1997 - a night to remember
It started with a full page ad in the Orlando Sentinel. The classic lineup was hitting the road for The Dance tour, and they were coming to the Orlando Arena. In the pre-internet era of the late 90s, securing a piece of rock history didn’t involve refreshing a browser or fighting a digital queue; it meant physical dedication. It meant setting an alarm, driving out in the dark, and camping out on the concrete.
As a freshman at Rollins College, I didn't hesitate. Early on the morning the tickets went on sale, I joined the makeshift community of die-hard fans already forming outside the arena. Right before the windows opened, the venue staff shuffled the queue. Suddenly, the careful order of the line fractured. The group fans I chatted up, who were scattered throughout the queue, found themselves pushed right to the very front of the mass. My line mates only needed six. Without skipping a beat, they turned back, looked at me, and bought their remaining two tickets for me.
With the ultimate ticket in hand, I took a shot and asked the prettiest girl in my freshman class at Rollins to come with me. On Sunday, November 9, 1997, we walked into the Orlando Arena and followed the usher down. When we finally stopped, we were in the front row, just right of center. I was standing directly beneath Lindsey Buckingham’s microphone stand.
MAC IS BACK: The Fleetwood Mac reunion tour comes to the Orlando Arena at 7:30 p.m. The group, which lost much of its audience with the departure of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, has seen its popularity soar again since their return. Originally led by fiery guitarist Peter Green, the band has gone through many lineup changes over the past 30 years but has always been anchored by the formidable rhythm section of John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.
Fleetwood Mac began its comeback with an MTV concert special that has been rerun numerous times. The group also has a new live recording, The Dance, which features four new songs in addition to hits such as “Dreams,” “Rhiannon,” “Don’t Stop” and “The Chain.” Fleetwood Mac is celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the biggest albums in rock history, Rumours. It can also celebrate a tour that has received many favorable reviews and has drawn crowds everywhere, despite some grumbling over high ticket prices. Tickets for the arena show are $40 and $60 and available through Ticketmaster, (407) 839-3900.
When the band hit the stage and launched into "The Chain," the sheer power of their presence was overwhelming. From that vantage point, you could see every look, every smirk, and every bit of the legendary tension that fueled their music. At several points during the night, as he tore through those blistering guitar solos on "I'm So Afraid" and "Big Love," he looked right down at us. He was clearly impressed by the raw energy of the front row, fueling his performance right back into the crowd. We had an absolute blast. If only I had brought a camera!
Fleetwood Mac had already been my favorite band going into that arena, but that night permanently cemented it. In the decades since, I have been fortunate enough to see them live several times—navigating the different eras of the band both with and without Christine McVie before she passed. But nothing will ever touch the magic of that November night. I don't have a personal bootleg or a smartphone video of that specific performance, but in a way, I don't need one. We are incredibly lucky that the live album and concert video of The Dance exist to perfectly capture the exact sonic landscape, the arrangements, and the fierce energy of that specific tour.
What makes that time period feel even more legendary in my mind is the absolute media overload of that exact weekend. If my memory serves me right, it was that very same weekend that my family came up to visit me at Rollins. My brother Matthew and I were so swept up in the high-octane pop culture of November '97 that we ended up seeing Paul Verhoeven's ultra-violent sci-fi epic Starship Troopers twice in the exact same day—capping off one viewing locally and another at the brand-new AMC theater in Downtown Disney.
Looking back, it was a weekend of pure, unfiltered 90s perfection: fighting giant alien bugs on the big screen with my brother, and standing arm's length from Lindsey Buckingham's guitar strings with a beautiful girl. They truly don't make weekends like that anymore.
