Posted on 05/01/2003 9:30:44 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl
The Dixie Chicks let the music speak for themselves at least for the first 10 minutes of their first concert.
"We have a plan for this," lead singer Natalie Maines said after the band's first set Thursday night. "If you're here to boo, we welcome that. We're going to give you 15 seconds to do that."
And when Maines counted to three, the sold-out crowd erupted in cheers and the Chicks broke into "Long Time Gone."
There was never a doubt the 15,000-seat Bi-Lo Center supported the Chicks. They spent the time between acts doing the wave and urging the band to come out.
Finally they did. If there was a boo as the band rose from below the stage and a 40-foot drapery lifted, no one could hear it.
The cheers Thursday night were a lot different from what the band has been hearing.
The group's popularity has taken a beating since Maines made a negative remark about President Bush.
Tickets for the 15,000-seat arena were sold out before Maines' comments. However, a radio host has pushed for fans here to trade in their tickets for an anti-Chicks concert, and about 15 protesters milled outside the venue before the main event.
Protesters carried sings saying "The three French hens" and "Nothing Dixie about these Chicks."
The Dixie Chicks controversy began when Maines told a London audience March 10: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
The comment was made as war was looming with Iraq, and Maines later apologized.
However, sales of their album "Home" have dropped sharply and many country radio stations pulled their music from their playlists. In recent interviews, the trio has said their lives, and the lives of their families, have been threatened.
Maines "said something in another country she shouldn't have said," said Doug Gray, lead singer of the Marshall Tucker Band, which is performing at Thursday's alternative concert, to be held 30 miles away in Spartanburg.
But some people, including Bruce Springsteen, have come to the group's defense, and even in South Carolina, home of many flag-waving patriots, the group has plenty of supporters.
"Just as people are unhappy with Natalie Maines, people are unhappy with us," said nationally syndicated radio talk show host Mike Gallagher, who is promoting the anti-Dixie Chicks concert.
Gray, a former sergeant in Vietnam, said he also received threats but it's not going to stop him from taking the stage. He knows his concert probably won't affect the Dixie Chicks, which have sold out most of the 59 concerts for this tour.
"It's not going to hurt them as much as people would like it to," Gray said. But "it's really good for us."
At least 100 holders of the highest-priced Dixie Chicks tickets traded in their tickets for free VIP passes to the show, according to Gallagher. Listeners were being urged to donate money to help buy tickets for military families to attend the event. Not all of the 3,200 tickets had been sold by midday Thursday.
The family of 20-year-old Marine Pvt. Nolen Ryan Hutchings, who died in Iraq, lives in a Spartanburg suburb and said they planned to attend the Marshall Tucker show. A ceremony was planned during the concert to honor the fallen soldier.
Metal detectors will be used for the Dixie Chicks' show, and there will be a significant security presence for the Marshall Tucker Band show, organizers said.
Clearly the controversy was on everyone's mind. Opening act Joan Osborne took less than 10 minutes before she addressed the crowd, urging them to cheer for the Chicks.
"Unless you've been living under a rock, you know what these girls have been going through the last month," said Osborne, who got cheers when she asked the crowd to show her a "sample of the love that's going to come their way when they get on stage."
If God had a name, what would it be and would you call it to his face? If you were faced with him in all his Glory, what would you ask if you had just one question?
Yeah, yeah, God is great Yeah, yeah, God is good Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus Tryin to make His way home
If God had a face, what would it look like and would you wanna see If seeing meant that you would have to believe in things like Heaven and Jesus and the Saints and all the Prophets and...
Yeah, yeah, God is great Yeah, yeah, God is good Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah
ps---Joan is also an abortion activist and a director of Planned Parenthood.
I guess the Dixie Chicks' choice of opening act show how much they think of their fans.
Most people don't even think about how much money they earn over their "take home pay!" Even when they get too far in debt... they just buy tickets to some escape mechanism, like a theme park, movie or concert.
They can't even think about working with a financial professional to compose a written financial strategy for their feeble futures... they think somebody's going to help them out, like the government.
Maybe they'll git lucky and the lottery will make it all come out right. They can't imagine why anyone would care if some entertainers insulted their own nation or it's troops or especially their C in C!!!
They don't care. When you hang out a lot in places like this, among people who do care, it's easy to be lulled into a false sense of thinking things are different. When you start sampling the public at large, you find out real quickly that very few people stand on principle if it involves any sacrifice from them, even something as petty and meaningless as not listening to a few songs. That's sad, but that's reality.
MM
I thought it was just me who thought she sucked and wasn't that good because it was a live performance. It was bad.
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