Dixie Chicks fierce, fun during Resch show

by Kendra Meinert, Green Bay Press Gazette

ASHWAUBENON - How fitting the Dixie Chicks opened with "The Long Way Around" Saturday night at the Resch Center. It took them 27 years to get there.

The top-selling all-female band in history left a lasting impression with its first Green Bay performance — an electric night of hard-driving, empowering, sumptuous music that cut a wide swath down some unconventional paths, from Beyonce’s "Daddy Lessons" to Ben Harper’s "Better Way," and still delivered on the biggies that helped Natalie Maines, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire sell 28 million albums before one political comment in 2003 inexplicably derailed their country music career.

"They say time heals everything," Maines sang during "Not Ready to Make Nice," but one listen to the sheer force with which the crowd sang along to "Goodbye Earl" and it was obvious these were fans who never abandon the Chicks but rallied around them. They nearly filled the Resch and skewed heavily women. The best fan sighting of the night, in a sea of high-fashion cowboy boots and ankle boots, just may have been the guy wearing the "Not Earl" T-shirt.

With only six shows left on the DCX MMXVI World Tour, it was a fierce and adrenalized Maines who led the charge all evening. Whether she was putting the appropriate snarl in a deadly "Sin Wagon" or the sweetness in Patty Griffin’s "Top of the World," wailing on the acoustic guitar for "Don’t Let Me Die in Florida," flashing a mischievous grin in bright red lips during "Not Ready to Make Nice" or pounding the hell out of a glittery golden drum, it was impossible to take your eyes off her.

Prince’s "Let’s Go Crazy" blasted from the speakers in a dark arena before the three women emerged in silhouette with their instruments on a stage bathed in black and white — the color scheme of choice for much of the night. Each woman wore black and white, their instruments were white and the sprawling backdrop behind them often dazzled with sleek black-and-white graphics. Live images of the trio showed up sans Technicolor and in towering scale for "Long Time Gone."

The tour featured some of the most gorgeous imagery to grace the Resch Center. For "Cowboy Take Me Away," the backdrop morphed from a barren tree in black and white to a field ablaze in color. "Wide Open Spaces" was accompanied by pink-drenched horses galloping through water. There were shots of devastation and pollution for "Easy Silence" and then sprawling shots of natural beauty that made you feel like you were at an IMAX theater.

The Chicks cleverly turned "Ready to Run," their 1999 hit about a bride with cold feet, into an election year song, with wild video of cartoon-like images of presidential candidates from both parties dancing across the screen in clown hair and noses. Maguire’s fiddle gave it a Celtic feel, and confetti cannons plastered the Resch in red, white and blue. Everybody from O.J. Simpson to Ohio kidnapper Ariel Castro got some face time during the bad guys montage for "Goodbye Earl."

So yes, the Dixie Chicks still have plenty to say.

During the intro for "Don’t Let Me Die in Florida," one of three Griffin songs they did, Maines talked of her reluctance to sing it in Florida, but said she was reminded of something Maguire told her when they started the band: "You can say anything as long as you say it with a smile." Ten years later, Maines said she realized that was "bull----." "Apparently you can say almost anything with a smile," she said, referencing her infamous comment about George W. Bush.

She admitted to not knowing much about football but had done enough research for the tour’s football pool to know all the experts were picking the Green Bay Packers to beat the Detroit Lions for the home opener at Lambeau Field. She introduced one of the band musicians, his name inaudible from the cheers, as being from Green Bay. "A cheesehead right here on this stage!" she said.

Those sublime Dixie Chicks harmonies that can sweep you away were never prettier than on "Travelin’ Soldier" when Maines, Maguire and Strayer parted ways with the band and pulled up stools to do it acoustic. The crowd still knows every word.

The two-hour concert ended with a giant rainbow heart for "Better Way," Maines pumping her fists and telling the crowd they can change "the energy in the universe." About 20 people from the tour showed up onstage, including several children who looked like they knew their way around a tambourine and guitar. Somebody had a Cheesehead on. Here's hoping there’s a little something extra in the check for whoever thought to put banjo player Strayer in a No. 32 Packers jersey with "Banjo" across the back — as in Packers safety Chris Banjo.

Brilliant. Just like the Chicks.

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