Mission accomplished in Dixie Chicks stunner

The Dixie Chicks light up the Mission Concert to really get the show back on the road.

Three of the hottest chicks in rock music, on form and fused with a disdain of their American president, revived the Mission Concert in spectacular fashion in front of one of the Hawke's Bay vineyard show's biggest crowds on Saturday night.

Treated cautiously by some in October when confirmed as the stars for a later-than-usual or preferable April evening in the Mission Estate Vineyard on the outskirts of Taradale, after the concert lapsedafter the failure to secure a Mission-quality act for 2016, the Dixie Chicks proved to be just the lot to get it going again, leaving no questions the Mission Concert is here to stay.

Promoters reckoned they'd struck paydirt with not only the star act of Natalie Maines and Erwin sisters Emily Burns Strayer and Martie Maguire and their four-man band, including one from Napier, but also the four warm-up acts, which expanded the concert to more than eight hours from the time Badger started at 1.30pm to when the Dixie Chicks departed about 9.50pm.

The 23-song set-list diverted from that for the year-long, 82-show world tour a half-hour in to take a dig at Donald Trump with the 1969 Thunderclap Newman's social change anthem Something In The Air.

Some of the crowd would know of their feelings about "our new president", Maines would say in what seemed an understatement of the expectation in the air, given the events of last week, including the Trump-ordered rocket-strike, and given Maines' stand ahead of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq when she told a London audience: "We don't want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the president of the United States (George W Bush) is from Texas."

"So, aah, we thought we felt the need to add this one from the 60s into the set. It kinda speaks volumes where we're at right now."

It would follow soon afterwards with Travellin' Soldier, a 1990s inspiration of singer-writer Bruce Robison after a friend was activated for duty in the first Iraq war.

It tells the story of two teenagers whose budding romance is trampled under the weight of the Vietnam War.

It became a chart-topping hit in 2003 after the Dixie Chicks covered it when it again became relevant, but it also became, they may not be aware, an expression of other life tragedies in Hawke's Bay, as a favourite at some of the karaoke spots at the time.

Just over an hour later, with the Beyonce cover Daddy Lessons, the Bluegrass instrumental Ready to Run and Fleetwood Mac cover Landslide all along the way, featuring the unique array of musicianship abounded by the Dixie Chicks, they'd be extending in similar vein the Ben Harper cover Better Way, Maines inviting the 20,000-plus Missioners to help make another statement.

The Missioners had found their own better way, for after years of concern about authorities killing the party by tightening liquor controls, it became a non-issue, such was the power with which the Dixie Chicks hit the stage. Three hits actually - The Long Way Around, Lubbock or Leave It and Truth#2, before Maines would speak for the first time: "Well, hello, Napier."

Over the next few minutes, she would tell the crowd they looked "wasted", they looked "fantastic" and that "this place is horrible" , apparently a variation on "This place is mean, man", and then confirm for those who may have been wasted: "We are The Dixie Chicks, and we are going to attempt to entertain you."

That they did, the 42-year-old Maines driving the show, with to her right Robison, 44, sharing her multi-gift of banjo, guitar, mandolin, lap steel etc, in tune with Maguire, 47, across stage on violin, guitar, mandolin, etc.

The crowd had been well set up by South Island country act Kaylee Bell, and surprise package Morgan Evans, from Australia, and Kiwi Dave Baxter's Avalanche City, including his own anthem, the 2011 NZ No 1 and APRA Silver Scroll winner Love, Love, Love.
Indeed.

The crowd just love-love-loved the whole night.