Stevie Nicks review – Rock legend dazzles Brooklyn with tales and classic songs | Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks wants to put the matter of her possible near-death experience to rest as quickly as possible. A few months ago, singer and rock legend Fleetwood Mac was involved in an accident that forced her to postpone a series of tour dates, including this show in Brooklyn that was rescheduled from August to November. “I was airborne,” she recalled of the incident about five minutes after she took to the stage tonight. “I thought: ‘“Is it over?” A voice at the back of the arena lets out an animalistic scream. “no !!!!”

It’s a safe bet that everyone in the 17,000-capacity Barclays Center arena shares those sentiments. Tonight, a remarkably diverse crowd of fans showed up for the rescheduled Knicks date, ranging from wizard-style teens to longtime fans who retain a love of ’70s bohemian style as well as the decade’s social consciousness: The venue was sold out of veggie burgers.

Although Nicks hasn’t released an album of new material since 2011’s In Your Dreams, she hasn’t strayed far from the center of pop culture since then. In recent years, she has performed regularly with Harry Styles, helped inspire a song on Taylor Swift’s best-selling Tormented Poets Section, and has had two Barbie dolls created in her honour. In 2019, she became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, a belated correction to initially slow critical recognition of her solo work. (She holds the record for the most nominations for rock vocal performance without a win.)

After practicing some ballet moves and announcing that it’s time to get the party started, Nicks launches into a setlist that includes Fleetwood Mac classics and selections from her great 80s albums “Bella Donna” and “The Wild Heart.” On If Anyone Falls, she flares with excitement as her muscular voice rises to a scream, while the stormy centerpiece Stand Back comes to life with a pulsating motorized intro, synthesized power chords, and analog bits of equipment that light up like a spaceship’s control room.

The show is part concert, part evening with Stevie Nicks, with extended and sometimes self-deprecating anecdotes forming the fabric of the evening. Before launching into a performance of the memorable final single “The Lighthouse,” Nicks describes being invited to perform the song on Saturday Night Live. “Which I haven’t done since, I don’t know” – she pretends to think about the year – “nineteen… hundredOther times, she’ll tell stories about her gowns, regularly disappearing offstage to exchange one embroidered gown for another. Many of them come with stories, and Nicks rightly stops to make a little fuss about the look.

There’s a similar looseness in Nicks’ commitment to turning her songs into 3D theater. In a new version of Rumors that responds to the collections, Gold Dust Woman becomes a gorgeous 13-minute cacophony during which Nicks seems to play both the song’s narrator and flirtatious commentator: during an extended guitar solo, she dances like an ecstasy as if she were making a love potion, before ordering the charming interloper to come out. With her low register, it would be a stretch to say Nicks has never sounded better, but she’s majestically confident on Dreams, with her deep register heightening the song’s pain.

This night misses Nicks’ previous live staples such as Leather and Lace, Enchanted and Sara, as well as well-aired smaller singles such as Talk To Me and Rooms On Fire. It’s hard to begrudge Nicks her focus on material she knows works during her return to the stage, but some deeper cuts would have been welcomed by die-hards as well as a revamp of the setlist, which is essentially a shortened version of her 24 Karat Gold tour.

Her sense of emotion and play still glows. “Dance the night away,” Nicks says to the crowd as parting words, after a landslide silences the arena. “Maybe that’s what got me to 77. Dance your way to the kitchen, dance your way to TV, and most of all, dance for me.” Her lyrics are warm, whimsical, and completely honest. I’ve gotten more than a victory lap.