A history lesson in pop music culture and the northwest swansong of one of the most prominent collaborations to ever create. Playing a plethora of hits from the latest and earliest incarnations, Fleetwood Mac took us through the two and a half hour set to the end of an era.

An excellent show opener, “In The Back Of My Mind”, from the Behind The Mask LP (their latest), be­gan the tour de force. The ladies lead them through a couple of classics, “The Chain” and “Dreams”, then Christine McVie captivated us with a version of “Isn’t It Midnight” that featured a revamped chorus arrange­ment.

The Macs truly mixed it up material-wise, blend­ing past with present all through the set. The ancient “Oh Well” (on which Billy Burnette sang a fabulous, teasing lead) and the even more ancient (from the very first album, circa 1967) “Messin’ Round” were mingled in with “Rhiannon” and the very recent “Love Is Danger­ous”.

During the older stuff, guitarist Rick Vito (a major ham) dedicated a song to founding member Peter Green as well as to Stevie Nicks and Christine, both of which have decided not to tour with Fleetwood Mac any longer in order to pursue their respective solo careers.

Drudging up a longtime favor­ite that they’d dropped from recent tours, “Landslide” was a definite pleaser. Also in that category was Mick Fleetwood’s center-stage romp during a reprise of “World Turn­ing”. The comic bandleader raged on the set, came out front and pounded an African drum tucked under his arm.

Then he slapped and tapped his body where drum pads were hidden in his outfit (resplendent with plenty of gratuitous sexual innuendo) all of this to the accompaniment of a Ghanaian percussionist sporting a horned helmet. It was then that they took the opportunity to introduce him, Isaac, the two back-up singers, Sharon and Lynn, and local wiz Dan Garfield, who was supplying addi­tional keyboards.

Amongst the memories winding down the show – “Little Lies”, “Everywhere”, “All I Want To Do”, “Gold Dust Woman”, “Don’t Stop”, and “Go Your Own Way” – were the last song from Fleetwood Mac’s new album; “Stand On The Rock”, and an encore that Burnette’s father and uncle wrote together, “Tear It Up”.

With the departure of the ladies, it may seem that the band’s future is in question. I doubt that this is the case.

With Mick’s track record and John McVie still working the bass like he did this night Fleetwood Mac is anything but dead. My guess is that we’ll see yet another change in the band’s constant evolution.

The final number of the night (quite appropriately) was an exceptional rendition of “Songbird” with Chris­tine and a grand piano, sharing the stage alone.