(Photo by Rob Hereth)
The Black Jacket Symphony presents Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Tuesday, March 7, 8 p.m., Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave., $25-$70, all-ages, pikespeakcenter.com
For the past 13 years, The Black Jacket Symphony has prided itself on playing “note-for-note, sound-for-sound” renditions of classic rock and pop albums, which, depending on your disposition, may or may not be a good thing.
But what really sets the group’s “Rumours” tour apart from those of Fleetwood Macked, Fleetwood Bac, Mac Fleetwood and various other Fleetwood Mac tribute acts is its arena-level production values. After all, you have to invest money to make money, and the Atlanta-based enterprise has done plenty of both, with stage shows that have at times rivaled Mannheim Steamroller and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra when it comes to bombastic excess.
By this point, The Black Jacket Symphony franchise has gotten the formula down pat, deploying a rotating cast of live musicians to create deep-fake renditions of Queen’s A Night at the Opera, Prince’s Purple Rain, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction and more than three dozen other albums that have economically stood the test of time.
Now comes Rumours, the 1977 Fleetwood Mac album that launched a thousand yacht rock acts. Fans can rest assured that treasured tracks like “Go Your Own Way,” “The Chain” and “Never Going Back Again” will all be in good hands, with each and every note performed in the exact same order that they appeared on the album. And, since LPs weren’t very long back in those days, The Black Jacket Symphony will also be having its way with select non-Rumours hits, including “Gypsy Woman,” “Say You Love Me,” “Rhiannon” and, in towns where high-school marching bands are available, “Tusk.”