Lindsey Buckingham
Town Hall
Sept. 27, 2011
Review by David Chiu
When Lindsey Buckingham performed two songs from his brilliant 1992 album Out of the Cradle — “All My Sorrows” and “Turn It On”–it was a most welcomed aspect of his show at Town Hall Tuesday night. That is because five years ago during the Under the Skin tour, he performed a terrific set at the same venue-—but no songs from Out of the Cradle (not that I recalled). So it was really refreshing that a few songs from that excellent record became part of this current tour in support of his finest album yet, Seeds We Sow.
Buckingham’s performance at Town Hall of consisted of solo stuff and Fleetwood Mac The first part of the set was just him and his acoustic guitar as showcased his amazing fingerpicking technique on mainly reflective songs such as “Shut Us Down,” reworked versions of early solo hits “Trouble” and “Go Insane,” and the always-dazzling “Big Love.” For this mainly acoustic portion of the show, Buckingham sang with tremendous emotion and passion, especially on “Big Love.”
Then the rest of his band joined in and that was when things started rocking with a performance of Mac favorites such as “Second Hand News” and “Tusk,” and the stuff from the new album like “In Our Own Time,” “Illumination,” and the gorgeous “Stars are Crazy.”
The absolute highlight from the show — like it was five years ago at Town Hall — was “I’m So Afraid,” originally from Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 self-titled album. Buckingham and the band gradually built up that hauntingly slow song until the guitarist unleashed a blistering and burning solo. The energy from that particular performance segued perfectly into another Mac classic “Go Your Own Way.”
For the encore, Buckingham returned to play the aforementioned “Turn It On,” which frankly outdid the original studio recording. It is such positive, life affirming track about finding the courage to let go and never quit, that it was great to hear it for the first time live. It was followed by the lovely ballad “Treason” from the Gift of Screws album. And then, just like how he started the show, Buckingham closed the set alone with another wonderful ballad, the title track from Seeds we Sow.
As Buckingham is the consummate professional when it comes to recording songs in the studio, he is also a very compelling performer especially in a live setting. For fans of soaring guitar work as well as personal songs, the show at Town Hall didn’t disappoint.
Set List
(solo)
Shut Us Down
Go Insane
Trouble
Never Going Back Again
Big Love
(w/band)
Under the Skin
All My Sorrows
In Our Own Time
Illumination
Second Hand News
Tusk
Stars are Crazy
End of Time
That’s the Way That Love Goes
I’m So Afraid
Go Your Own Way
Encore:
(w/band)
Turn it On
Treason
(solo)
Seeds We Sow
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