When Fleetwood Mac Played 2017’s Classic East in NYC, With Lindsey Buckingham
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Fleetwood Mac at the Classic East, July 30, 2017
Performing a 20-song set list that was nearly identical to the one they played two weeks earlier at L.A.’s Classic West, Fleetwood Mac triumphed on July 30, 2017, at the New York City counterpart, Classic East. They were the group’s only two concerts that year. There would be only one more brief performance with Lindsey Buckingham.
They were the first and only band among the six that played the festival that was not missing a key member: The night before, Steely Dan performed sans co-founder Walter Becker, who was ill. (Little did we know at the time that he would pass just five weeks later.) Eagles lost Glenn Frey the previous year and the Doobie Brothers hadn’t featured singer Michael McDonald as a member for years. On Sunday, opening act Earth, Wind and Fire continued without their key figure, Maurice White, who also passed in 2016, while Journey’s longtime frontman Steve Perry long ago left that band.
But all five members of the Fleetwood Mac lineup since 1975*—Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and co-founders Mick Fleetwood and John McVie—were in place at Citi Field in Queens, launching their set with “The Chain,” from their mega-selling album Rumours, and offering up a hit-packed show that leaned heavily on that creative ’70s-’80s period.
Watch them perform “Say You Love Me” at the concert
Among the other classics they performed on a perfect NYC summer evening were “Sara,” “Landslide,” “Second Hand News,” “Tusk” and “Go Your Own Way,” which ended the set proper before they returned with an encore of “Don’t Stop.”
Watch Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” from Classic East
See the complete setlist below.
Watch them perform “Gypsy”
Related: Eagles headlined Classic East’s opening show
Watch Fleetwood Mac perform “Gold Dust Woman” at the Classic East concert
Buckingham ended up performing with the group just one more time, when they were honored as MusiCares’ Person of the Year on Jan. 26, 2018.
*Related: Less than a year after their Classic East concert, they parted ways with Buckingham
Fleetwood Mac Set List–Citi Field, New York City, July 30, 2017
The Chain
You Make Loving Fun
Dreams
Everywhere
Second Hand News
Rhiannon
Bleed to Love Her
Tusk
Sara
Say You Love Me
Big Love
Landslide
Never Going Back Again
Think About Me
Gypsy
Little Lies
Gold Dust Woman
I’m So Afraid
Go Your Own Way
Watch “Go Your Own Way”
Encore:
Don’t Stop
Related: Listings for 100s of classic rock tours
2 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationI was at that show, sitting down front. There was this really hot blonde in the audience in front of me singing along with “Sara,” and I was singing along with the song also and I was trying to get her attention to show that I also knew the lyrics of the song , and then she looked at me and said “what the hell are you staring at dude?” So I don’t think she was into me.
It is a terrible shame that this classic lineup had to be blown to bits, probably for good, by a Stevie Nicks hissy fit.