Dixie Chicks!

I finally got to see the Dixie Chicks this weekend! I’d gotten tickets back in December for my BFF’s Christmas present, and we were both excited to be there. When I took this picture, it was still early — by the time the Chicks took the stage, every inch was packed. Lots of drinking and singing along (our blanket was next to one of the beer vendors), sometimes so loud we couldn’t hear the band. But it was a good-natured crowd who was having fun. There were lots of men, but so many women! Lots of mothers and daughters, gaggles of girlfriends, and even a couple of bachelorette parties.

The band had a multimedia show behind them, and during “Goodbye Earl,” they flashed pictures of bad guys, including OJ Simpson and Donald Trump, as the entire venue sang, “‘Cause Earl had to die!”

I read that during a recent show, Natalie Maines said, “Just so you know, we’re embarrassed that Donald Trump is from our country.” This resulted in a lot of outraged commenters on country music message boards, but never made its way into the broader media — at least, not that I’ve seen. Oddly enough, the comments were exactly the same as we saw the last time. Nobody learned nothing.

Well, that’s not true. I learned that someone with arthritic knees who’s laying on a blanket outside on a chilly night won’t be able to walk the next morning, and that I never realized I was so allergic to the straw they’d strewn all over the hill until I woke up with my eyes swollen shut.

Other than than, an amazingly hassle-free night, mostly because we parked in Jersey and took light rail that left us off at the front door of the venue. Yay, public transit!