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Proof: Chicago's a Chicks magnet
By Jim DeRogatis, Chicago Sun-Times
Branded with a scarlet letter for daring to speak their minds -- "B" for brains instead of "A" for adultery -- the Dixie
Chicks have been shunned by many country radio stations and concert markets throughout Red State America.
During its spirited show at the United Center on Tuesday, the best-selling female group in history didn't directly address
the controversy surrounding singer Natalie Maines' now infamous 2003 comment about President Bush. But the trio didn't have
to: The music did the talking.
After cheekily taking the stage to the strains of "Hail to the Chief," the Chicks and their nine backing musicians launched
into a rollicking version of "Lubbock or Leave It," a tune that condemns Southern hypocrisy -- "Dust bowl, Bible belt
/ Got more churches than trees / Raise me, praise me, couldn't save me / Couldn't keep me on my knees," Maines sang
-- followed by the even more poignant "Truth No. 2," with a key line that has taken on new meaning since its release in 2002:
"You don't like the sound of the truth / Coming from my mouth."
Crowd in their corner
These Chicks are clearly bloodied but unbowed. And while they may have had to cancel tour stops on their "Accidents and
Accusations" jaunt because of poor sales in cities such as Houston, Memphis and Oklahoma City, they were greeted as conquering
heroines in Chicago, performing for a nearly sold-out crowd that was firmly in their corner.
It was a goose bump-inducing moment when the group delivered "Not Ready to Make Nice," their most forthright comment about
recent events, midway through a 22-song set. Already on its feet, the Chicago audience cheered, clapped wildly and sang along
at full volume. Maines, guitar and banjo player Emily Robison and violin and fiddle player Martie Maguire seemed surprised
at the intensity of the enthusiasm, and they stood for a moment basking in the sort of response they haven't witnessed very
often of late.
The audience that turned on the Chicks did so at its own loss, because there isn't a better arena act in pop, rock or country
today (and the group is all of the above). What's more, even if you disagree with their politics -- which, again, were never
directly addressed onstage -- there was no denying that these three mothers of seven children were ultimately as American
as apple pie, singing heartfelt songs about the joys of family ("Lullaby"), the romance of the American West ("Cowboy Take
Me Away") and the cathartic power of music itself ("Some Days You Gotta Dance").
Maines is the powerhouse vocalist and obvious star, but the contributions of her partners can't be underestimated, with
their soaring harmonies and impressive but rarely indulgent solos taking the material to new levels. Onstage, the Chicks inject
a passion and immediacy that, if not punk-rock raw and ragged, is certainly more fiery than on album, where the overly glossy
Nashville sheen can mask the underlying passion. (This is true even on their most recent, Rick Rubin-produced disc, "Taking
the Long Way.")
They ain't rock 'n' roll
No, the Chicks haven't gone 100 percent rock 'n' roll, as some country critics have charged: Their bluegrass roots were
still in evidence on "White Trash Wedding" (lovingly dedicated to Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock), the instrumental "Lil' Jack
Slade" and a ferocious "Long Time Gone." There will never be any mistaking them for Satan-hailing, Rubin-produced death-metal
mavens Slayer. But in the end, that just makes their vilification in certain quarters all the more ironic -- and distressing.
Joining the Dixie Chicks to perform "I Like It," a new tune that he co-wrote with them while on tour, was fellow Texan
Bob Schneider, whose opening set was an eclectic but entertaining mix of hoedown ("Tarantula"), hokum ("You Can Call Me Bob,"
which finds Batman hitting on women at the disco) and loving homage to the headliners, via a surreal cover of the Aretha Franklin
hit "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman." Way to go, Bob: It's good to know that at least some Southern men aren't threatened
by women who dare to express themselves.
Dixie Chicks take the long way through Chicago
By Brianne Sanchez, Daily Herald
The Dixie Chicks’ “Sin Wagon” might look more like
a Porsche than a pickup for their Accidents & Accusations tour, but Chicago fans were riding shotgun at Tuesday night’s
concert
Although lead singer Natalie Maines’ controversial comments about President Bush at a London concert
in 2003 meant losses in their Southern fan base and a slightly re-routed tour, the United Center was packed - and there were
even some cowboy hats in the mostly female audience.
After taking the stage to the tune of “Hail to the Chief” the band ripped into their 19-song
set, hardly pausing for a breath. That didn’t stop them from delivering a strong political undercurrent through some
subtle and other, more overt, innuendo.
The video backdrop for “Not Ready to Make Nice,” the single off their recently released album,
“Taking the Long Way,” incorporated stylized smoke and explosions, and Maines wore a camouflage guitar strap for
several of the songs.
Maines’ referenced her “wonderful career choices” with tongue in cheek, but “the
incident” of 2003 heavily influenced the lyrics and look of this tour, their first in two years.
The Chicago audience was responsive to their citified look and politics; the Chicks’
outfits were more Oak Street than Ole Opry and video traffic montages melded with blossoming trees.
Country fans did get some use out of their boots during several rollicking numbers, like “White
Trash Wedding,” which was dedicated to the love of Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson.
