A decade since their last album, the Dixie Chicks packed the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater to an overly enthusiastic crowd of die-hard fans. From the first chords of “Taking the Long Way Around,” the Texas trio of Natalie Maines, Martie Erwin Maguire, and Emily Erwin Robison pulled on the familiar heartstrings of their fans. The combination of Natalie Maines’ unique voice and the emotional impact of the lyrics blended with Martie’s fiddle and Emily’s plucking strings transcend the audience through their own emotional journey as somehow all the songs are simultaneously personal and universal.
The show was heavy with tracks from their last two albums. As a fan since their first released single, I was slightly disappointed “Wide Open Spaces” was the only track from their first album to make it into the set, but shows are always best when the artists are playing the songs they still feel. The Dixie Chicks experience has a lot to do with feeling emotionally charged music.
The Chicks record a lot of covers on their studio albums, and many were played tonight, including “Truth #2” (Patty Griffin), “Travelin’ Soldier” (Bruce Robinson), and “Landslide” (Fleetwood Mac), among several more. They also played Bob Dylan’s “Mississippi,” which they’ve been playing on tour I believe since forever. So for the sake of my love of covers, these don’t fully count as there was no surprise. What does count is their tribute to Prince with “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a song which may have fallen to them instead of Sinead O’Connor if Prince had written it 20 years later.
The production value of the lights and video were top-notch. The women first appeared on stage silhouetted against white columns of light that rose from the stage to the rafters. They had some very sharp waterfall graphic, and for “Goodbye Earl”there was vintage film footage mixed with mugshots, which was a nice touch. But the best was the all-inclusive political parody for “Ready to Run.” In short, they parodied candidates from both parties as clowns, but my favorite was the steak with “Drumpf” charred on it. The boiling red liquid that backed “Not Ready To Make Nice” was also a simple yet powerful visual cue.
This fan just hopes they’re having enough fun on tour to get to work on another album. They’ve got 9 kids between the 3 of them to put through college after all.
Set List from the Show:
- The Long Way Around
- Lubbock or Leave It
- Truth #2
- Easy Silence
- Favorite Year
- Some Days You Gotta Dance
- Long Time Gone
- Nothing Compares 2 U
- Top of the World
- Goodbye Earl
- Travelin’ Soldier
- Daddy Lessons
- White Trash Wedding
- Blue Grass Medley
- Ready to Run
- Mississippi
- Landslide
- Silent House
- Cowboy Take Me Away
- Wide Open Spaces
- Sin Wagon
Encore:
- Not Ready to Make Nice
- Better Way
All photos by Kevin Mazur
Los Angeles, US