Call It Love"
"Modern Girl"

The Replacements, April 16, 2015 at the Palladium

I don’t know why I didn’t just jump into buying a ticket for the second night of the Replacements’ stand at the Palladium.  The $70 each for two tickets the night before might have made me hesitant at the least, or maybe the concern of getting burned by seeing the same set two nights in a row, to say nothing of it potentially being the third time, after Coachella).  I knew in my mind, somewhere closer than the back, that I would wind up at both nights, and if it was all the same songs anyway, that probably would have been fine anyway.  And I would have been there for at least one of those shows anyway, even if this hadn’t been the fourth night of four consecutive nights of shows.  (Then Coachella that weekend, so that would have been seven nights straight of shows, surely a record, but we weren’t going to the fest anyway, with or without my week of concerts.  We went to Vegas instead.)  It didn’t take too long before I just went in for it, and found a second-hand ticket for $35, an easy sell at less than face value, but considerably more than I would have paid if I’d waited until the night of the show when people were just throwing away tickets.  Andrew and his people hadn’t shown for a second night so I was there on my own, just as well to absorb the music.  And much the same show as the night before, with about half the set-list switched out, so this was the other side to what they’d been playing (though neither night had "Another Girl, Another Planet," which gave the Coachella set a great advantage).  I wouldn’t hold one night over the other based on what they played, but it would have been a bummer to be somewhere else where they played just one night and one set, and missed what they were playing elsewhere.  As it turns out, even with longer sets, based only on what they played, Coachella still ruled over all that I saw (to say nothing of it just being a more noteworthy event and their being much looser, funner, and more rambunctiously the Replacements).  Then it ended and they moved on.  The tour was billed as “Back By Unpopular Demand,” which is endearingly self-effacing but maybe not far from the truth, as evidenced by not only selling out the venue over two nights but also leaving it empty enough that people were throwing away tickets.  They might have done better at just one night or a smaller venue, but that just doesn’t seem worthy of their playing the L.A. market.  Maybe the demand for the reunion was fueled by a contingent not as big as they were excited and loud (also since even if their legendary status has gotten some kids to check them out, they could still be considered old guys, and those hard-living years has made it hard for them to age well, at the same time that rock n’ roll, and especially what they’re playing, is only barely holding on).  But whatever it was and however it happened, they came back together and made a pass at a run-through and lasted longer than some thought they would, maybe putting the legend to rest while they're somehow still living (at least most of them), and leaving the fans, especially those who didn’t have them the first time around, as satisfied as they could be, and the members could go on to do whatever they were going to do next (even if that wasn’t much, but also not Guns N’ Roses) without having to think about having to do it again (unless they need that money more than they thought.  But even if they come back and don’t leave again, they have more songs than the Pixies). Opening was Together Pangea, but even if I knew anything about them, I was coming from work.

The Replacements' set-list:
"I'm in Trouble"
"Kissin' in Action" (Snippet of "Iron Man" (Black Sabbath))
"Little Mascara"
"Color Me Impressed"
"Love You Till Friday"
"Maybellene" (Chuck Berry cover)
"Treatment Bound"
"Take Me Down to the Hospital"
"Waitress in the Sky"
"Valentine"
"Achin' to Be"
"Kiss Me on the Bus"
"Nobody"
"I Will Dare"
"Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" (snippet of "3rd Stone from the Sun" (Hendrix))
"Sixteen Blue"
"The Ledge"
"I'll Be You"
"Whole Foods Blues"
"Can't Hardly Wait"
"Bastards of Young"
"My Boy Lollipop" (Barbie Gaye cover)
"Never Mind"

"Ghost on the Canvas" (Paul Westerberg song)
"Skyway"

"Left of the Dial"
"Alex Chilton"

"I Want You Back" (The Jackson 5 cover)
"I.O.U."

