We expected The Chicks do their own thing in their debut at Planet Hollywood. They did not disappoint.
The superstar trio held the stage for 2 hours and 20 minutes. In a Strip hotel-casino. On a weeknight. Crazy! Who
do they think they are?
We joke of course. But maybe Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer are altering the trajectory with these
headlining residency shows. Take your time to make your statement, right? Over the years these have been are clipped at about
90 minutes, so hotel guests can wade back to the casino and enjoy a different form of entertainment.
Likely, The Chicks simply don’t care about such provisions. But Maines did joke that she’d hit a massive
jackpot earlier in the day. “Maybe you saw it on TMZ,” she said. Some of us searched our phones, finding no evidence
of this alleged windfall.
The extended showtime was fine with The Chicks’ devotees who ventured to Bakkt Theater, recently renamed but
still set up as a party zone. Fans in the standing GA section always create a festival atmosphere.
The Chicks were energized and engaged while knocking out such favorites as “Ready to Run,” “Cowboy
Take Me Away,” “Goodbye Earl” and 10 selections from their most recent release, “Gaslighter.”
Ever defiant, The Chicks brought their sharpened worldview to the dance. The band made it clear it is pro-choice,
pro-LGBTQ, pro-Ukraine, pro-civil rights. “March March” enforced The Chicks’ gun-control advocacy, school
safety, ending with images of women protesting and holding up such signs as, “Keep Your Laws Off Our Bodies.”
Maines’ wicked run through “Tights On My Boat” (which fans interpret as an account of the
events leading to the singer’s divorce) played with a graphic of Vladimir Putin riding the waves on a rainbow-horned
unicorn.
The acerbic articulation was widespread. The Chicks performed Patty Griffin’s “Don’t Let Me Die
in Florida,” an unambiguous take-down of the Sunshine State. A sample, from the stage, “I don’t care about
my name/If you catch me dying in Daytona/Roll my bed onto a train.”
As she finished, Maines smiled and said, “If anyone here is from Florida, we love y’all.”
The Chicks later summoned the Miley Cyrus-Dolly Parton collab “Rainbowland,” which in March was banned
by an elementary school in Wisconsin because some parents said it encourages LGBTQ acceptance, while referencing rainbows.
Cyrus and Parton’s spoken banter at the top led into the number.
Midway through the set, The Chicks’ nine-piece band, which featured Maines’ son, Slade, on guitar, broke
it down for an eight-song acoustic set. This was some confident musical craftsmanship.
Vocally, Maines was flawless. She has done her homework about how the desert air can damage a singer’s voice,
her microphone equipped with a what seems steaming device as a humidifier (Maines missed three shows two years ago for vocal
problems). The mist rising actually created its own mystic stage effect.
“Not Ready To Make Nice,” the James Taylor cover of “That Lonesome Road” and “Goodbye
Earl” sent the fans away happy. Well, most of them.
A concert-goer waiting at valet said the show was musically great but “too political.” Maybe, or maybe
it wasn’t political enough. Depends on your side of the aisle. But always, The Chicks are going to be who they are.
You can set your watch to it.
Setlist
Gaslighter
Sin Wagon
Texas Man
Julianna Calm Down
The Long Way Around
My Best Friend’s Weddings
Sleep at Night
Ready to Run
Top of the World
Wide Open Spaces
Tights on My Boat
Daddy Lessons/ Long Time Gone
Lubbock or Leave It
Cowboy Take Me Away
Rainbowland
Don't Let Me Die in Florida
Landslide
March March
For Her
White Trash Wedding
Everybody Loves You
Set Me Free
Not Ready to Make Nice
Encore:
That Lonesome Road
Goodbye Earl