Live Music Now

These are the 7 best shows to see in Houston this week

The first half of the next week in live music is a relatively calm one, as if the city is bracing for the storm that is the greatest show on dirt: RodeoHouston.

Three weeks of nightly concerts will feature the best that country music has to offer with the sprinkling of pop, soul and Latin acts thrown in for good measure. Add a brand new, state-of-the-art Stars Over Texas stage with double the lights and the best sound system money can buy and you get one of the most sought after events of the year in this fine city, attracting a few million attendees with an affection for tight denim jeans and leather boots.

The party kicks off with the inarguably the biggest country star ever, Garth Brooks, who will christen the star-shaped stage on Tuesday, February 27. He’ll also close out RodeoHouston on Sunday, March 18. With no new album to promote, expect Brooks to bring the hits hard and heavy. Because you haven’t lived until you've sung "Friends In Low Places" with 75,000 country fans.

Homewood, Alabama’s finest C&W band, Little Big Town, will bring their two dozen country hits to the Stars Over Texas stage on Wednesday night. Not to be outdone, The Voice judge and Gwen Stefani fiancé Blake Shelton, will trot out his collection of No. 1 hits – 17 consecutive, which is just insane – on Thursday, March 1.

Rodeo Houston starts Tuesday, February 27 and runs through March 18 at NRG Stadium, 1 NRG Parkway. Tickets are available on the RodeoHouston website and resale market. All three shows start at 6:45 pm, but get there early for some Rodeo action.

Best blues show of the week
Beth Hart made a name for herself in the late-’90s, early-2000s with a pair of excellent pop albums, 1999’s Screaming for My Supper and 2003’s Leave the Light On, even touching the cultural zeitgeist by appearing on an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, where she performed "LA Song (Out of this Town)," a piano-ballad that fit next to the Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch types of that time.

But her secret weapon last has extended her career is her powerful, smoky vocals that she paired with blues guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa (who opened for B.B. King when he was 12 years-old), scoring them both a Grammy nomination in their time together. Simply put, Hart can wail up a storm and Bonamassa’s dirty licks are some of the best you’ll hear this side of the Mississippi Delta. The two together are simply magic. Their latest, the recently released Black Coffee, may be their best album yet.

Beth Hart performs vocal acrobatics at the House of Blues, 1204 Caroline St., Saturday, February 24. Tickets start at $31 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Best example of solo, eclectic indie-folk
Fans of Pitchfork flavored folk-rock will get a thrill out of seeing two revered cult acts performing together. Vetiver lead singer Andy Cabic and Fruit Bats Eric D. Johnson will each play a solo set at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, stripped down versions of their whimsical and melodic indie-folk that brought them both notoriety in the mid-2000s. Vetiver is the stranger of the two (see 2004’s self-titled debut), while Fruit Bats make more traditional indie as on 2016’s great Absolute Loser. Both have direct influences on each other as Johnson spent some time playing in Cabic’s band. This will be a fun, unique show.

Vetiver and Fruit Bats bring the eclectic folk to McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk St., Saturday, February 24. Tickets start at $20. The show starts at 7 pm.

Best chance to hear the Sia second coming
Fans of Sia will love Ella Vos. The Los Angeles-based chanteuse creates atmospheric, intimate songs of longing and heartache that feature just enough bouncy syncopation to make it a head nodding delight. Find out why Rolling Stone named her an artist to watch as she brings songs from her worthy 2017 offering, Words I Never Said, to Warehouse Live.

The enchanting Ella Vos performs at Warehouse Live Studio, located at 813 St. Emanuel Street, Sunday, February 25. Sharaya Summers opens. Tickets are $15 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Best chance to hear that one song on the radio
Remember Stabbing Westward? The band that made a small dent in the late-’90s by aping Depeche Mode synth and Nine Inch Nails angst? AWOLNATION is sort of like that, but for today’s rock radio — interesting enough to not change the channel, but not quite great enough to download the album. But hey, if you’re into that sort of thing, the Nothing But Thieves tour could be something to see. Just don’t tell me “Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)” isn’t a total rip-off of the 1997 Savage Garden hit “I Want You.”

AWOLNATION sails into the Revention Music Center, 520 Texas St., Thursday, March 1. Nothing But Thieves opens. Tickets start at $25. Doors open at 7 pm.

Vetiver lead singer Andy Cabic (center) will play a solo set with Fruit Bats lead singer Eric D. Johnson at McGonigel's Mucky Duck this Saturday, February 22.

nightlife music rodeo concerts

Movie review

Messy Frankenstein movie The Bride! stitches camp and confusion

Photo by Niko Tavernise

Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in The Bride!.

The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster is now over 200 years old, with Mary Shelley’s book having been adapted or referenced in close to 500 films. Less common is the character of The Bride of Frankenstein, which existed in the original text but has more often than not been excised in adaptations. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal has tried to rectify that by giving the character a big showcase in her new film, The Bride!.

Gyllenhaal has reimagined the story as one in which a woman named Ida (Jessie Buckley) becomes possessed by the spirit of Shelley (also Buckley). At the same time, the already-existing Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) approaches Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), who specializes in reanimation, with the request to make him a wife. When Ida falls to her death in an “accident” involving her boyfriend (John Magaro), the ideal corpse becomes available.

After Ida’s resurrection, she and the monster become restless being studied by Dr. Euphronius and decide to break out to experience the world. The world, naturally, is not exactly welcoming to them, and soon the couple are on the run for causing mayhem, including a few murders. In hot pursuit are detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant, Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz), as well as other authorities.

It’s clear that Gyllenhaal wanted to merge the Frankenstein story with Bonnie & Clyde, especially since she sets the film in the mid-1930s. And that wouldn’t have been a bad idea if having the monster and The Bride going on a crime spree was truly the focus of the movie. But most of the time there’s less intentionality in their misdeeds and more confusion, leading to a muddled plot with no clear direction or end goal in mind.

One of the biggest problems is that Gyllenhaal starts the energy of the film at an 11, giving her and everyone else nowhere to go but down. She dabbles in multiple different tones, at times going the straight drama route and other times making what seems like full-on camp. At one point, she even has the monster and the Bride in a dance sequence set to “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” which would be hilarious as an homage to Young Frankenstein if the film weren’t so disjointed.

Most baffling of all is what Gyllenhaal wants from The Bride character. She morphs multiple times over the course of the film, from close to unintelligible at the beginning to rough-and-tumble at the end. There are hints at the lack of control she has over her autonomy, including Shelley’s possession of her and the monster lying to her about her past, but any commentary that Gyllenhaal might be trying to make gets lost amid the oddity of the film as a whole.

Both Buckley and Bale are all-in for their performances, which definitely fall in the “love it or hate it” dichotomy. Each scene is pitched so high that there’s little nuance to either of them, and neither is on par with their previous Oscar-caliber roles. The high-powered supporting cast of Bening, Sarsgaard, Cruz, and Jake Gyllenhaal is watchable based on previous roles, but none of them elevate this particular movie.

Whatever intentions Maggie Gyllenhaal had in making The Bride! are only halfway legible in a film that can never find its tonal footing. There has rarely been subtlety in movies featuring Frankenstein’s monster and related characters, but this one makes all the others seem like stuffy dramas in comparison.

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The Bride! is now playing in theaters.

movies film maggie gyllenhaal annette bening christian bale jessie buckley peter sarsgaard penélope cruz movie review