A sea of cowboy hats and boots lined the grounds of Cardiff Castle to see popular country-pop band, The Chicks, who took to the stage last night in Cardiff on a rainy Tuesday - just days after their set at Glastonbury.
It's twenty years after their fateful gig in London, when their bold decision to call out George W. Bush on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq led to the hit band facing a huge backlash and being blacklisted by the country music industry.
But now they're back, The Chicks show no signs of standing down. Joan Jett's Bad Reputation played as the show opened and three defiant-looking women- Natalie Maines, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire-stroll onto the stage looking tough and glamorous in sequined getups.
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After the band opened with Sin Wagon, they performed Gaslighter from their 2020 studio album of the same name. An angry letter to Maines' ex-husband actor Adrian Pasdar, the lead vocalist sang about lies, denial and gaslighting while images of women at war and heels marching on the ground flashed on screens behind her.
After performing the playful Texas Man and the stripped-down Juliana Calm Down, Maines addressed the crowd to tell us we were "awesome". "We've had a couple days to enjoy your city and what a party town," added Maine, "And we come from Texas so that's really saying something."
The Chicks went on to perform their well-loved earlier hits including Wide Open Spaces, Cowboy Take Me Away and Travelin' Soldier. The three women harmonised beautifully, with the ease of friends who have been playing together for decades. Martie Maguire was a vision of serenity as she played impressive fiddle solos and Emily Strayer was cool incarnate as she strummed the guitar and banjo.
Their set did not shy away from being political in true The Chicks style as an on-screen animation showed Putin and Trump drowning together on an inflatable unicorn dingy as the band sang the Tights on My Boat lyrics 'You're gonna get what you got coming to ya'. They also performed their activist anthem March March as clips from the Black Lives Matter movement played behind them as well as images of women holding signs with messages including 'Keep your laws off our bodies'.
One of the most touching moments of the evening came when Maines introduced their cover of Landslide, noting that she had just given birth to her son Slade when she recorded the song years ago. Slade is playing guitar with the band on their world tour and played the opening chords of the cover last night before his mum began to sang the Fleetwood Mac lyrics. But it was their energetic, famous cover of Beyonce's Daddy Issues that truly stole the show.
Although it was a pretty gloomy Cardiff evening, The Chicks brought high-energy performances, powerful political messages and soulful country music to the city last night at the Welsh stop of their utterly unapologetic tour.
