The Ledge - Songbird is back at LA Forum 4/10!!

Well, 2015 has officially started for me. My first Fleetwood Mac show this year!

I didn't get any good pictures. I was up front, but so far over to the left that, much like Manuel on Fawlty Towers, I saw nothing.

As soon as anyone came to the front row, the security guard immediately informed them that they would be allowed up to the stage.

The crickets began chirping at about 8:25. I was in the parking lot by 11:00 p.m., so why all the band members insist they play for 3 hours is a mystery to me. Clearly, none of them have Apple watches.

Mick practically snuck out onto the stage. I mean, I watched John come out and I wondered "Where is Mick?" Well, Mick was already behind the drums. Usually he enters with great fan fare, stopping center stage to salute the audience. Tonight, he crept in on silent cat paws. Maybe he was trying to elude a process server.

John emerged and then Christine and Stevie and Lindsey came together. They touched hands with Christine, before passing to their mics.

Being to the side and not in the direct line of any speakers, I think I heard their individual voices better tonight than I ever have this tour. The singers rang clearer than the instruments and all the little undertones and stretched notes they interjected caught my ear. Unfortunately, none of these audio enhancements made NGBA sound any better ... but I digress. Stevie's atmospheric "Awwwwwww" during The Chain was quite pronounced.

I love how Lindsey stealthily crosses closer to Christine, with his mouth agape and eyes wild at the end of YMLF. But you know this time around, the guitar solo of his that best compares to the ending he gave YMLF on the Rosebud film is actually at the close of Little Lies. That's when he really jams. His playing doesn't stand out on YMLF the way it has in the past.

Stevie says that this is their 77th show. The audience applauds and she says, "I know." After 77 shows she can safely say that Christine is back, rather than welcome back. So, "Let's get this party started."

Christine thanks the others for giving her the privilege to play with them again. "I love them and I love you."

I love the way she mouths the "do it, do it, do it," parts during Second Hand News, but I also smile when Lindsey mouths the words to Dreams, while playing in back of Stevie.

When Lindsey addresses the audience he says that they were at the Forum three times last year and now "strangely enough, here we are again. It's good to be home." He says that despite their well-documented ups and downs, it's not a band that's just grown. It's prevailed. Tonight when he says the "beautiful Christine" he has to pause, because the audience applauds for a prolonged minute or two.

During Say You Love Me, Lindsey comes up behind Stevie, speaking into her ear, touching his head to hers, then bending lower his head near her shoulder. She smiles.

As always, I think the ending of SYLM is the highlight of the show, for me. Christine and Stevie face Lindsey. He is turned towards them, falling, falling, falling.

For the Big Love introduction, Lindsey says that the song is about transitioning from a defensive outlook on life. They'd been together 12 years by the time they did the song. At the time all of them were alienated in their personal lives and to get through that, he used to put up boundaries and says he still does, but it's gotten much better and so the original atmosphere of the song is now just an echo for him. He's learned the importance of transformation and one of the most profound and wonderful changes in his life was becoming a father. He says one of his daughters is in the audience tonight and he wants to dedicate the song to the beautiful Lee Lee.

Sweet, but I guess that means it's Friday night and the other 2 kids had much better things to do. Ditching Dad: The True Story.

For Landslide, Stevie says that in case we didn't know it, today is National Sibling day and as an older sister, she could not ask for a better little brother than Christopher. She says that no matter what happened, he always had her back. During the pause in the song, Lindsey kisses her hand.

When Christine returns to the stage she says they are just waiting for their "young drummer" to come out. "Are you there Mick." She says their album, called Fleetwood Mac was the first one they did with this configuration of the band and this song, Over My Head was the first single from the album. [So sorry for you, Lindsey and Stevie. No way were either of you getting the single!]

After NGBA John returns to the stage. He goes down the stairs and exits the arena at the floor level, rather than going backstage like the other 4 do. I wonder why that is. But as he passes one lady hoots and hollers at him. Tells him he's looking good. The security guard jokingly tells her to calm down.

