I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Tuesday night, I was not at the Air Canada Centre for the Fleetwood Mac concert but the Great Hall for cover band Dwayne Gretzky's front-to-back performance of the former's 1977 album Rumours. A sold-out 600 person crowd were also on hand. But the audience skewed fairly young, with only a smattering of faces that was alive at Rumours' release. Why such a callow crowd? One reason as overheard during the night: "I could spend $200 or $20".

Though they promised something special for the occasion, only doe-eyed, red-haired Robin Hatch in a black dress looked like 70s Fleetwood Mac. The rest wore the typical assortment of plaid shirts and tees, although Allie Hughes did dress up in a tight black-spotted dress. But their performance was sufficiently special as they played through an energetic, note perfect run from Second-Hand News to Gold Dust Woman. Everyone knew most of the songs though The Chain really got the crowd going.

After a short break, Dwayne Gretzky came back for a second set of 12 covers including 10th Avenue Freeze Out, Psycho Killer, and ending with With A Little Help From My Friends. With Rumours and the new set list, Allie and Robin took the lead more often (Heartbreaker, Barracuda, I Want You Back). A big crowd pleaser was their harmony on Lauryn Hill's version of Killing Me Softly.

Encore chants of "one more song" became "ten more song" and finally "play all night". It wasn't ten more songs, but they did play 2 long, extended numbers, Blinded By The Light and Bohemian Rhapsody, to send the happy horde home.