Dixie Chicks, Elle King soar at amazing Moline show

By Jonathan Turner, qconline.com

MOLINE -- Current bluesy rock chick Elle King and the rootsy, country rock Dixie Chicks seem cut from the same cloth, including sharing banjo among their instrumentation. The proud, frank feminists reinforced that Thursday night in a fantastic, enthusiastic concert at the iWireless Center.

For the Chicks trio of lead singer Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, it's been 16 years since their last Moline appearance. For 27-year-old Elle King, this was her first time at the iWi.

Ms. King gave a blazing, typically fearless 40-minute set to open. Her often hard-driving rock (duplicated in a much slicker, bigger format with the headliners) led off with "Jackson." She roared through "Good to be a Man," and the rollicking, driving "Good for Nothin' Woman."

Ms. King really shook the rafters in an ideal cover for her, The Beatles' "Oh Darling." Her raspy, searing, and soaring wail poured out her heart. What a tremendous, tumultuous set of pipes she's got.

She really got the crowd going with her hit single, "Ex's and Oh's," with its great pounding beat, and the audience gleefully sang with her. Ms. King's topper, "America's Sweetheart," is a kind of theme song for her -- blunt, tough-talking -- along with her "Chain Smokin', Hard Drinkin' Woman." In "Sweetheart," she sings, "They say I'm too loud for this town," and "You love me anyway." Yes we do, Elle.

The Dixie Chicks -- the biggest-selling female band in the U.S. -- haven't made a new record in 10 years, but their blistering, exhilarating 130-minute show made it seem like they haven't missed a beat all these years. They rocked, harmonized and impressed in a triumphant, smooth, flawless groove, and the thousands in the arena went justifiably crazy for them, fittingly after a recorded intro of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy."

In the midst of their set, Ms. Maines also paid tribute to the late Minneapolis legend with a soulful, passionate, full-throated "Nothing Compares 2 U." While she belted it out with overpowering force, their immense back video screen displayed Prince's unpronounceable symbol and depictions of falling purple rain.

Here we also heard Ms. Maines achieve an echo of Ms. King's stupendous, limber, high-pitched wail.

The Chicks barreled through most of their greatest hits with feverish intensity, and genuine emotion. Patty Griffin's "Truth #2" is especially appropriate for Ms. Maines ("You don't like the sound of the truth coming from my mouth"), given she caused national controversy with her anti-war comments before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

It seems like her comments proved true after all. Compared to the original, this "Truth" was harder-edged, as most live concert versions seem to be, when listened next to the recording.

One of many highlights was when Ms. Maines asked us to sing "Happy Birthday" to her 12-year-old niece, and she filmed it. What a present, huh?

The Chicks' huge hit, "Goodbye Earl" was a definite crowd-pleaser, as they tore through the tale of a woman seeking revenge over an abusive man, accompanied by a black-and-white video panoply of cads and scoundrels, in photos and films, even including snippets of O.J., Chris Brown and Trump.

A really fast (pre-recorded) bluegrass instrumental played along with the women as they had fun car racing on screen, and definitely did not stick to rules of the road, or seat-belt safety. After the stage set changed, Ms. Maines noted this was the first tour they got to switch clothes midway through -- before they were in black and white, and "now we're in white and black," she joked.

"Travelin' Solider" (who said the Chicks were anti-military again?) was one of many songs Thursday night that showcased the women's wonderfully tight three-part vocal harmony, as well as Martie Maguire's beautiful, full-bodied fiddle solos. Emily Strayer dazzled with her multi-instrumental talents, including guitar, mandolin and banjo.

Ms. Maines likely surprised many by leading a cover of Beyonce's "Daddy Lessons" (from "Lemonade"), putting a perfect country spin on it, complete with loud "Yee Haw"s from Ms. Maines. She noted "Lemonade" is constantly on their playlist and every night before going on, they listen to Queen Bey's 'Formation."

"White Trash Wedding" got big applause after the first slow harmony line, and then they were off to the races, with fierce, ridiculously fast bluegrass. The fiddle and banjo solos here really flew furiously.

"Ready to Run" was yet another highlight, featuring lots of red, white and blue on the screen, and funny images of the presidential candidates gliding by, topped with lots and lots of convention-like confetti pouring down over the crowd. With their amazing lighting effects, the total result was a spectacular sight.

After a rocking cover of Bob Dylan's "Mississippi," Ms. Maines brought Ms. King back out to join the lovely "Landslide" (a Fleetwood Mac cover). With her short, punkish blonde 'do, Ms. Maines was like a Ms. King in 14 years.

"She's the only woman in music with bigger balls than me," the lead Chick said, admiringly. They both have spunk and sass to spare.

We were propelled through musical heaven right to the end, with the the uplifting, breathtaking "Cowboy Take Me Away" and "Wide Open Spaces." The boisterous, joyful "Sin Wagon" could also be an Elle King number, and after a kind of long wait, and thunderous applause and screams, Dixie Chicks returned for two encores -- the signature, defiant "Not Ready to Make Nice," and a terrific, inspirational cover of Ben Harper's "Better Way."

In light of all the gun violence, terrorism, and unendingly harsh words on the campaign trail the past 18 months, Ms. Maines pleaded for love, togetherness, peace and that better way, backed by a rainbow heart on screen. There, we can all have a hand in making nice.

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