Ready to Play Nice: All The Notable Moments From The Chicks Tour Opener In Detroit

The Chicks launched their Taking The Long Way 20th Anniversary Tour in Detroit. Billboard was there to experience all the memorable moments.

Declaring themselves “nervous and excited,” the Chicks opened their Taking The Long Way 20th Anniversary Tour on Wednesday night (Sept. 30) at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, making nice as the trio commemorated a time of their lives that was anything but.

It was, Natalie Maines acknowledged to the crowd, “a very bizarre point in our career,” coming after she “had the audacity to bash the president.” That was George W.

Bush, em 10 de março de 2003, durante a preparação para a próxima Guerra do Iraque, quando Maines disse a um público de um concerto em Londres que, “Só para você saber, nós nos envergonhamos que o presidente dos Estados Unidos seja do Texas.” A observação gerou reação imediata, incluindo a lista negra da música da então Dixie Chicks na rádio e em outros meios de comunicação, protestos públicos, queima de discos, ameaças de morte e rivalidades com outros artistas — notavelmente Toby Keith.

Maines se desculpou mais tarde naquele mês, mas revogou a desculpa três anos depois.

For the 20-date tour, which runs through Nov. 3 (Detroit was also where the original tour supporting the album started just over 20 years ago), Maines and multi-instrumentalist sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer are playing Taking the Long Way in its entire 14-song sequence, aided by video footage — both unseen and from the 2006 documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing — along with another 40 minutes of greatest hits.

Sublimely played by the Chicks and their six-member band, it was a trip down a not-always-pleasant memory lane, but cathartic and ultimately triumphant, and with plenty of memorable moments.

Before the first notes sounded, the Chicks screened an assortment of footage on the front curtain, shot during the Shut Up and Sing period but much of it previously unreleased, including an extended sequence of backstage wrestling matches between the Chicks and their band members at the time.

Eles usaram filmagens adicionais ao longo do programa, com o objetivo de ajudar a apresentar músicas específicas.