By Ed Wil, Denver Post Staff Writer

Aug. 3, 2000 - With the pent-up energy of a sprinter, singer Natalie Maines leaned forward into the mike and belted out the lyrics of "Ready to Run."

The song opened the Dixie Chicks concert Thursday night at the Pepsi Center, and the capacity crowd roared its approval as Maines sang "Ready to run, ready to have some fun."

Maines and fellow Chicks Martie Seidel and Emily Robison pulled the crowd out of its seats before they played their first note and kept it on its feet the rest of the night with a show of astounding energy.

Chick mania showed it knows no age or gender boundaries. Girls of 13 or 14 with glossy lipstick squealed with delight, while whiteheaded senior citizens sported wide smiles as they clapped in rhythm with the multi-talented trio.

Sisters Seidel and Robison's instrumental wizardry lived up to advanced notice and to the studio work they've done on the group's two multi-million selling albums. While Seidel stuck to the fiddle, her sister picked, plucked and played everything but charades.

If you have any doubts this group as become a phenomena by doing real country music, just listen to "Hello Mr. Heartache." It is a roadhouse-country, cry-in-your-beer song that the Chicks did so well it made one want to spit some chaw on a sawdust-covered floor.

Fun is what the chicks are about, as witnessed by the large remote-controlled rubber fly that buzzed the crowd before the Chicks took the stage.

And then there were the pictures, childhood pictures that usually only see the light of day when parents want to embarrass their grown-up children. But the Chicks flashed them on three huge screens that hung behind the simple but elegant stage.

They made fun of each other as the pictures appeared, to the delight of the audience that by this time felt like part of the family.

Many acts try to get their audiences to sing along. Dixie Chicks fans, however, do it without being asked. It's a tradition at Chicks concerts that started up on its own.

This night, it burst forth midway through the concert when the trio did "Tonight the Heartache's on Me," a Top 5 single off their first album. It continued the rest of the show.

Who knows why their fans so readily join the show, but the Pepsi crowd made it obvious that these three Texas women tap into something special, building a connection that transcends the music.

The Chicks made it obvious that talent, heart and entertainment know-how still count, even in the too-often packaged world of Nashville music.

They did their first encore from small platforms in the middle of the crowd, with the two sisters rocking on "Goodbye Earl" in two nose-bleed sections. They returned to the stage to end the wild night with "Wide Open Spaces."

The Chicks and their fans both did it proud.

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