The thought that kept running through my head Wednesday night as I watched the superstar country trio The Chicks — formerly known as The Dixie Chicks — perform at Bend’s Hayden Homes Amphitheater was this:

"Man, this band has a lot of great songs."

I think that gets lost when people think or talk about The Chicks these days, and every day, really, since March 10, 2003, when lead singer Natalie Maines expressed her disapproval of the then-American president, and all of a sudden the band — one of country music’s biggest hitmakers at the time and a budding crossover success — was "anti-American" and "controversial" and, pretty soon, a mainstream country pariah. They’ve made great albums and had big hits since then, but their career has never felt quite the same.

Not that you could see evidence of that on Wednesday, Aug. 10, mind you. For the second night in a row, The Chicks packed the amphitheater with fans, many of whom could sing every word to every song on the setlist. And they did — loudly. Sometimes, that can be annoying at concerts. But when it’s women of all ages singing songs that speak so relatably and so resonantly to their own experiences — leaving home, making mistakes, learning, growing up, getting old and dealing with flawed men along the way — it’s really quite sweet and endearing.

This is the strength of The Chicks: The songs. There are so many good ones, they couldn’t play them all, notably leaving out popular tunes like "There’s Your Trouble" and "Truth #2" and "Ready to Run." But they did spend two solid hours bouncing all around their catalog, showcasing their stylistic range, their skills as instrumentalists and their senses of humor. The latter happened not via jokes spoken into microphones so much, but on the massive video screen that stretched across the stage behind the band. That’s where, for example, a cartoonish image of Vladimir Putin got taken down by a cartoon sea creature, and a cartoonish image of the conservative wing of the U.S. Supreme Court met an untimely end at the hands of a cartoon woman with a cat’s head and a witch’s hat riding a lipstick rocket — to a rousing round of cheers, it should be noted.

As for the music, The Chicks played fast and twangy songs ("Sin Wagon," "White Trash Wedding") and punchy arena-pop anthems ("Gaslighter," "Taking the Long Way").

They played "Long Time Gone," inserting a detour through a cover of Beyoncé‘s "Daddy Lessons," which samples … you guessed it, "Long Time Gone."

They played soulful and solemn protest songs ("Army of One," "For Her") and zydeco-flavored blues jams ("Lubbock or Leave It") and one of my favorite songs ever, "Goodbye Earl," to close the show. Along the way, Maines endeared herself to the audience by shouting out Central Oregon rockhounds and the big, bright moon as it rose over the Old Mill District. (After storms delayed the band’s set on Tuesday, Aug. 9, their Wednesday, Aug. 10 show was blessed with perfect weather.)

And, oh yeah, they played the songs everyone knows by heart, like "Travelin’ Soldier" and "Cowboy Take Me Away" and "Wide Open Spaces," which was not only the biggest singalong of the evening, but also a good reminder that wrapped up in all of The Chicks’ pink and glitter and video screens and political activism is a world-class string band with a whole bunch of great songs at its fingertips. And isn’t that what it’s really all about?

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