Pop Music : Fleetwood Mac Ends an Era and Sheds No Tears

The last Fleetwood Mac concert for Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks?

It was hard to tell Friday at the Forum, with the pair making what was billed as their last appearances as full-time members of the band after respective tenures of 20 and 15 years. No tears, no retirement speeches and few indications that this was more than just the end of a grueling, nine-month tour, that this was the end of an era.

But there were dramatic moments. Midway through the 2 1/2-hour show, the band left the stage eerily empty. After a brief pause, Nicks returned, escorting Lindsey Buckingham, her former musical and romantic partner who left the band two years ago and had not appeared with them on stage in eight. Nicks emotionally introduced their pre-Mac duet “Landslide,” expressing the “hope that someday he’ll find it in his heart to spend some time with me and maybe make some music.”

Buckingham later rejoined the group--and stole the show--leading an encore of the appropriate “Go Your Own Way.” After McVie closed the show with her “Songbird,” the whole group came on stage and thanked each other and the audience, but made no specific references to the occasion until Nicks seemed to start to say “Good night” only to hesitate and say a final “Goodby.”

And that was that. Even backstage after the show, there was little acknowledgement of the end. McVie and Buckingham spoke of having to put their feelings on hold to get through the event, though Buckingham, more removed from the situation, described the emotions as “complex.” Wistfully he noted that “it was great the way it came full circle, and I was glad I could be a part of it.”

And the future of the Mac? At points during the show, original members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie and newest kids Billy Burnette and Rick Vito ventured back beyond the McVie/Nicks years to the bluesy style the band started with when Peter Green formed it in 1967. It won’t be the same for most Mac fans, but it could well be worthy of the venerable band’s name. And don’t bet against a reunion.