Fleetwood Mac is having yet another resurgence and a Chicago-area tribute act is capitalizing on it.
Second Hand News performs at 8 p.m. Jan. 20 at the James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts at the College of Lake County in Grayslake. The band brings the music of Fleetwood Mac — Mick Fleetwood, John and Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham — to life.
Josh Chicoine is the Lindsey Buckingham of the group, providing lead vocals and acoustic guitar. It’s the first time for the band at the College of Lake County.
“It’s a pretty big rock show, truthfully,” he said. “We bring in our own lighting director and lights. We try to make it as spectacular as possible and try to bring the kind of live energy that Fleetwood Mac was known for. That’s kind of our specialty.
“We really bring an intense live experience. It’s just a really fun time for all of us and that really translates over for the audience as well. It’s long night of music — we will play more than two hours of music that spans music from the Buckingham-Nicks era but we play earlier Fleetwood Mac as well from the Bob Welsh era and also from the Peter Green era.
“We try to have a lot of different Fleetwood Mac songs from different eras of that music and bring that live energy that’s really fun and is exciting for the audience.”
Every few years, it seems that Fleetwood Mac has a resurgence in popularity when younger generations discover the band. Its song “Dreams” went viral in 2020 when a TikToker rode a skateboard drinking cranberry juice while “Dreams” played in the background.
In 2023, Millennials discovered the 1997 live performance of “Silver Springs” and gave it new life on TikTok. Also in 2023, the Amazon series “Daisy Jones & the Six” was inspired by Fleetwood Mac.
And Stevie Nicks recently announced she’s coming with Billy Joel to Soldier Field this summer.
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“It’s really good pop music and rock music with great lyrics and harmonies and musicianship,” Chicoine said. “I think it’s getting its due again — it seems to get its due a lot — and that shows you the impact and longevity of that kind of music.”
Second Hand News formed when bassist Dan Ingenthron created it to do a one-off show where they performed the Fleetwood Mac album “Tusk” in its entirety.
“It formed as a lark and they decided to keep going,” Chicoine said. He joined shortly after. The band consists of Chicoine, Ingenthron, Melissa Brausch, Mike Holtz, Mike Vanier and Lindsay Weinberg.
The band was having so much fun playing these great songs, he said, and the audience response was so welcoming that they decided to go all-in and really make a show out of what they were doing. Thus, they invested in lights and sound equipment and set out to perfect the stage show.
“We made investments in the show and in ourselves and in each other,” he said. “It’s been exciting.”
Chicoine never set out to impersonate Lindsey Buckingham. A longtime musician, he was a member of the Chicago indie rock band The M’s, which had its heyday from 2001-2007.
“Lindsey Buckingham pushes a lot of air; he’s a very forceful singer. I’ve always been a loudmouth too, so I can push that air pretty good. I found it was … not easy, but it was doable,” he said.
“He’s got a particular style and I can kind of get close to it. I don’t sound exactly like him. I sound like him on certain songs. Same as the other singers do, too. But it’s obviously us singing.”
Putting the set list together was challenging as Fleetwood Mac has such a vast catalog of hits. It’s a show for casual fans, new fans and
“There’s so much music to draw from and we’ve tried, over the many years that we’ve been doing this, to refine that and look at what other people are saying too,” he said. “To draw inspiration from other ‘best of’ lists — the internet is filled with ‘best Christine songs,’ ‘best Lindsey songs,’ whatever it is.
“We look at those and try to pull from different records and different eras to make it pretty eclectic. We have … not just the hits but a lot of really cool, older songs that people might have forgotten or maybe that they’ve heard for the first time. And that’s really cool when people come up to us and tell us they didn’t even know that was Fleetwood Mac.”
Audiences will enjoy the show is because the band is undeniable, he said.
“I think the reason why it has seen another resurgence and another resurgence is because the music is so good,” he said. “While it has a simplicity to it, it’s also got real complexity and I think people really respond to that. Not to mention, the great harmonies and it’s fun to be a part of that energy.”
Second Hand News
When: 8 p.m. Jan. 20
Where: James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts at the College of Lake County, 19351 W. Washington St., Grayslake
Tickets: $10-$20
Information: 847-543-2300; jlcenter.clcillinois.edu
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.