Last month, with almost no fanfare, the US formally completed its withdrawal of troops from Iraq, after 23 years of violent quagmire. But it was the beginning of that conflict that loomed over New York’s Beacon Theatre on Monday night, where the Chicks played the second of three sold-out shows. In March 2003, eight days before the US invaded Iraq, the country supergroup’s lead singer, Natalie Maines, said on stage in London she was “ashamed” that then president George W Bush was from the trio’s home state of Texas, triggering a swift, self-righteous and scarily prescient backlash.
More than one person at the Beacon wondered aloud where fellow fans were back then, when a single comment, circulated on AM radio and cable news, led to CD-burning protests and death threats. (High school, was a common answer.) I myself was nine, with a child’s stark view of morality and consequence. Our country was at war, I knew, in an impossibly faraway place, and my favorite band bore the cost of criticizing it. One day, I could catch blue-sky hits including Travelin’ Soldier, Landslide and Cowboy Take Me Away on the radio on the way to school; the next, they were gone.