The Replacements, April 15, 2015 at the Palladium

The Replacements getting back together was one of the great reunions among a lot of good reunions since the Pixies finally gave in and showed how any group could get back together, even after swearing for years they never would, granted most of the recognizable members and the front-person are still alive. The 'Mats never had a never a reason for it not to happen anyway. Westerberg had been crotchety even at their peak and he could keep being ornery but eventually even he would have to give in to everyone asking him, and he probably needed to a turn a buck if his solo stuff wasn’t working out anymore. It was probably just a matter of time for them to get back together, but it sure seemed longer than it needed to be.  Stinson already had his Guns N’ Roses gig and that was just enough to be able to take the name with any credibility.  But whatever had happened to keep them apart, finally events aligned to get them back together, and of course it would have to be at Coachella (surely an event that valued such a reunion, even if the rest of the world didn’t care much more about them than when they were still a working entity). It would be little surprise if that Coachella appearance was the high-point, just like it wouldn’t be a surprise that they extended it into a tour. One of our justifications for not going to Coachella anymore was that we could see most of the bands that were out there at their own separate show, and probably better than at a festival.  Even the most special appearances by bands at the festival usually led to more, largely negating the necessity of needing to see them there in the first place (like how we couldn’t get rid of Pixies after they got back together there). If we’d known that the Replacements would do a full-blown tour after Coachella we might have hesitated to go to the festival that year (or not, since the rest of the line-up was impressive even without them), but there was no question that we would be in for their own show when it came up that they would stop at the Palladium (still a venue I don't mind). This was my third show in four consecutive nights, and the third that Carla couldn’t make. This was before I had tried re-selling tickets online, and it was just a few days before that she said she couldn't do it so I might not have had much opportunity to sell my extra before then anyway, and I might have balked at having to get a fraction of face-value for it so I figured I’d try my luck at selling it the night of the show, knowing I wouldn’t get back my full $70 but maybe half that or so.  After drinks with Andrew, Heather, and their crew, all of which already had tickets, I went to the venue, hoping to find someone still willing to pay to get in, but finding people throwing away tickets, it was clear there was a staunch lack of demand. Since no one else was bothering to try to sell theirs, I had a clear path to those actually wanting to buy, even if there was only one and that only got me $5 (if I’m not maximizing it in my memory). On top of an over-priced ticket, and one I barely would have had to pay for if I'd known, it was an expensive show, but a good one. By this time they had been on the road for a while so they had a groove, which was a good run through the songs but nothing threatening a drunken melt-down like in some of their funnest but most calamitous concert moments. The Coachella show was a mess (at least ours on the second weekend) but also a blast and unforgettable, the best elements of their best shows. It was held together just barely with luck and orneriness (working for us instead of against us), just like the greatest ‘Mats shows; the one at the Palladium was just another show by a band with good songs, with the only threat or danger being that they might leave from boredom. Even though it was a full set, the abbreviated one at Coachella packed more punch. Still all good songs (leaning heavily toward their early stuff, but that's not entirely a bad thing), played as they were meant to be played (though far too sober), but without the possibility of falling apart like the best rock n’ roll so often is. It’s not something you can control or plan for, but neither were the Replacements at their most transcendent moments. The set was also bogged-down with too many unfamiliar songs, not to say there’s anything wrong with playing anything besides the old stuff, but these were novelties, as if Westerberg wasn’t going to give up anything new that was good to the ‘Mats name, assuming he’s even interested in giving effort to something so traditional and even-keeled as a rock song anymore anyway. (And his T-shirt and whatever cryptic message he was spelling out over the nights of the tour.) Still, they had honed a set-list that worked, with a band that worked maybe too well, and maybe L.A. just didn’t need a ramshackle performance by them, especially at their age. They played then they left. Maybe they had better things to do. The John Doe Band opened, which would probably have been great, but I was coming from work and there were drinks elsewhere.

The Replacements'set-list:

"Seen Your Video"

"Takin' a Ride"

"Favorite Thing"

"I'm in Trouble"

"Kissin' in Action" (with "Iron Man" snippet)

"Kiss Me on the Bus"

"Nobody"

"Androgynous"

"I Will Dare"

"I'll Be You"

"20th Century Boy"/"Bang a Gong (Get It On)"/"All Shook Down"

"Anywhere's Better Than Here"

"Waitress in the Sky"

"Valentine"

"White and Lazy"

"Whole Foods Blues"

"Can't Hardly Wait"

"Bastards of Young"

"My Boy Lollipop" (Barbie Gaye cover)

"I Don't Know"

"Buck Hill"

"Within Your Reach"

"Left of the Dial"

"Alex Chilton"

"Never Mind"

