Fly Tour
| Fly Tour | ||||
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| Tour by Dixie Chicks | ||||
| Associated album | Fly | |||
| Start date | June 1, 2000 | |||
| End date | December 3, 2000 | |||
| Legs | 4 | |||
| Shows | 85 | |||
| Dixie Chicks tour chronology | ||||
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The Fly Tour was the Dixie Chicks' 2000 concert tour in over 80 cities in North America in support of their album Fly.
Contents |
History [edit]
Announced in mid-April 2000,[1] this was the Dixie Chicks' first headlining tour.[2][3] Moreover, the group was jumping directly to playing mostly in arenas.[1] Since the sudden jump in the group's success in 1998, they had played as a supporting act for Tim McGraw and as part of the George Strait Country Music Festival and Lilith Fair, seeking to expose themselves to diverse audiences in building a fan base.[2] The live reputation the group developed for their instrumental prowess and performance strengths[4] led to them embarking upon an ambitious, high-profile, large-venue tour of their own.[3]
Begun at the start of June 2000 with five dates in Canada, and with occasional two-week breaks in between legs, the tour was originally scheduled to end in September. However, after having grossed over $25 million for about 50 dates,[2] and averaging about 13,000 fans per show,[2] it was extended until early December,[2] when it concluded with four dates in the Chicks' native Texas.
In terms of commercial impact, LiveDaily termed the tour "a runaway success",[2] and it came at a time when the country music genre was in a box-office slump.[1][3] It represented an innovation in a business sense, as three different promoters were used, covering different geographical regions of the country, rather than the more typical use of a different local promoter at each stop.[3] Chicks management did this in order to get more consistent messaging in marketing and promotion, which itself was aided by an over $3 million national advertising campaign.[3] The comically themed commercials showed the Chicks as touring neophytes, learning how to smash banjos and tear up hotel rooms.[1] Tour sponsors were MusicCountry.com and CMT, while one dollar of each ticket sale was donated to the World Wildlife Fund.[1]
In the end, the Fly Tour grossed over $47 million,[5] with an average attendance of over 12,000.[6] It was the biggest country music tour in 2000 by any single act[4] (trailing only the joint Tim McGraw–Faith Hill Soul2Soul Tour)[7] and the sixth highest-grossing tour of any genre during the year.[5]
For 2000, the tour was nominated for Pollstar's most important award, that of Major Tour of the Year, but lost out to the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour.[8] It did however win Pollstar's Personal Manager of the Year award for the group's manager, Simon Renshaw,[8] who had negotiated the unusual promotion arrangements.[3]
The tour also had a cultural effect: the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains stated that the Fly Tour "gained a life of its own, making the Dixie Chicks a pop-cultural phenomenon, with young and enthusiastic audiences flocking" to see the group.[9]
The show [edit]
The shows themselves attracted both parents and their children.[4][10] In particular, young girls could be seen dressing as their favorite member of the trio.[4] Slogans such as "Chicks Rule!" and "Chicks Kick Ass!" were prevalent during the tour.[4][11]
Production values were emphasized for the show, with eight trucks required to haul it.[3] A six-man band backed the three Chicks.[11] Stage and show design involved members of the Cirque Du Soleil team,[3] including lighting designer Luc Lafortune.[1] The stage was surrounded by a curtain that resembled a pair of jeans, complete with a working zipper.[12] Various interactive pre-show activities kept the audience busy,[12] as a huge remote-controlled mechanical fly circled over the audience.[13] Then the show began, by the zipper dropping and the curtain falling away.[11]
The Dixie Chicks' generally performed for about an hour and a half.[11] The themes of the show veered between love songs and declarations of female independence, with the opener "Ready to Run" and the climactic "Goodbye Earl" both exemplifying the latter.[14] Video screens would sometimes show the music videos that went with a song, and other times would show humorous interludes, such as the trio's own fashion disasters from the past.[14] Other stage effects included a night full of stars with a setting moon for "Cowboy Take Me Away", and bubbles representing snow falling from the rafters for "Cold Day in July".[12] The main set generally finished with what would become a furious concert staple of theirs, "Sin Wagon"; for the encores, "Goodbye Earl" – the song of the moment for Chicks fans[13] – was often performed with the three Chicks spread out among the audience in different corners of the venue,[11][12] while "Wide Open Spaces" was the occasion for a mass sing-along.[11]
