Concert Review: Fleetwood Mac at St. Pete Times Forum

Overall, the band delivered a competent performance. It featured some rousing spots: "Tusk," "Second Hand News," a Buckingham/Nicks duet of "Never Going Back Again"). It dragged in spots: “Sara,” the dreary “Storms,” a rote “Rhiannon.” Notice the latter are all Stevie Nicks showcases. Rarely has a pop singer gleaned more success from a set of pipes that are as texturally unpleasant as Nicks’. During the Forum show, she avoided high notes as if they were poison ivy, choosing instead to rephrase lines downward.

Buckingham is walking proof that you can still be very much a SoCal dude at 59. Trim, sharply dressed in painted-on black jeans and a short leather jacket — and still sporting cheekbones that could cut glass — he preened and made a few lofty pronouncements to the crowd. Pretty precious.

But give him this: The fellow can play guitar. During a mid-set, acoustic segment, he killed on “Big Love,” raining arpeggios over the crowd. At the mic, he reached for the tough notes, although sometimes he ended up yelping more than singing. That’s nothing new, actually.

One last observation: Big acts really seem to be perfecting the art of arena concert production. Last night, the sound was crisp and at an ideal volume (loud enough to deliver rock punch; not so loud you had to plug your ears). Two big screens, high-definition big screens, hung from the rafters about a quarter of the way into the crowd. So each time Buckingham played a guitar solo, I could simply turn my head to the left and watch his fingers go at it — in hi-def. Nice.