Dixie Chicks: High energy, bad pacing

By Kyle Munson, The Des Moines Register

The Dixie Chicks have soared high in their country career, higher than represented by Saturday night's "Fly Tour" concert stop at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

Don't get me wrong. Fresh from dominating the Country Music Awards earlier in the week, the Texas-born trio displayed plenty of its trademark talent and whipped the sold-out arena of 13,000 into a respectable frenzy. Singer Natalie Maines (the pregnant one, due in April) was in excellent voice. Sisters Martie Seidel (fiddler) and Emily Robison (banjo and lap steel player) harmonized well with Maines and sizzled through solos that harked back to their roots as bluegrass buskers on a Dallas street corner.

It was just that the Chicks' debut headlining show took so long to take off. Previous stints with large festivals (the George Strait Fest, Lilith Fair) featured the Chicks as firebrands who tore through an irrepressibly upbeat half -hour or so of songs to brighten the day. Two full hours now let the Chicks showcase the totality of their two albums (1998's "Wide Open Spaces" and 1999 "Fly"), which have sold millions to country and pop fans alike. (Hence the music videos played for the audience as they found their seats included 'N Sync and TLC as well as Dwight Yoakam and Trisha Yearwood.)

The Chicks opened with "Ready to Run," but after that the first half of their show was burdened with too many ballads and slower songs. Perhaps their six-piece backup band kept things a little too regimented Finally, with a cover of Bonnie Raitt's "Give It Up or Let Me Go," the Chicks unleashed some much-needed energy and roamed more freely around stage.

But then they quit playing to present a slide show. Seriously. The parade of geeky childhood snapshots on the three big screens at the back of the stage did tie in with the Chicks mission to shatter any notion that they're larger-than-life stars. (In other words, girls don't need to be perfect to get on stage.)

This was followed by still more mellowness, an acoustic mini set that featured the Chicks seated on a couch at center stage and a fake cloth chandelier hanging above them. Beautifully nuanced renditions of "Let Him Fly," "Heartbreak Town" and Sheryl Crow's "Strong Enough" were played.

The Chicks packed most of their firepower into the end of the show. "Some Days You Gotta Dance," "Cowboy Take Me Away" and concert showpiece "Sin Wagon" drove home the set. The Chicks played to the cheap seats for the "Goodbye Earl" encore, with Maines at the far end of the main floor and Seidel and Robison in the upper balconies. "Wide Open Spaces" closed the concert.

The Chicks have an arena-sized presence and plenty of cool stage gimmicks (especially a giant inflatable housefly that buzzed around the arena and that Pink Floyd would be proud of). Still to be learned for the next tour: Pacing, pacing, pacing.

Opening band Vida prides itself on "taking Tex-Mex music to the next level," but the oversexed male septet's impact was minimal. Nearly every song began with synchronized jumps and hip swaying, but the lead singer's voice was shot. Credit the group's accordionist, who was able to execute runs of notes while leaping in the air or performing pelvic thrusts. Sparks flew from his accordion at the end of their set, but Vida's music produced few sparks. A "halftime show" that featured Nathan from MTV's Seattle season of "The Real World" giving away front-row tickets had fans more excited.

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