by Daniel Brouse
January 2026
The first real concert I ever attended was Fleetwood Mac at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on November 21, 1979, in support of their Tusk album.
We had just moved from a rural community, so I had no idea what to expect. I had been to the Spectrum once or twice before when my dad took me to a 76ers game, but this was nothing like that.
The scene was completely different from today. No one had mobile phones or cameras. You were thoroughly searched on the way in. It's funny that now you practically need a phone—with recording devices—to get in, since it's the only way to have a ticket. Back then, everything felt more raw and communal. The parking lot alone was an event. Once inside the Spectrum, pre-concert rituals included Frisbees flying through the air, beach balls bouncing around, and the occasional blown-up surgical glove drifting over the crowd—depending on what people managed to get past security. I was in awe of it all.
The highlights of the concert itself were Mick Fleetwood's showmanship and Lindsey Buckingham's guitar virtuosity. Even behind a massive drum kit, Mick was a performance all by himself. I still vividly remember him pounding through "Tusk," wild and primal -- pure power and personality, just like the song's lyric, "Real savage like." And then there was Lindsey: this mild-mannered-looking ax-slinger who didn't even use a pick. Hearing those Rumours songs live, with his intricate guitar work soaring through the arena, completely blew my mind.
I hadn't really thought about writing about that concert until years later, when I started looking back and realized how important those memories are as you get older. The more I thought about it, the more the night came alive again in my mind—decades later, still vivid. So go ahead and think back to your own first concert. I've been to hundreds of shows, performed hundreds of times, worked as a stage manager, and helped put on concerts and festivals—but I can still remember my first one. It changed my life.
Venue: The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA.
Attendance: 15,109
Setlist
Say You Love Me
The Chain
Dreams
Not That Funny
Rhiannon
Don't Stop
Over My Head
Oh Well
Sara
What Makes You Think You're the One
Oh Daddy
Save Me a Place
Landslide
Tusk
Angel (1979)
You Make Loving Fun
I'm So Afraid
World Turning
Go Your Own Way
Sisters of the Moon
Songbird