Denise Truscello for Caesars Entertainment
The Chicks perform Wednesday, May 3, 2023, during the opening of their exclusive limited engagement at Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood.
Thursday, May 11, 2023 | 2 a.m.
This is no ordinary Las Vegas residency for the Chicks.
Oh, there’s the glitz and glamour, fantastic lighting, large video screens with closeups of the performers, a confetti release at the end of the show.Those are standards for any Strip showroom show.
But for starters, the Grammy Award-winning country-pop group led by the trio of Natalie Maines, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire is performing just six shows at Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood, hence the title of their residency, “The Chicks: Six Nights in Vegas.”
Those shows, which began May 3 and end with performances Friday and Saturday, are a precursor to their 2023 world tour, which kicks off next month in Norway with additional stops in Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ireland before the Chicks return to North America with concert dates set through September in both the U.S. and Canada.
The biggest departure from they typical Las Vegas residency (if there is such a beast) is the length of their shows.
The group plays for more than 2 hours, well beyond the usual 90-minute shows Las Vegas crowds have come to expect from their headline entertainers at the Strip showrooms.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Right out of the chute at Friday’s show, the Chicks performed “Gaslighter,” the first cut off of their 2020 studio album of the same name. Both the album — the band’s first studio release since 2006 — and the song address issues dealing with lead singer Maines’ messy 2019 divorce. But “Gaslighter” is anything but a twangy, sappy woe-is-me cut. The song, up-tempo, almost raucous, does point the finger for who’s responsible for the end of the relationship: It’s the “gaslighter, denier.”
All told, the Chicks played 10 songs from “Gaslighter,” and many of the lyrics were extremely personal. “Sleep at Night” includes the lines, “My husband’s girlfriend’s husband just called me up. How messed up is that? It’s so insane that I have to laugh.” The cut “Set Me Free” includes the lyrics, “If you ever loved me, then will you do this one last thing? Oh, set me free.”
And the Chicks’ legions of fans — some who stayed with them even in the maelstrom the Chicks encountered back in 2003 after Maines told a London audience she was ashamed of then-President George W. Bush, some who started following them after they provided backup vocals on Taylor Swift’s “Soon You’ll Get Better” — gleefully sang and danced along to all of the “Gaslighter” songs.
As is their custom, the Chicks covered several songs by other artists. Their renditions of “Top of the World” and Don’t Let Me Die in Florida,” by Patty Griffin were spot-on. Never being shy about addressing issues of the day — whether in their music or their commentary — they sang Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton’s duet “Rainbowland,” a song about living in a world “where we’re free to be exactly who we are” but was banned from last month from a first-grade music show in Wisconsin because it was deemed controversial by school officials. Noting that we could all use a little more Dolly, Maines introduced the song saying, “There’s too much hate going on around here.”
The sold-out audience on this night, though, reserved some of its loudest ovations for some of the Chicks’ biggest hits, including its famous 2002 cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.”
Other of their greatest hits the Chicks performed included “Cowboy Take Me Away,” “Ready to Run,” and “Wide Open Spaces.”
Throughout the night, Maines, Strayer and Maguire, along with their backing band, showed off their talents. Maines’ voices was strong and clear, and she effortlessly displayed incredible vocal ranges. Strayer and Maguire’s harmonizing vocals are as good as ever. Strayer’s banjo picking and Maguire’s fiddling added the familiar sounds that Chicks fans expect, and they also played big roles in such foot-stomping songs as “White Trash Wedding” and “Lubbock or Leave It.”
“Goodbye Earl,” the Chicks’ wildly popular 2000 release about two best friends taking care of a physically abusive husband, was the evening’s finale. With confetti raining down on the band and audience, the Chicks took their final — and well deserved — bows at 10:27 p.m., 2 hours and 7 minutes after they took the stage.
— The Chicks perform at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood. For ticket availability, go online to ticketmaster.com.