Stevie does her Gypsy introduction. Earlier this year, a Ledgie was saying that she wasn't sure that Barbara gave Stevie all of the independent woman advice Stevie had been accrediting to her mother in recent years. I would have to agree. After saying that when she stood in the Velvet Underground on the same spot where Janis Joplin once stood, she had a premonition that she would return and would be able to buy anything she wanted, without having to look at a price tag. Stevie said her mother told her to fight for what she wanted and never back down because anyone else said it was too much work, too much responsibility. Stevie said her mom told her that life was long. "You go back to the Velvet Underground and STAY THERE. Don't let anyone tell you you can't." Well, ok .... but I am 100% positive that Barbara didn't want you to run to the Velvet Underground and buy everything in sight without looking at price tags. She's the same woman who lectured you about the cost of keeping fire places burning all through your house, the same woman who wanted to make sure you always had practical skills to fall back on. I don't think she encouraged you to shoot for rock star status no matter what the cost.

Stevie talks about going to a social event and seeing Lindsey playing California Dreamin'. She says she "brazenly" jumped right in and started singing with him, but she scurried away afterwards because she was afraid he might not have liked her participation. She says he might have been saying "WTH." [This is a new spin on an old story and I don't believe Stevie scurried away at all, but it cracks me up to hear her say this.]

She explains that he was a junior and she was a senior and kind of describes how that happened, because her family had just moved and --- um, it happened because you're a year older than he is. No further details necessary.

So, then she says Bob called her up 2 years later and when she asked him what kind of band Fritz was he sarcastically said that they were in San Francisco during the dawning of the age of Aquarius. What kind of band did she think it was? It's a rock and roll band of course. They rehearsed four days a week.

She found out that Lindsey lived right down the street from her all of that time, which she didn't notice before, because she says it's obvious she never walked down the street of their neighborhood. Then she names four bands that she and Lindsey opened for. She glosses over the bit about their car and Credence Clearwater Revival, which I might have enjoyed hearing more about.

John and Christine sit on a ledge in back of Stevie talking together during all of this.

At the end of Gypsy, Stevie holds the last note. I can still see your bright eye-e-e-s.

At the end of GDW, when Stevie starts the "Aaaaaah" she is facing Lindsey and then she does the 90 degree turn back to her mic, while she's singing, synching the movement with the vocal in a way that adds to the song's drama. At the end when she says, "You can't feel me now" she rubs a hand up and down her arm, you can't feel me.

The applause after GDW lingers and Stevie has to take double bows.

For the introduction of ISA, I watch Christine standing in the shadows, banging on her imaginary drums along with Mick. It's amazing how Lindsey can segue right from that song into another high energy one, without missing a beat.

For GYOW I notice Stevie's top hat has rhinestones across the front, just a little silvery circle above the brim. I don't remember seeing that before.

For the band introductions, Lindsey seems to be singing his opening verses at a slower pace, but the tempo speeds up soon enough. Mick introduces Lindsey as a "man with a vision ahead." So, Lindsey's "visionary" obsession is now like Michael Jackson telling everyone that they had to call him the "King of Pop."

When Mick calls Christine their songbird, I bitterly object thinking that since she doesn't sing the song any longer, the term is obsolete. I mean, he might just as well point to her and say, "Straight from Chicken Shack, it's Christine Perfect." Little did I know I'd soon have to eat my thoughts.

After the encore, when Lindsey and Stevie come out, he's frolicking. First he skips backwards and then, with his arm through Stevie's he turns them around in a circle. I can't see his mouth, but I imagine he said something like, "you hate that don't you?" Because I see Stevie mouthing the words, "Oh I love that." She teases back at him, eyes glinting.

So, when they do Silver Springs, I think, "At least that wasn't cut tonight." I'm sure that's the end and was so excited when I saw them pushing out the piano. I yelped.

Mick gives a final speech at the end with Ruby and Tessa by his side. He says, "believe it or not, they're twins." He adds that whatever foreign festivals they play (huh?) he always still reminds the audiences to be good to each other.

Not only is the Mac back, but seeing them in Los Angeles again, their familiar glances and exchanges like life long friends, I feel they've never left.

Michele