The Chicks - Qudos Bank Arena

 

 

 

 

 

The Chicks 

Qudos Bank Arena

19 October 2023

 

It’s a human thing.

 

As you get older you become the sum of your experiences. Some good. Some not.

 

It’s fair to say that the Chicks have had their fair share of both. In 1998 they sold more CDs than all the other country acts combined. By July 2000 they had become the best-selling all-woman band and best-selling country group in the US. They were on top of the world. But the fall was swift and brutal. They were cancelled before being cancelled was even a thing. Bad mouthing a president seems quaint now (and it’s amazing thinking that Dubya isn’t the worst President the US has had by a long shot… imagine telling us that in 2003… but I digress). But in 2003 it was a scandal. Radio stopped playing their songs, people burned their CDs. Then came the death threats.

 

This is all documented in probably the best music film I’ve ever seen (Shut Up and Sing) and I think their response to being cancelled and their attitude afterwards makes them, in my eyes, the most hardcore punk rock band in the entire world. They don’t take shit from anyone anymore.

 

In addition to all of that, Natalie Maines went through a divorce so scarring that the details are suppressed by court. That doesn’t matter though. All is revealed in her songs.

 

A silver lining to being cancelled is that if you get through it, you don’t have to care what anyone else thinks about you.

 

It’s freeing. Liberating. 

 

The concert was filled with songs from the Chicks newest album and tell a tale of heartbreak, betrayal, revenge, rage and love. Pretty much the full range of emotions.

 

Their rage was not just limited to songs of personal heartbreak. Tackling topics that might have once been taboo, especially to their mostly conservative audience (Black Lives Matter, Gun Control, Abortion Rights), they now have no fear in bringing these topics up in songs like March March and Gaslighter. They’re on the right side of history. 

 

That sums up the band to me. They are fearless.

 

Not only are the Chicks old school entertainers – you can tell they cut their teeth getting the attention of rooms that didn’t want to know them – they give their audience exactly what they want. But they do more than that. They let you into their world.

 

They reveal themselves to you.

 

They show you their scars.

 

They haven’t come through all of this unscathed. But that’s OK. That just makes them human.