Singer not ready to hand over role to Taylor Swift or anyone else – The Irish Times

Stevie Nicks

3Arena

★★★★☆

The first time Stevie Nicks performed in Ireland in November 1989, her bandmate Taylor Swift wasn’t even born. Yet a few days ago, Stevie Nicks thrilled the parents at Swift’s Aviva Stadium concert by making a masked appearance in the VIP tent. Some 50,000 people gathered in the presence of rock and pop royalty as Swift, the world’s biggest pop star, paid tribute to her heroine’s genius.

Tonight at the 3Arena, there’s no sign that the pop princess and her friendship bracelets are returning the favour, but the Swift effect is visible nonetheless: there’s a decidedly younger faction in the audience, many of them dressed in the bohemian-style skirts made famous by Nicks during Fleetwood Mac’s heyday in the 1970s.

While the exorbitant ticket prices have caused much (and understandably so) gnashing of teeth, Nicks’ first solo appearance in Ireland in nearly a decade is undoubtedly an event. And with Fleetwood Mac unlikely to reform after Christine McVie’s death in 2022 (Nicks recently vowed that “there’s no chance… without[McVie]it just wouldn’t work”), fans have flocked to the temple for the chance to worship their goddess.

This isn’t just a rehearsal of her old band’s songs. As Nicks takes the stage shortly after 8 p.m., her trademark long blonde braids easy to spot even from the furthest point of the 3Arena, she opens the concert with a solo song, Outside the Rain.

It’s followed by the fast gallop of Dreams, before she launches into the first of several long, funny stories about recording Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around with Tom Petty for her 1981 debut solo album, Bella Donna.

Indeed, tonight’s show could have been titled “An Evening with Stevie Nicks,” as her stories are almost as entertaining as her songs. One, about her life in poverty with Lindsey Buckingham (“we were so poor our car didn’t have reverse”) and their first meeting with the members of Fleetwood Mac, is particularly enjoyable, leaving many fans wondering what stories she might have up her sleeve if she ever decides to write a memoir.

Now 76, Nicks is clearly a little less steady on her feet and there are fewer “whirling dervish” pirouettes on stage than before, and more pauses between songs while her excellent band fills the time or she goes to change another of her iconic capes.

Still, his distinctive voice remains in fine form, whether it’s a cover of Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth, a duet with his vocal coach Steve Real (replacing Don Henley) on Leather and Lace, or a shrill Edge from Seventeen, which brings much of the crowd to its feet.

Soldier’s Angel, a turgid ballad she dedicates to the war-torn Ukrainian people, is the only real misfire in a tracklist largely drawn from her early solo albums — while the stage visuals, while in keeping with Nicks’ mystical aura, are sometimes a little corny.

There’s even an unexpected tribute to Irish TikTok comedian Garron Noone, whose videos Nicks says she’s enjoyed, before launching into an encore of two songs by Rhiannon and Landslide. The former is a highlight of the evening, Nicks’s swarthy, impassioned voice as she shakes her scarf-draped tambourine. The latter, however, provides a moment that will no doubt linger in the memory of many in the audience, as images of Nicks and the late Christine McVie from across the decades are projected behind her. It’s a moving dedication, and the line “And I’m getting older too…” feels particularly poignant tonight, even if Nicks seems adamant that she’ll be back in Dublin soon. Not yet ready to hand over her mantle – to Swift or anyone else, it seems – she tells the crowd that she’s been “running on stage” trying to cope with McVie’s death in recent years. If tonight is anything to go by, she will continue to be enthusiastically received by the Irish public, under the spell of a true legend.