The Chicks at Benaroya Hall: what to expect

The Chicks are bringing their tour to Seattle on Monday, October 26, at Benaroya Hall, with the show set for 7:00 PM. Ticket options and a waitlist are available, so it is worth checking early if you are still on the fence. The venue itself is worth a note: Benaroya Hall, at 200 University Street, is the home of the Seattle Symphony, currently under music director Xian Zhang, which makes it an unusually polished setting for a band that has spent decades moving between country, pop and alternative country.

If you have not followed them since the early days, the name change is the first thing to catch up on. The group formed in Dallas in 1989 as the Dixie Chicks, and it was not until June 2020 that they dropped the 'Dixie' and became The Chicks. The current lineup is the one most people know: lead vocalist and frontwoman Natalie Maines, alongside founding members Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer. Maines joined in 1995, replacing founding bassist Laura Lynch, and brought the pop-rock focus that helped the band break out of the Texas troubadour scene.

That history is a big part of what you get at a show. The band's most famous records — Wide Open Spaces, Fly, Home and Taking the Long Way — are all well-represented in their setlists, and the hits that come from them are hard to miss: Wide Open Spaces, Goodbye Earl, Travelin' Soldier and Not Ready to Make Nice. The latter, in particular, carries some weight: it came off Taking the Long Way, the album that swept five Grammy categories in 2007, including Album of the Year, and it grew out of the fallout from a 2003 concert in London when Maines spoke out against the invasion of Iraq.

Musically, the show leans on the multi-instrumentalism that has always set them apart. Martie Maguire plays violin, viola, guitar, bass, mandolin and fiddle, while Emily Strayer doubles on banjo, dobro, lap steel, accordion and piano, among other things. Between the two of them, they cover a huge amount of ground, and that versatility is what lets them pivot from a stripped-back ballad to a full-band country-rock number without missing a beat. Maines, who attended the Berklee College of Music on a voice scholarship before leaving, anchors it all with one of the most recognizable voices in the genre.

For a first-time show, the appeal is pretty straightforward: a set that runs the length of their career, from the early bluegrass-inflected material to the more polished pop-country of their peak years and the sharper, more pointed songs of their recent work. The Chicks have sold over 33 million certified albums, and that history shows in a setlist that pulls from across their discography rather than leaning on one era. Whether you have been following them since the nineties or just know the radio hits, a night at Benaroya Hall is a solid way to catch them. If you are planning to go, it is worth sorting out your tickets sooner rather than later, as the waitlist fills up fast.