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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 Shepherds 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. ==History== 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. The North American leg began as scheduled on July 21, 2006 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The tour itinerary continued to suffer cancellations in the United States, while adding shows in Canada, where the new album and its singles were getting better radio airplay. An early leg show such as the July 25 one in Philadelphia's Wachovia Center, where sales had been reported as strong, still featured ten upper level sections empty and covered with black tarps. However, a show of hands taken by Maines indicated that a third or more of the fans were attending their first Chicks concert, which boded well for the group building a new audience. Continuing the ups and downs of the tour, the August 2 show at Jones Beach Theatre in Wantagh, New York was postponed due to extreme heat and humidity from the 2006 North American heat wave. On August 4, a revised tour schedule was finally announced. From the original May schedule, 14 shows had now been cancelled due to poor sales, including dates in Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Knoxville, Des Moines, Glendale, Arizona, and Sunrise, Florida in addition to those previously mentioned. Several other late summer/early fall dates had been pushed back into later in the fall, including ones in Nashville, Los Angeles, Denver, and Phoenix. Compared to the original schedule, the total number of North American shows was still roughly the same, due to the addition of a large number of shows in Canada (where ''Taking the Long Way'' had proved extremely popular, going five-times-platinum); 15 of the 41 North American shows were now scheduled for north of the border, a strikingly high proportion for an American act. (Mariah Carey's concurrent The Adventures of Mimi Tour had also increased its Canadian dates, although not to this extent; her management said the Canadian market was hot and favorable exchange rates made playing there attractive.) Dates were also announced for Australia, where ''Taking the Long Way'' had been number one on the country albums for the three months since its release. The rescheduling also supposedly helped make room for promotion of the September 2006 documentary film ''Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing'', which, when released, contained a few behind-the-scenes and on-stage scenes from the beginning of the tour. During interviews for that film, Maines said in reference to the tour, "We’ve basically been playing to about half the audience as on the last tour, but it’s a different audience. They just look good ... In the past, I think we always thought, Oh, we have a purpose to entertain them and they were there to absorb that and soak it up and be entertaining. They bought their ticket. Now you feel like they feel they have a purpose, supporting free speech and supporting us." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Accidents & Accusations Tour」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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