Tonight is a first for me, Dixie Chicks, never heard of them, with thanks to my wife I have now.
To be honest I'm not into the Country Genre whatsoever, not even in to Dolly Parton, but every time I get in my wife's car she laughs and puts Dixie Chicks on, it was a shocker to the system to be honest and a bit dosey doe'ish, I expected to get my cowboy boots out, leather chaps and my cowboy hat and do a bit of line dancing, yee-ha. But in retrospect it's not like that at all, I do actually like most of their stuff, it's definitely toe tapping and swing ya pants type music.
Tonight is the Dixie Chicks first UK tour in a long time, when the tickets went on sale my wife snapped two up at a cost of £49.50 each, I've never seen her scramble for the credit card fast enough, maybe only for Pink tickets.
With 7 studio albums to their name tonight was gonna be a feast for the ears. In all honesty I was only going to see the totty that is Natalie Maines, so it should be an interesting evening.
We got to the arena to collect our tickets, I was a bit worried as the queue at the box office was astronomical, a 15 min wait ensued and then we rushed to our seats. Fan pre-sales have let us down this year, firstly we Ellie Goulding, we ended up sitting in the gods and we bought our tickets two days before they went on general sale, and again tonight's tickets were the same, why do fan pre-sale tickets end up being in the gods where the artists are like matchsticks on stage? (Thank god for the video screens tonight!).
We sat down to be greeted by a couple who obviously were a little bit worse for wear, why on earth pay £50 quid for your ticket and be pissed at a gig, I've never understood it and never will, why ruin it for others, after putting up with their drunken behaviour we moved to other seats, thank goodness we did. Nothing like having someone sing right down your lughole all out of tune and repeat themselves time and time again after every song.
The gig tonight was mainly for my wife, she's well into the country genre, and yes I know Dixie Chicks hate being labelled as country.
Tonight was an exception for me, I knew nothing about the band and although I'd heard album after album I never paid any attention to any of the material, not even in the car! I went to a gig sort of blind, not knowing anything.
All I can say was I was totally blown away by Dixie Chicks, they have the hottest front women in Natalie Maines, they have the most astounding tone together, they are so talented and they are amazing at what they do. The harmonies were breath taking – what else can I say?
A 22 song set, a two hour extravaganza, a rollercoaster ride of the Chicks career, Maines is certainly the star, easy on the eye with her smouldering good looks, she holds the band together like superglue with her amazing vocals, the epitome of this was the Prince cover, 'Nothing Compares 2U', this was spine tinglingly good, goose pimples on every piece of skin, it was absolutely breath taking. I was left with my jaw hitting the ground, totally dumfounded. 'Long Way Round' and 'Lubbock or Leave It' kicked the set off and it didn't stop there, highlights for me were the acoustic set with the band and the girls, no gimmicks just pure music and it was absolute class, the Chicks were in their element, highlight of the set was 'White Trash Wedding', absolutely epic, how bloody fast is that song?
One lucky guy got to go on stage and have a selfie with the band, just cause he wrote a sign begging for a Selfie, I wasn't jealous or anything, NOT. I must remember that for the next Chicks tour!!??
The set was pure listening pleasure, hit after hit after hit, the fans were lapping it up, I was totally agog at how good the band were.
Apparently when they tour the UK next, they wanna do it in July or August cause I don't think they were that impressed with the ever changeable British weather, who can blame them eh.
The whole night was something I wouldn't have missed for the world, thank god my wife dragged me there.
