Great Buckingham McVie Concert Review from Shark Intern Josh

Kudos to Shark Intern Josh who had the good fortune to see Buckingham McVie this week at Blue Hills Bank Pavillion in Boston. Here's his extensive and thorough review WITH video!

Earlier this month Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie released their first self-titled, collaborative album. The final product is hands down one of the best albums I’ve heard so far this year (right up there with Deep Purple’s ‘Infinite’).  Ironically enough, the album features both Mick Fleetwood and John McVie lending talent to the rhythm section, but for creative and possibly even legal reasons, this was deemed a “Buckingham/McVie” project.  The duo decided to set course for a string of dates across the U.S. this Summer, and made a stop in Boston on Wednesday night.

Supporting the show in the opening slot was The Wallflowers, fronted by Jakob Dylan.  Cruising through a roughly 45 minute set of eight songs, the 90s act offered up hits like “One Headlight” and “6th Avenue Heartache” as the sun set on Boston Harbor.

Buckingham and McVie came on around 8:55pm, with just the duo taking the stage for a small handful of acoustic songs, including Buckingham’s solo tracks “Trouble” and “Shut Us Down”, and Fleetwood’s “Never Going Back Again” and “Wish You Were Here”.

The two were then joined by a backing band as they cranked into some cuts from their new album, stuff that unmistakably sound like they could be unearthed tracks from classic Mac albums.  They ended up playing 8 of the 10 songs on the new record over the course of the night, and surprisingly enough the new songs were the ones played with the most energy and got the crowd on their feet the most; like the album's single “In My World” and the booming and funky “Too Far Gone”.

Stretching into more Fleetwood cuts like “Hold Me”, “Little Lies” and “Tusk”, they peppered in a couple more new tracks here and there before the 9-minute “I’m So Afraid”; a majority of which was a scorching Buckingham solo that got a standing ovation.  The main set ultimately finished an electric “Go Your Own Way”, as the band took a short break and returned to play three more songs before saying goodnight to the erupting crowd.

Buckingham remains one of the greatest and most underrated guitarists I’ve been able to see perform, and finally getting to see McVie on stage was a delight.  

When I saw Fleetwood Mac in 2013, she had not yet rejoined the band, so this was like finally finding the missing piece to a puzzle. At 73, she sounds two decades younger, as does Buckingham.