Cloud Nothings/Mild High Club, April 14, 2015 at the Echo

The second in my week of four consecutive shows was Cloud Nothings. In all honesty, this was the show that I could have most done without, and maybe I got this one just to make it four consecutive shows in as many days, but it was also the club show with a club-appropriate band (as opposed to Luna, who could have played a bigger venue) and it seemed appropriate, and I hadn't seen them on this tour. We’d seen the band before, at FYF and at their own headlining show (in a considerably bigger place) so this one was no great revelation, but they played some of the new stuff (from Here And Nowhere Else) that sounded as good as anything else they had ever screamed out. It was also at the end of a crappy day at work but felt better after hanging out with Andrew & Heather. This was also the second show that Carla had to bail from, though I think I just ate the ticket ($15 or so) after a half-hearted attempt to sell it, deciding it would be a bother to keep trying too hard. Opening were Mild High Club, some psychedelic/drone thing (as if you couldn’t tell from their name). They weren’t as caffeinated as Cloud Nothings, but for a headliner who built their name on the patchwork of festival shows, their support was just fine.

Luna, April 13, 2015 at the Echo

I became a Luna fan in the ‘90s, probably around Pup Tent, mostly because they were well-regarded in the indie-music mags I was obsessed with, rather than having heard them somewhere and going to them. I dutifully bought the albums but generally kept them on in the background, never getting to much out of them, or at least as much as I heard others did, though I got a greater appreciation for them overall when Bewitched really moved me.  Even with a minor interest in them, I had never seen them in concert, though from music that worked so well in the background, there wasn’t much promise that they could bring much in a live setting. They had even played early on at the Hollywood Knitting Factory, at which I had a very short internship at the time, and I still didn’t get out to them. Then they broke up but I didn’t follow them to their prodigious solo projects (even after finding out their bassist was the singing voice of Jem, from Jem & the Holograms). But when they got back together, I figured I could be in for a ticket, if I could get one, and if I couldn’t I probably wouldn’t bring myself to be upset about it. More than anything it was out of a sense of obligation, that if I had enough interest in them to have most of their stuff, that I should at least get out to see them, if it wasn’t a significant effort. By the time the tickets went on sale, they still had only the L.A. show and one in New York, and both in super-tiny places, even for them, so this was suddenly a hot ticket. I had probably greatly lucked into the pair but that was enough for me. This show, on a Monday night, was the first of three (then four) consecutive nights of shows, a coincidence they were happening all at once, but I won’t deny that it could have also been a challenge to myself to hit that many concerts, especially while doing full days at work on the Westside. Though the biggest obstacle for the week was Carla suddenly coming down ill, which meant I had to do something with my extra ticket(s). The biggest frustration with getting rid of this ticket was that while I was able to get face value (about $40) for it after getting there early and hanging out at the front, I probably could have gotten 10 times that if I had put it up in advance. (A guy I asked while going in said he’d paid a steep price for his ticket and had flown in from Chicago for the show.) I don’t know what the logistics are for a band playing such a tiny space -- whether it was because of their schedule (even with months in advance) or keeping modest expectations after being away for so long or rewarding the biggest fans who had waited for so long or just knowing their sound was better in a more intimate setting -- but it's rare that you get a show with a band of their (relative) stature so close-up. They ran a tight set, as if they had never broken up and this was just another show on just another tour, which held with it some detachment but also not too much preciousness that a spell of dreamy rock could be broken. If they had real hits they would have played them, so instead they went through what seemed to be the crowd favorites, such was the reaction from the fans that had waited so long or had to go through so much trouble (and probably money) to be there. I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought maybe they would run through a few obscure but familiar covers, at least one by Serge Gainsbourg, or change up some arrangements but they pretty much went through the songs like they’ve ever sounded, which could be frustrating since we’ve already heard them all that way, but it created a base, so that at least we’ve heard main versions before wishing for something off the track. As it was, that show and their reunion wasn't so much a seismic shift in indie-music culture, and maybe it was a cash-grab when every other ‘90s band were getting back together, but they had a good moment, in front of an appreciative group that kept interest alive enough that they would eventually reward by coming back. Alas, no "Mermaid Eyes," but the rest made up for it. They did another show later in the year at a bigger venue presumably as part of a full tour, but I can’t imagine being able to get more out their show than what they did that night in such a tiny space.

