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March 29, 2024

The Judds double down on that warm, family vibe

The Judds’ ‘Girls Night Out’ at Venetian

L.E. Baskow

Wynonna Judd and Naomi Judd — The Judds — perform during opening night of “Girls Night Out,” their nine-show run, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015, at the Venetian.

The Judds’ ‘Girls Night Out’ at Venetian

Naomi Judd and Wynonna Judd — The Judds — perform during opening night of “Girls Night Out,” their nine-show run, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015, at the Venetian. Launch slideshow »

The Judds Arrive at Venetian

Naomi and Wynonna Judd — The Judds — arrive Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, at the Venetian. Reuniting for the first time in nearly five years, the mother-daughter duo will perform at the Venetian Theater from Oct. 7-24, 2015. Launch slideshow »

Ya gotta love The Judds, for whom every day is Mother’s Day and every night is a world premiere.

Naomi and Wynonna have opened their series of nine performances, a mix of music and mirth, at Venetian Theater. Following tonight’s show, the beloved mother-daughter tandem is Oct. 13-14, 16-17 and 23-24.

The Judds experience is two-fold: One is a celebration of Naomi, who is prettily appointed in frilly and formal dresses and moves with delicate grace, like a porcelain doll come to life. The other is a showcase for Wynonna’s new resonant voice and her blazing backing band, The Big Noise.

“Girls Night Out” is the title of the show and what opens the performance. What we learn immediately is the idolatry nature of the Judd Heads, with a wave of cheers greeting the duo. “This is a night of many firsts,” is how Wynonna announced their arrival. Meantime, the stage is flanked with a healthy complement of footage covering the duo’s career, videos that show them accepting their many awards over the years while sporting time-specific fashions and hairstyles that were a great idea at the time.

The beauty in The Judds’ popularity is the multigenerational appeal, with Wynonna (who turned 51 in May) commonly referring to her 69-year-old mother as “The Queen.” When Naomi’s husband, singer Larry Strickland, is brought to the stage, Wynonna talks of his tenure as a backup singer for Elvis. “He sang for The King, now he sleeps with The Queen” is one of the many effective one-liners from the stage. Turning to her ostensibly nonplussed mom, Wynonna adds, “It’s called fornication, Mother.”

As promised, the duo’s hits are plentiful and generously sampled. In the mix are such sing-alongs as “Mama He’s Crazy,” “Why Not Me,” “Turn It Loose” and “River of Time.” The latter is a moving ode to Naomi’s late brother Brian, who died in 1963 of Hodgkin’s disease, one of the many tragedies the family has weathered over the decades. The mother and daughter hold hands during the song, the audience sharing in this otherwise private experience that reminds of the many similarly poignant moments in Celine Dion’s show at the Colosseum.

Even so, Naomi’s stage time is measured, as she cedes the spotlight to Wynonna and the band so that they can rattle the former “Phantom” theater. Wynonna can really bring it; I’d heard accounts of Wynonna’s resonant voice in live performance during her appearances this spring with The Big Noise at South By Southwest, and those reports were spot on. She shimmies some, too, Elvis-style, working over her six-string acoustic and even curling her lip in a self-assured sort of way.

“I’m an interpreter,” she has said of her vocal approach. “I know how to take a lyric and make it mine.” In this stretch with her band, that characteristic is obvious.

The Big Noise is further a family experience, powered by Wynonna’s husband, drummer Cactus Moser, a whirling dervish of a showman who has soldiered forth after losing his left leg in a 2012 motorcycle accident. Wynonna and The Big Noise is releasing a new album in February, and judging from what she’s performing on the Strip, it’ll be a real thumper.

But the end of this experience, we’re left with these two, poking fun in relishing a chance to kick it up in Las Vegas. Chiding her mother for her lack of aptitude on social media, Wynonna turned to Naomi and said, “I have a Twitter account, it's @WynonnaMusic. I talk to people all over the world about you, and you have no idea."

The mother laughed, and at the moment she did have an idea. She gets it, and so does everyone else.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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