The tribute band ‘Fleetwood Visions’ rocked the Ellen Eccles Theatre on Mar. 30 with a sensational salute to the 1970’s legends ‘Fleetwood Mac’ (Image courtesy of Facebook).
LOGAN – When its comes to the recent parade of tribute bands playing here, the Cache Valley Center for the Arts saved the best for last.
The Salt Lake-based band “Fleetwood Visions” blew the doors off the Ellen Eccles Theatre on Mar. 30 with a sensational salute to the legendary 1970s rock group “Fleetwood Mac.”
The six-member ensemble had promised to recreate the sound and stage presence of “Fleetwood Mac” and delivered all that and more.
Despite this being only the seventh time that the tribute band has performed together, their crowd-pleasing two-hour performance here in Logan was absolutely flawless.
“Fleetwood Mac” was originally formed in 1967 by guitar wizard Peter Green as a British blues band with drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie and guitarist Jeremy Spencer on vocals.
Knowing that history, the tribute band acknowledged it deep in their set with mostly instrumental renditions of the early Green compositions “Oh, Well” and “Black Magic Woman.”
The original band changed for the better with the additions of Christine McVie as its keyboard player in 1970 and the California song-writing couple guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks in 1974.
Most of the “Fleetwood Visions” act focused on the original band’s output after those changes, particularly their 11th studio album “Rumors,” released in 1977, which has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.
Which brings us to the elephant in the room on Saturday night at the Eccles: did the tribute band’s two female vocalists actually recapture the singing styles of Nicks and McVie?
The answer to that question was a resounding “yes.”
One of them was actually able to ape Nicks’ slightly nasal, throaty monotone and also duplicate McVie’s carefree songbird quality on “You Make Loving Fun.”
When it came to holding high notes and pure “belt it out” singing, however, both of the sexy “Fleetwood Visions” vocalists proved themselves to be more talented than either Nicks or McVie.
But the audience at the Eccles Theatre – a modest-sized, mixed crowd of old fans and twenty-somethings – came to hear the hits of “Fleetwood Mac” and weren’t disappointed.
The amazing two-hour set performed by “Fleetwood Visions” included delicate acoustic versions of Buckingham’s “Never Going Back Again” and Nicks’ “Landslide;” familiar treatments of “Seven Wonders, “Sara,” “Gypsy,” “Rhiannon,” “Edge of Seventeen” and “The Chain;” as the well the competing break-up songs “Go Your Own Way” and “Dreams” from Buckingham and Nicks respectively.
Their concert in Logan definitely signals that “Fleetwood Visions” has joined the ranks of top-flight tribute bands as they begin a regional tour of Intermountain West this spring and summer.
Each year, the CacheARTS organization brings the best of regional, national and international talent to the Ellen Eccles Theatre as part of the CacheARTS Presents season.
Next on the CacheARTS schedule is “The Simon and Garfunkel Story,” an immersive concert-style theater show chronicling the amazing musical journey shared by that folk-rock duo.
Tickets for that show are available at www.cachearts.org
The Ellen Eccles Theatre is located at 43 South Main Street in downtown Logan.