Luna's set-list:
"Slide"
"Chinatown"
"Sideshow by the Seashore"
"Malibu Love Nest"
"Going Home"
"Weird & Woozy"
"California (All the Way)"
"Friendly Advice"
"Lost in Space"
"Tracy I Love You"
"Pup Tent"
"Slash Your Tires"
"Bewitched"
"Moon Palace"
"23 Minutes in Brussels"
"Tiger Lily"

"Indian Summer" (Beat Happening cover)

Electric Six, March 13, 2015 at the Constellation Room

It was the Electric Six’s show the year before that I suddenly realized that my brother Dylan wasn’t with us. How did I blank on getting him to come to the show with us? It had been a Friday night and he was mobile enough to have been able to meet us for it. As it turned out, he was out of town that night, but it was still in my head to get him to come to the next E6 show with us. I don’t know why I thought that they might not do their annual tour stop in the area, but I still crossed fingers that they would do another one that we could get to. Of course they did another sweep through our local towns. The Roxy show would have been easier, but that was on a Thursday and the scheduling wouldn’t have worked. But there was a show in Orange County on Friday night, and that was fine. We’d never been to the Observatory before but we figured it was just another venue. We tried to find set-times, as is our habit before a show, but none were posted anywhere, so we assumed they wouldn’t go on before 10, cruised by their parking lot which was too chaotic to get in and out easily, and decided to go to dinner. We got to the venue around 8:30, plenty of time to kill so we figured we could just hang out, explore the place, see the opening band (Avan Lava?). At the front I thought I could hear the 6 playing but disregarded it. They couldn't have just gone on. They were in the Constellation Room, which is apparently the antechamber for the bigger hall but that just meant we could see them in a more intimate place, a room even smaller than the Roxy. Indeed, it was already hot and sweaty when we got in there, a lot hotter and sweatier than it should have been for so early in the set. Something wasn’t right. We were only able to cram into the back of the room, by the merch table. I leaned over and asked the merch guy what time they went on. He said they went on around 8, and that they were almost done. Indeed, they played a few more songs then left the stage before the encore. We’d missed pretty much the whole show. Apparently the place packs out the schedule each night, with an early show and a late one, in multiple rooms, but little care to publicize what is going on. What they played was great, as usual, and Dylan was polite enough to say he was satisfied with what he got. The show, in that hot, sweaty room even smaller and much more packed than the Roxy, could have been the kind of rollicking (early) night that could have risen above all the other great performances. But as it was, we got the short end. We hung around for a bit, just to get some kind of value out of what we paid, and ran into Percussion World, also a really nice guy, and I asked him if the band had ever played a wedding (which was a plan Carla & I (well, mostly me) considered for ours). The rest of the place was hosting punk shows or something with a bad enough vibe that even Dylan wanted to high-tail it out of there. Not posting set-times is just rude. The venue, both in the main room and the smaller one(s), host a lot of great bands that came through town, as an alternative to or in addition to L.A.-area shows, but having a non-traditional schedule along with not posting set-times is barely forgivable. We vowed not to go there again (even if the 6 were playing and Dylan was available).

Sparks, February 14, 2015 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel

Even though Sparks were a big deal at some point in time, in their native southern California and on KROQ (before I ever had it), I never knew them, and what I got later didn't make me regret it.  A comeback album in the mid-’90s when I was consuming anything remotely near being considered “alternative” music didn’t hold much for me, and I probably would not have returned to them at any point if not from my brother Paul (James).  He's been a big fan (though not when we were kids), though he said to convert me to one would take more time than he had or I would be willing to give (such is the challenge of him as my brother).  But the band were doing a very unique show, playing their well-regarded Kimono My House (even if it meant nothing to me) in its entirety, and the few performances were anywhere but Indiana, so he came out, along with Susan, down from Seattle (since she apparently had the time and he was willing to give the effort to indoctrinate her as a fan).  Carla & I went along for the ride.  They both stayed with us, with the show as the centerpiece of their weekend visit.  I was happy to see my brother and my friend, the show was extra.  The album might have been an acquired taste, and everyone else has had over 40 years to come around to it, so hearing it on its own, even played live and with an orchestra behind the Mael brothers, was beyond me, and not enough for me to research it after the event.  Maybe I'll wish I got it better later, but at the time it was just a show.  They did a few of their relative “hits” in a second set, and those escaped me as well, though I recognized a few of them (including "Dick Around", which didn’t sell me as much as left me wondering what the big deal was about).  Though Alex from Franz Ferdinand came out for one song.  (This show happened while both bands were working on what would become FFS.  They even mentioned they couldn't mention the band's name at the time.)  Probably not a bad show, and there are plenty of bands I've acquired the necessary taste for and no one else understands, but this one was out of my purview, and just couldn't do anything for me at the time.  So we were left with a singular performance, something we wouldn’t follow up afterwards (except for a Pandora station we couldn't remove) but could say it was a nice evening out (as well as a visit to downtown L.A., which is often welcome).  My brother surely had to have enjoyed it, and that was enough for me.  To facilitate him seeing a band he loves in a very unique show was a mission accomplished.  Even though, while we could possibly get together for an Electric Six or Morrissey show, there’s probably no one else he both would have interest in (in the rare event he would even want to get out for a show).  (Though, as a side-note, apparently Morrissey was at that Sparks show.  They can all be on the same wavelength -- I’d still rather see the Replacements.)

