Review: Stevie Nicks dances, entrances and chats up a thrilled St. Paul audience

Legend and icon are such overused terms that they’ve become almost meaningless.

Goddess. Now that’s the appropriate word for Stevie Nicks.

Not just because she became the first woman to be inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist). Not just because she’s the oldest woman, at 77, to headline on the arena circuit. Not just because she’s become beloved by multiple generations thanks to recent appearances on TV’s “American Horror Story,” cosigns from Taylor Swift and Harry Styles and a viral TikTok of a man skateboarding to the Nicks-sung Fleetwood Mac oldie “Dreams” that ignited a surge in streams and sales during the pandemic.

It’s because Nicks rocks with relentless passion, colorful personality and punching-above-her-weight power as she demonstrated Wednesday night at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul. She showed an ability to touch hearts and minds — and feet. Yes, you can dance to Nicks’ music even if you’re not draped in a shawl and twirling like she does.

Her dancing during the opening “Not Fade Away,” “Stand Back” and “Gold Dust Woman” was a crowd-tantalizing treat, though she may not be as agile as she once was. Remember, she fractured her shoulder this summer, forcing the postponement of this concert that was originally scheduled for August.

It was a thoroughly satisfying, late-in-career arena performance, as the expected mystical and magical combined with some down-to-earth chattiness. Moreover, Nicks’ seductive husky siren of a voice was in fine form, for the most part, and she remarkably hit her high notes on Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” and “Gold Dust Woman.”

The otherworldly hippie with long blond hair, an endless supply of shawls and beads draped on her microphone stand is revered by women, who made up the majority of the 14,000 fans in St. Paul, for being a survivor. She survived the romantic traumas of Fleetwood Mac and facing her overbearing ex, Lindsey Buckingham, night after night onstage. And she knows Fleetwood Mac is history after the 2022 death of her Mac soul sister Christine McVie.

“Don’t let them take your power,” Nicks implored Wednesday during the dark, haunting stomp of a tune. Afterward, she declared: “It’s an anthem. It’s yours.”

Besides featuring that political detour without any between-song preaching, this Nicks concert was very different from her two most recent performances in the Twin Cities. Two years ago, she was paired with fellow Rock Hall of Famer Billy Joel at U.S. Bank Stadium. Nine years ago, she teamed with the Hall of Fame Pretenders, led by Chrissie Hynde, at Xcel Energy Center.

This time, Nicks plucked an unknown rural Minnesota singer/songwriter, Anna Graves, to open. Apparently, Graves’ booking agent’s aunt is a friend of Nicks and introduced her to Graves’ music. And the 28-year-old was courageous enough to perform solo in a hockey arena. Saying she graduated from Northfield High and lives in Webster, Minn., she was earnest and engaging, with a clarion voice and some promising songs.

With an obscure opening act, the evening didn’t exactly have the gravitas of Nicks’ two most recent Twin Cities performances. No one was complaining as she delivered 14 songs in 100 minutes.

The highlights were many, including the electrifying “Edge of Seventeen,” Fleetwood Mac’s closing acoustic “Landslide” (dedicated to her late husband Kim Anderson from Minnesota), the captivating “The Lighthouse” and “Stand Back,” which started with the buzzy synthesizer funk of the Twin Cities’ own Ricky Peterson and kept building in tension as Nicks and her eight-person band rocked out.

She shared a backstory about producer Jimmy Iovine telling her she needed a single after they’d finished recording her debut solo album in 1981. He was also producing Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at the time, and he asked Petty if he could try a duet with Nicks on Petty’s “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

“It was just enchantment,” she said of collaborating with Petty.

On Wednesday, veteran Los Angeles guitarist Waddy Wachtel sang Petty’s part on “Stop Draggin’” as photos of Petty, Bob Dylan, Prince, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin appeared on a giant video wall behind the stage. For part of the night, Wachtel served as Nicks’ key foil in much the same way Buckingham was in Fleetwood Mac.

Nicks didn’t go into detail about the collaborator on “Stand Back,” her 1983 hit. But the story goes Nicks heard Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” on the radio while driving to her honeymoon suite, and she started humming along to the melody. She recorded a demo that night and called Prince to tell him about it. A few days later, he came to the studio and played synthesizers on the record without receiving credit, though he did get a royalty split.

Nicks didn’t say anything about Prince on Wednesday. Goddesses don’t need to talk about gods.