If you thought the Dixie Chicks would get fricasseed here in New York for being big-mouthed traitors who bashed fellow Texan George W. Bush at a London concert – you’d have been wrong.
At Madison Square Garden last night, for the first of two shows, the Chicks got a very enthusiastic welcome that either indicated the New York audience done plumb forgot the insult – “We’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas” – or that the nearly sold-out house just didn’t care.
Sure, of the nearly 17,000 patrons who filled the Garden there were a few dissenters with a pluck-you attitude toward the Chicks.
But the yahoos drowned the boos in what turned out to be an overwhelmingly supportive house.
Maines wisely kept her chit-chat to “How Ya Doing” for most of the night at the Garden. Late in the show, as introduction to “Truth No. 2” she admitted, “I have no idea what is p.c.”
Thankfully, the pint-sized singer didn’t exercise more freedom of speech at the Garden gig. Instead she and her sister bandmates – Emily Robinson (banjo) and Martie Maguire (fiddle) made lots of fine country-fried pop that tapped tunes from all three of their albums, including “Home,” whose sales plummeted this spring after the controversy.
In the very first song, the trio allied themselves with the we-don’t-take-guff female fans who dominated the arena by laying down “Goodbye Earl.” Maines sang well especially on the ballad “Travelin’ Soldier.” She was also quite good on “White Trash Wedding” and “Long Time Gone” – both of which turned into bluegrass breakdowns.
The Dixie Chicks showed they can still cross the road, here in Skyscraper Park, even after getting walloped by an 18-wheeler of political trouble.
The Dixie Chicks continue at Madison Square Garden tonight and play Nassau Coliseum Monday. Both concerts have an 8 p.m. curtain.