Dixie Chicks Display Slick, High-Energy Showmanship

The Dixie Chicks have an abundance of spunk. Like so many of their contemporaries, this Texas-based trio places a high premium on physical exertion and polished chops on stage, the better to wow their audiences with the kind of over-the-top showmanship that is the sine qua non of virtually all of today’s country acts. And it seems to be working--their album “Wide Open Spaces,� already a certified million-seller, has moved into the Top 20 on the national sales chart.

At the Roxy on Tuesday, the Dixie Chicks were smoothly efficient. So well-timed was every note and gesture, in fact, that lead singer Natalie Maines was able to synchronize her dance moves to bandmate Martie Seidel’s fiddle solos. Save for the occasional ballad, the material was hard-charging country-pop decked out with rootsy flourishes--a choppy fiddle solo here, a wailing dobro filigree there. And the Chicks’ sweet harmonies provided the cream filling for their radio-ready confections.

But the Dixie Chicks made up in vigor what they lacked in depth. Maines was especially eager to please, doing more than her fair share of head bopping and hip shaking for the duration of the hourlong set, while her cohorts Seidel and dobro player Emily Ervin dazzled with their instrumental skills. While never offensive, it was all a bit shopworn, to be sure, and too slick by half.