Concert review: The Chicks take flight at outstanding Grandstand show

Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press
·3 min read

Three Gen X moms with nine kids between them showed a sold-out crowd of 13,589 how it’s done Friday night at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand.

For two hours, the trio — who dropped Dixie from their name prior to the release of their 2020 album “Gaslighter” — held the audience under their spell with their still-strong voices, excellent songs and an extremely talented backing band.

The last time we saw the Chicks was when they played two sold-out 2016 shows at the Grandstand. That was very much a greatest hits tour that also included some fun covers, like Beyonce’s “Daddy Lessons,” which they revisited Friday night, this time in a mash-up with their own 2002 hit “Long Time Gone.”

This time around, though, the tour was very much devoted to “Gaslighter.” Despite the title, it’s not a political album, but a divorce album, specifically about Natalie Maines messy 2019 break from actor Adrian Pasdar. And she pulls no punches in the songs. Take “Tights on My Boat,” where Maines tells him the girl who left her tights on Maines’ boat can have him. “I hope you die peacefully in your sleep,” she sings in the opening lines. “Just kidding, I hope it hurts like you hurt me. … Hey, will your dad pay your taxes now that I’m done?” Brutal.

In concert, the song cut even deeper, thanks to Maines’ powerful and direct vocals. Same thing with “My Best Friend’s Weddings,” which started as a gentle, licking-your-wounds type of song with angelic backup vocals that slowly grew into a steely anthem of survival.

The Chicks made “Gaslighter” with Jack Antonoff, the busiest producer in the business thanks to his work with Lana Del Rey, Lorde, St. Vincent and Taylor Swift. Speaking of, Swift is a longtime fan, and it’s quite clear Swift was an influence on the album, particularly when hearing Maines sing her lyrics live. (And it’s pretty clear Swift gave “Gaslighter” more than a few spins before recording her most recent album “Midnights.”)

Not all of the new songs are about a broken relationship. “Texas Man,” which they performed with many hunky Texas men on the screens behind them, is a jaunty ode to finding new love: “Been way too long since somebody’s body kept me up all night,” Maines crooned. “Julianna Calm Down,” meanwhile, serves up advice to the trio’s daughters and aims to pump up their confidence, both in budding relationships and in life in general.

The largely female crowd gave the Chicks such a strong reception it was like they had just won an election or something. They cheered at the first chords of “Wide Open Spaces,” “Cowboy Take Me Away” and “Goodbye Earl” and gleefully sang along. Maines brought shivers with the group’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and had fun with their take on the Miley Cyrus/Dolly Parton Pride anthem “Rainbowland.”

It was such a magical show, it’ll be tough for anyone to beat it during the State Fair (if we pretend Brandi Carlile isn’t headlining on Tuesday).

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