By the later stages of the tour, lead singer Natalie Maines was visibly pregnant with her first child,[15] and was able to rest during the middle section of the show, which featured the trio performing numbers such as Sheryl Crow's "Strong Enough" while sitting on a couch.[12][13]
Critical reaction to the Fly Tour shows was generally positive. The New York Times called it a "a slick, good-natured show that seesawed between clinging love songs and declarations of female independence."[14] Rolling Stone said that while the group "can pop and rock with conviction", at other times the show represented "stone-cold, hard-core honky tonk at its best", and that the youthful audience's roars of approval for the sisters' instrumental virtuosity – which it compared to those Eddie Van Halen got for guitar solos – was "damn near revolutionary".[11] Rolling Stone did criticize the "overly ambitious stage and lighting design" for detracting from the on-stage intimacy between the three group members and their backing band,[11] while The University News praised it, saying the show "appealed to the eyes with its unique stage and interesting special effects."[12] The Daily Universe's reviewer called the group "the most exciting country-and-western group I have ever seen,"[16] while KAOS2000 magazine said "this trio of hotties know how to put on a show and definitely had control of the big arena stage."[15] A Citysearch.com writer said that Maines' voice was not the strongest in performance, but benefited from the joint strength when combined with the sisters'.[13]
Set list [edit]
Te standard set list for the tour was:
- "Ready to Run"
- "There's Your Trouble"
- "Hello Mr. Heartache"
- "Don't Waste Your Heart"
- "Without You"
- "If I Fall You're Going Down with Me"
- "I Can Love You Better"
- "You Were Mine"
- "Give It Up or Let Me Go"
- "Let Him Fly"
- "Heartbreak Town"
- "Strong Enough"
- "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and/or "Brilliancy" and/or "Roanoke" with a snippet of "Dixie Chicken"
- "Let 'Er Rip"
- "Tonight the Heartache's on Me"
- "Cold Day in July"
- "Some Days You Gotta Dance"
- "Cowboy Take Me Away"
- "Sin Wagon"
- "Goodbye Earl"
- "Wide Open Spaces"
There were some minor changes to this order depending on the venue and the opening act. "Am I the Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way)", "Loving Arms", "Truth No.2", and "Merry Christmas From the Family" were also played during the tour.
Opening acts [edit]
Each artist accompanied the Dixie Chicks on a different leg of the tour. Chick Martie Seidel said that, "We basically picked acts we wanted to hear every night."[3] In some cases, the opener would later also perform with the Chicks,[3] such as Griffin singing on the group's rendition of her "Let Him Fly".[14]
Broadcasts and recordings [edit]
The two late-August shows at Washington's MCI Center were filmed and used as the basis for an NBC network special on the Dixie Chicks, that was shown in November.[2]
Tour dates [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ a b c d e f Evans, Rob (2000-04-13). "Dixie Chicks Step Up To Headliner Status". LiveDaily. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- ^ a b c d e f g Evans, Rob (2000-09-26). "Dixie Chicks to keep Fly tour alive into December". LiveDaily. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Waddell, Ray (2000-04-24). "Dixie Chicks 'Fly' Into Massive 70-City Tour". Billboard for Amusement Business. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Dixie Chicks on Saturday Night Country". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2000-09-26. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
- ^ a b Saraceno, Christina (2000-12-30). "Tina Turner the Top Touring Act of 2000". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2008-07-12.
- ^ a b c "Historical Dixie Chicks". dixiechicks.com. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
- ^ Dickerson, James L. (2001). Faith Hill: Piece of My Heart. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 0-312-28195-1. pp. 139–140.
- ^ a b "Pollstar Concert Industry Awards: 2000 Winners". Pollstar. Retrieved 2008-07-12.
- ^ David J. Wishart (ed.), ed. (2004). "Dixie Chicks". Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-4787-7. p. 537.
- ^ Kaufman, Leslie (2000-08-06). "Take Me Out To the Rock Fest". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Skanse, Richard (2000-07-21). "The Dixie Chicks Take Manhattan". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- ^ a b c d e f Dohrman, Rebecca (2000-11-02). "Dixie Chicks Let It Snow At Savvis". The University News. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- ^ a b c d Glasen, Holly (2000-06-19). "Review: Dixie Chicks At ARCO Arena, Sacramento, Calif.". Citysearch.com for LiveDaily. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- ^ a b c d Pareles, Jon (2000-07-24). "If Your Man Treats You Bad, It's Great to Break Loose but Even Better to Get Even". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- ^ a b Anderson, Philip (2000). "Concert Review: Dixie Chicks 11/26/00". KAOS2000. Retrieved 2006-03-25.
- ^ Merrill, Clay (2000-06-27). "The Dixie Chicks in Salt Lake City" (fee required). The Daily Universe.
External links [edit]
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