After boycotts of their music, attacks by conservative pundits (Pat Buchanan is shown calling them "bimbos") and the release of a new rock-oriented album, the most successful female group in country-music history is struggling to fill venues like Glendale's Jobing.com Arena. The 19,000-capacity arena will be less than half-full Sunday, according to one estimate.Shut Up & Sing shows the group's management scrambling to cancel or postpone shows as early sales numbers for the Accidents & Accusations Tour prove disappointing. The Glendale show, originally set for Sept. 3, was postponed 11 weeks, but even that extra sales time didn't provide much of a boost.
"Well, we did manage to sell another ten seats! 2 of 'em were even full price!"
Officer Mike Barnett said Glendale police will be more concerned about traffic than protests because 63,000 people are expected at nearby University of Phoenix Stadium for the Arizona Cardinals game Sunday afternoon.
Ooh, that's gotta hurt when even the Cardinals have better attendance!
Anti-Chicks events depicted in Shut Up and Sing, including one radio station hiring a steamroller in 2003 to smash listeners' CDs, have ceased. Still, the group is getting almost no airplay on country radio. Sales of its latest album, Taking the Long Way, have failed to hit 2 million, a disappointing number for a Grammy-winning group that sold 12 million copies of its 1998 debut, Wide Open Spaces.
But on the bright side, at least they don't have ten million fans holding them back musically any more....
| And Natalie can always go back to her old job at the truck stop off I-35 ... |
As the Dixie Chicks lose
Riiiight. That's about as likely as Natalie becoming the next Playboy centerfold.
"The Dixie Chicks have inadvertently backed into the legacy of country music's 'outlaws' - folks who have expanded out of country to reach mainstream audiences," Wool said, listing Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam as examples.
I don't recall any of those singers going out of their way to insult their fans like the Ditzy Chix have, however.
There's no question that the group has attracted new rock-oriented listeners with its edgier sound and participation with acts such as Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews in the anti-Bush Vote for Change Tour of 2004. But, so far, that new crop of fans hasn't replaced the alienated country crowd.
It is about ten million short of their previous fan base....