Fleetwood Mac
This year’s incarnation of Fleetwood Mac is scheduled to play Viejas Arena on December 8. There’s been a lot of public skepticism over the past few weeks, after the announcement that Rumours-era guitarist Lindsay Buckingham was out of the band (again), to be replaced on tour by Mike Campbell (from Tom Petty’s group) and Crowded House co-founder Neil Finn. However, anyone who has followed Mac through its many, many lineup changes can attest that the addition of new blood (and, by extension, occasionally leeching off “old” blood) frequently revitalizes this band like an intracardiac injection of adrenaline delivered Tarantino-style, straight to the heart.
Remember that Buckingham already stepped out from 1987 to 1995, replaced by sweet-sounding roots rocker Billy Burnette, so this isn’t exactly an unprecedented sea change, although it will be the first time in decades that Mac has hit the road with a hitherto unrecorded ensemble. A live album is being planned to remedy that newcomer status, An Evening With Fleetwood Mac, though it’s anybody’s guess whether the San Diego show will be among those taped. It’s not like there won’t be a hundred YouTube views of the concert online within hours of the closing notes, whether or not those notes come out sounding sweet or sour.