Overall, the Dixie Chicks’ polished style left the impression that the band wasn’t just a
rebellious country girl group. There are few things more empowering than a woman wailing on a fiddle, and the Dixie Chicks
have nailed it. Maines will continue to speak her mind, and she has a band and an audience willing to support her vocals.
Among them, the Chicks’ have seven children, and Maines said that, after they got all of that “mad
as hell stuff out of their system,” they wrote a song that focused on the future. It’s “Lullaby,”
and there’s nothing controversial about the way a mother can love.
Their encore performance of their Vietnam inspired “Travelin’ Soldier,” a country song
that hit number one in 2003, proves that the Dixie Chicks drive to sing about love is the same that compels these Texas-bred
women to sing about war.
The Dixie Chicks opened their show with the lament “Lubbock or Leave It,” asking “How
will I ever get to heaven now.” On Tuesday night they found that the route to redemption passes through Chicago.
It's hail to the Chicks
No longer the darlings of Dixie, the trio's new direction is already paying dividends
By Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune
This time, they brought a sense of humor.
The Dixie Chicks entered the United Center on Tuesday
night to the orchestral pomp of "Hail to the Chief," a not-so-veiled shot at the president whose name was not spoken all night,
but whose presence has loomed large over the country-pop trio's career the last three years.
"The Incident," as the Chicks once described it, occurred in 2003 when Texas-born singer Natalie Maines
addressed a London concert audience in the days before America invaded Iraq: "We're ashamed that the president of the United
States is from Texas," she said. Within days, the trio saw their record sales plunge as country radio stations banned their
songs and staged CD-smashings.
During the subsequent tour, while covering Patty Griffin's "Truth No. 2," the Chicks' performance was
accompanied by video footage of civil-rights protesters and suffragettes. On this year's tour, the Chicks thankfully decided
to lighten up a little, and brought their powerhouse live show to the nearly sold-out United Center with little between-songs
editorializing. But the songs said plenty, and apparently that's too much for the Chicks' once-loyal audience—at least
in some parts of America. Once one of the biggest draws on the country tour circuit, with $63 million in 2003 revenue, and
the most popular female group ever, with 30 million albums sold, the Chicks find their audience shrinking this year.
First,
there was an unapologetic single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," from their latest album, "Taking the Long Way," and then there
was Maines firing away at her old nemesis George W. Bush again: "I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever," she told
Time magazine. Call it "The Incident, Part 2."
The result: almost nonexistent radio airplay in Bush country, the "red
states" that re-elected the president in 2004, and numerous tour cancellations. A few days ago, the Chicks dropped 14 cities
from their national tour, mostly from the South and Midwest, because of poor ticket sales, including longtime country bastions
such as St. Louis; Kansas City, Mo.; Houston; Memphis; and Knoxville, Tenn.
But this was "blue state" Illinois, and
when the Chicks played the defiant "Not Ready to Make Nice" midway through their two-hour concert, the crowd gave them a sustained
standing ovation.
There was extra bite in the opening "Lubbock or Leave It," stoked by Emily Robison's banjo and some
serious resentment for judgmental Bible Belt denizens. And "Truth No. 2," sans the civil-rights video footage, packed new
punch, with Maines lingering over the line, "You don't like the sound of truth coming from my mouth."
These moments
passed without comment from the band, perhaps because they had bigger issues to wrestle with on this night. "Taking the Long
Way" marks the trio's transition from country-pop to soft rock, a Rick Rubin-produced homage to '70s California hitmakers
such as the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, whose "Landslide" was faithfully covered.
While a certain amount of twang remains
in the Chicks' sound, with Robison's banjo and Martie Maguire's violin, it's now more just another color in a much broader
sonic palette. The nine-piece backing band delivered everything from stirring chamber-music textures on "Top of the World"
to a rollicking version of Bob Dylan's "Mississippi" that evoked the songwriter's violin-fired Rolling Thunder Revue. The
makeup of the Chicks' band, led by ace guitarist David Grissom (who has starred in bands with Texas roots rocker Joe Ely and
John Mellencamp) as well as veterans of the Wallflowers, Black Crowes and Soul Coughing, was well-suited to showcasing the
trio's recent, more adventurous material.
In contrast, some of the older, more countryish songs smacked of parody,
particularly faux-hillbilly romps such as "Goodbye Earl," "White Trash Wedding" and "Sin Wagon." Some growing pains were evident
as Maines, Maguire and Robison tried to move on. Maines never sounded particularly comfortable as she addressed the audience,
as if trying to tiptoe around yet another unwanted controversy. When tethered to her guitar, she looked dour, and the Chicks
sounded like a juggernaut on autopilot. But when Maines put down her instrument, and started punching her fist and pounding
her heels to the music, the concert gained momentum, and her feisty soprano soared.
The verdict: The Chicks may have
lost a portion of their audience, but they're clearly not crying about it. Instead, they're moving on, and to at least one
listener, they're getting more complex—and more compelling—the further they stretch.
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