From 'Wide Open Spaces' to 'Gaslighter', The Chicks shined bright in Geelong over the weekend.
Ahh Geelong, you never know what to expect when you dedicate yourself to an outdoor event in this 4 seasons-a-day town, but tell you what, she pulled right through. A windy and sporadically showery day gave way to a gorgeously sun kissed twilight afternoon down at Mt Duneed Estate, setting up the perfect mood for full sensory immersion.
Stage seats were filled, and further up on the grass mound, picnic blankets were out for friends and families. As the afternoon sun rolled in, thousands of Akubra hats and chilly weather defying duster coats began to dot the greenery. The patrons were ready for a cheeky wine and some good old fashioned boot scootin’ – the only way really, that would be fit to celebrate some of the most blinding female megastars of the country world.
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The dreamy home grown Carla Wehbe opened the evening with her honest, soulful vocal cords. It truly doesn’t matter what genre you think you’re into, when it comes to artists like Wehbe, the music will reach out to you and find you wherever you’re standing. Somewhere in time, Country and Indie made a baby, and this beautiful girl’s repertoire of catchy melodies and captivating anthems is the lovechild of that meeting. A beautiful, skilful performance and a wonderful showcase of Australian talent – expect to see a lot more of Carla over the next few years.
Credit: SHOTZ BY DAVID JACKSON
An ever fabulous Elle King was the next to hit the stage with her addictively toe tapping mix of country, pop, and country attitude. You had to have been under a rock if you didn’t hear ‘Ex’s and Oh’s’ playing on every radio a few years back. Fabulously tongue in cheek and sassy, with powerful vocal cords and a wonderful ability to connect to the crowd, Elle’s energetic, scarlet clad setlist shot fire up the behinds of anyone who thought they weren’t yet ready to party.
Her beautiful heartfelt ballad ‘Lucky’ – an emotional song dedicated to her 2 year old boy of the same name struck a chord with the audience who unreservedly sang along. We weren’t left too long in our feelings however, with poppy, toe tapping ‘Drunk’ thrusting the crowd back into seat isle dancing mode. This was such a fun performance, and it has to be said about this working mother taking her two year old on tour: what an absolute warrior, and how lucky we were to experience her incredible set this evening.
Credit: SHOTZ BY DAVID JACKSON
Kicking off the Australian leg of their 2023 tour at a Day on the Green, this was the first time The Chicks (having cut the ‘Dixie’ in 2020 to distance themselves from the Confederate south) have played in Australia since 2017. Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer were welcomed to the estate in the same warm hearted fashion you’d welcome your old high school bestie home after an extended deferral abroad…which is probably a fair reflection of how many of their fans feel about the trio.
For a massive percentage of the Millennial crowd, The Chicks were part of their High School experience; a set of old, familiar girlfriends who punctuated hours upon hours of nostalgic memories with their catchy tunes, coming-of-age ballads and news headlining political stances.
Opening with a bang, the crowd screamed their welcome back along to the chorus of ‘Gaslighter’, the trio’s headliner 2020 single release after a musical hiatus of 14 years prior. The girls ensured that the crowd were kept on their toes, a to-and-fro of both new and old music connecting the superstar hits of the past with the direction of their modern era. Accompanied by a stunning visual display, songs like ‘Texas Man’ were treated to a background of colourful pop art cowboy accompaniments, whilst more somber statement songs like ‘March March’ were treated to equally hard hitting visuals, including a history of American protests, names and numbers of people lost to gun violence and police brutality.
Credit: SHOTZ BY DAVID JACKSON
Natalie, Martie and Emily are undeniably talented musicians, producing an almost studio-recording quality sound, with vocals, banjo and fiddle played to absolute perfection, perhaps only rivalled by the crowd themselves singing happy birthday to a thriving 41 years young Natalie. Songs like ‘Wide Open Spaces’, and Bruce Robisnson’s ‘Traveling Soldier’ were crowd favourites that sounded exactly the same way we remembered them performed by the Chicks around the 00’s era.
Overall, A Day on the Green was an evening of wholesome, star dotted fun finished off perfectly with thousands of attendees howling along to The Chicks defiant ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’, and a cheeky ‘Goodbye Earl’ encore. This was one of the happiest, most involved crowds seen for quite some time, and it was a pleasure to be a part of it.
The Chicks may have caused some upset back at home back in the Bush era, but here in Australia, the love for them never, ever wavered. It was so, so good to see our old girlfriends again.
