Forgoing Fargo...

It was too good to be true.

Months ago, when the Dixie Chicks, Katie's favorite band, announced their tour, we were disappointed to see that they were playing the D.C. area after we moved away. But! Amazingly! They were actually coming to Fargo to play the Fargodome at the end of August. We bought terrific tickets online and marked the calendar.

This morning, the front page of the Forum (well, below the fold) reads, "Dixie Chicks Forgo Fargo Show." Dang.

I also received an e-mail from Ticketmaster informing me that they'd refund what we paid for the tickets, and some – but not all – of their fees. Bastards.

The Chicks are still feeling the fallout from a crack their lead singer made onstage in 2003 in London about how she wasn't real pleased with our President. They suffered a huge backlash at the time, and are still feeling it on this tour -- they've had to reschedule or cancel a lot of dates in red states. A news release attributed the Fargo cancellation to their need to promote a documentary coming out this fall (not the truth) and to attempts to "accommodate demand" (that's more like it).

I had a feeling this was coming -- were were able to score something like third-row tickets when we first ordered them, and then, when we went back to check on something a few days later, we could still reserve fifth-row tickets.

Katie is in Atlanta for almost two weeks with her grandparents, and I don't have the heart to tell her just yet. Maybe when she gets back.