Accidents & Accusations Tour
| Tour by Dixie Chicks | |
Promotional poster for 2006 tour
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| Associated album | Taking the Long Way |
|---|---|
| Start date | July 21, 2006 |
| End date | December 5, 2006 |
| Legs | 3 |
| No. of shows | 41 in North America 7 in Australia 48 Total |
| Dixie Chicks concert chronology | |
The Accidents & Accusations World Tour was a concert tour by the Dixie Chicks. It was their first tour where tickets were sold after the scandal which ensued in 2003 when lead singer Natalie Maines publicly criticized President George W. Bush at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London during the Top of the World Tour, leading to intense criticism of the group. Consequently, the level of commercial success for the tour attracted considerable media attention. The tour was named after the lyrics in the song "Easy Silence" from the album Taking the Long Way, released a few weeks earlier in 2006.
The North American leg of the tour was announced on May 18, 2006, for approximately 60 shows to run from late July through early November. While the Chicks' 2003 Top of the World Tour also took place after the Bush controversy, most of the tickets had already been sold beforehand, and it was the top-grossing country tour of that year. Despite good sales figures for the new Taking the Long Way album, however, initial ticket sales for the Accidents & Accusations Tour were far below expectations. Four dates in Memphis, Oklahoma City, Fresno, and Indianapolis were dropped from the tour schedule. In Houston, tickets never went on sale, with the concert promoter noting that local radio stations "wouldn't even accept our advertising money." Arenas holding 15,000 capacity were only selling 5,000–6,000 seats, sometimes less.
Industry observers thought the tour might have to be postponed or at least downsized to smaller venues, as for example Mariah Carey did on her 2003 Charmbracelet World Tour, but in the end the Chicks initially kept on schedule and stayed in arenas. Some Northeastern areas did better, and shows in Canada did best, with an Air Canada Centre show in Toronto selling out almost immediately, resulting in a second show being added and Calgary's Saddledome having two shows as well in Winnipeg at the MTS Centre. Meanwhile, the tour began. The Chicks first performed a quick mini-leg of two concerts in London as part of their promotional activities for the June 12 international release of Taking the Long Way. Indeed, their first concert performance in almost two years (since October 2004's Vote for Change shows) was on June 15 at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, the so-called "scene of the crime" of Maines' remark regarding President Bush. In a show that was broadcast live by MSN and called "Scene of the Crime", Maines said from the stage, "And all week, the only thing people keep asking is, 'What are you gonna say? Do you know what you're gonna say?' As usual I didn't plan anything, but I thought I'd say something brand new and just say, 'Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.'" This was met with thunderous applause and cheers.
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