Sparks' set-list:
"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us"
"Amateur Hour"
"Here in Heaven"
"Thank God It's Not Christmas"
"Hasta Manana Monsieur"
"Talent Is an Asset"
"Complaints"
"In My Family"
"Equator"

"The Rhythm Thief"
"Get in the Swing"
"Let the Monkey Drive"
"Looks, Looks, Looks"
"Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat"
"Excerpts from The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman"
"Dick Around"
"When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way'" (with Alex Kapranos)
"The Number One Song in Heaven"

"Change"

Fleetwood Mac, December 6, 2014 at the Forum

When I saw Fleetwood Mac in ‘03, I figured that was enough for me for the rest of my days.  For as much as that show exceeded my expectations, with the amount of songs they played, hits as well as deep cuts off their newest album, I figured there wasn’t need to want for a show that was any more.  I even saw Buckingham at a solo show, so that was covered as well.  Granted, Christine McVie wasn’t with them but there was only little hope that after being away for so long she would ever come back.  But as it is in hopes for rock group reunions anymore, as long as they’re not dead, chances are they’ll get back together again.  And so it was, that McVie came back, and there would be a massive tour, with multiple nights in L.A. (apparently a bigger deal to play a few nights at the Forum rather than one at Staples).  I’m not sure why I even hesitated to get tickets, since McVie being present would meant that they would get to the Tango in the Night songs that they largely left out of the shows when she wasn’t there.  It was actually Carla who get the tickets, as a holiday treat (and a story about how she traded for tickets to another night, and completely by coincidence got almost the same seats), even if she wasn’t as big a fan as me (even though it’s still baffling why I am, and to the degree that I am).  And so (after an aborted dinner at Red Lobster that became dinner at the Sizzler across the street (though I won’t complain)), we saw the band -- the whole band -- in their completed glory.  It wasn’t dissimilar to their regular touring show, as impressive that it was only the four or five of them on stage, largely without supplemental musicians, but with McVie contributing and Tango in the Nights songs shuffled in at regular intervals.  “Dreams” still came early and Buckingham still did a “Big Love” solo that was furious enough to belie his years.  Not that a McVie-less show was ever incomplete -- they actually did just fine with out her; her loss -- but to see all five of them on stage together in this day and age was a grand event.  And for me, for whom Tango in the Night was a soundtrack to the formative year of seventh grade, it was a singular experience.  Even if it was just another show, rolling through a set-list they’ve played for most of 40 years by muscle memory, making us sit through unnecessary band introductions and forcing appreciation for McVie coming back night after night before moving on through a relaxed touring schedule, those seasoned musicians at least made an argument for making it feel like this was the only night they were doing such a special show.  Even if one particular oldie, in a sea of oldies around us, told me to keep it down when I was talking to Carla during a clear lull in the show that surely even the band would admit to.  Hey, man, I’m at least as big a fan as you, even if I’m younger than you, and no one, including you and the band, was all that interested in that song.  But whatever.  Since they played so many hits, out of many hits, and now included songs that had been (voluntarily) off-limits for a while, even if McVie held up a complete show for so long, at least she came back within our lifetimes, so she could do whatever she wanted to the end.


Fleetwood Mac's set-list:
"The Chain"
"You Make Loving Fun"
"Dreams"
"Second Hand News"
"Rhiannon"
"Everywhere"
"I Know I'm Not Wrong"
"Tusk"
"Sisters of the Moon"
"Say You Love Me"
"Seven Wonders"
"Big Love"
"Landslide"
"Never Going Back Again"
"Over My Head"
"Gypsy"
"Little Lies"
"Gold Dust Woman"
"I'm So Afraid"
"Go Your Own Way"

"World Turning" (with drum solo)
"Don't Stop"
"Silver Springs"

"Songbird"