Big Rodeo Surprise

The Band Perry kicks off RodeoHouston with a big surprise, one embarrassing gaffe and lots of fireworks

Tuesday evening was The Band Perry's fifth appearance at RodeoHouston, but unless you've been following the trio as of late, this performance may have surprised you.

That is not to say that singer Kimberly Perry and her brothers Reid and Neil didn't bring the 52,050 fans at NRG Stadium what they came for at the first performance of the 2016 rodeo season.

Their set was loaded with award-winning platinum singles, Reid and Neil played to their adoring Instagram audience, and from the second she took the stage Kimberly owned those sparkling sequin pants that she was wearing. There was no lack of harmony when the group sang and the band played with a good energy that elicited many cheers from the relatively small opening night crowd.

When you consider all of the above, you would think the majority of this set was what it should have been; Rodeo veterans giving their fans a heap of familiarity with a little taste of something new. Tuesday’s show, however, was not that.

The trio could not make up its mind between playing the sincere homegrown melodies that made them a household name or a barrage of jumpy, synthesized pop. One minute, the acoustic twang of “You Lie” is filling the stadium, and another minute we’re witnessing a few verses of a Justin Bieber song and a medley of pop covers that marries The Eurythmics, Gnarls Barkley and Justin Timberlake into the pop music equivalent of a ransom note made of cut-up letters from old magazines.

These latter slew of songs made up the moments that dominated the mood throughout the show. “Live Forever” and “The Best One Yet,” both of which are new songs that the group debuted from their upcoming album Heart+Beat, sound like they were heavily influenced by the last decade of pop music without adding anything new to the canon. Producer RedOne (Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga) recently worked with the group on “Live Together.”

As if on cue, the news that the group had recently split with Big Machine Label Group, their label for most of their career, broke several hours before Tuesday’s performance. The label reportedly did not like their new sound.

Is this change of direction a good move for The Band Perry? I have no idea. That is a discussion best had on fan forums and music blogs.

Will this performance go down as one of the more memorable openers in the history of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo? Definitely not. Luckily for the Perry siblings, though, the change in direction was received warmly by the thousands of fans who came out on a Tuesday night to get this Rodeo season started, so it is pretty easy to see why this Grammy award winning group was chosen to open the annual shindig.

Kimberly even took several opportunities to acknowledge this city for supporting their first single, “Hip To My Heart.” She delivered her gratitude to Houston with such earnestness that I nearly forgave her for following it up with an unforgivable gaffe. She led into the next song by thanking...Dallas.

Perhaps the most surprising event of the night was that the show went on like that never happened.

Setlist:

Better Dig 2

Chainsaw

You Lie

Best One Yet

All Your Life/Love Yourself (Justin Bieber)

Don't Let Me Be Lonely

Sweet Dreams/Crazy/Sexy Back Medley (Eurythmics/Gnarls Barkley/Justin Timberlake)

Hip To My Heart

In It Together

If I Die Young

Live Forever

Fat Bottom Girls (Queen)

Kimberly Perry delivered her gratitude to Houston with such earnestness that I nearly forgave her for following it up with an unforgivable gaffe.

The Band Perry Houston Rodeo Kimberly Perry

Kimberly Perry delivered her gratitude to Houston with such earnestness that I nearly forgave her for following it up with an unforgivable gaffe.

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Movie Review

New horror movie Sinners sings the blues with twin turn from Michael B. Jordan

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in Sinners.

Writer/director Ryan Coogler has become so well-known for his blockbuster films — Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — that it’s easy to forget that he made his debut with the small-but-powerful 2013 film, Fruitvale Station. After more than a decade, he’s finally returning to original material with his latest film, Sinners.

Each of Coogler’s films has either starred or featured Michael B. Jordan, and this one gives moviegoers a double dose, as Jordan plays twins who go by the nicknames of Smoke and Stack. Set in 1932, the two hustlers have recently returned from mysterious (and possibly criminal) work in Chicago to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi to open a juke joint.

They call upon a number of friends and family to help them with the venture, including cousin and guitar player Sammie Moore (Miles Caton), Smoke’s old girlfriend Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), piano player Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), bouncer Cornbread (Omar Miller), and Chinese couple Bo and Grace Chow (Yao and Li Jun Li). Trouble is never far from the brothers, though, whether it’s Stack’s old girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), the Ku Klux Klan leader who sold them the property for the juke joint, or something even more sinister.

Coogler began his feature film career by confronting the issue of unjustified shootings of Black people by police. How Black people are perceived by society has been a part of everything he’s done since. By placing this film firmly in the middle of the Jim Crow era, he infuses the story with all manner of subtext, including the injustice of sharecropping and prevalent segregation in the South.

Music, specifically Blues, plays a big part in the film as well. It’s championed through the emerging talent of Sammie and the veteran presence of Delta Slim, but it’s also a driving force for other parts of the plot. Sammie is decried by his pastor father for playing “the devil’s music,” while strange newcomer Remmick (Jack O’Connell) seems to appreciate it a little too much. A fantastically surreal scene at the juke joint turns into an entertaining and educational lesson on the history of Black music.

It’s Remmick’s obsession that’s at the center of the final hour or so of the film, one in which all hell breaks loose. The manner of that hell is probably better enjoyed if it’s not spoiled here, but suffice it to say that Remmick has an evil to him that threatens to destroy Smoke and Stack’s venture before it even gets started. The horror aspect of the film is fine, but it winds up being the least interesting part of the story.

Jordan can occasionally go over-the-top with his performances, and with him playing twins the threat of doing so was doubled. But he remains relatively restrained for most of the film, giving each twin their own unique spin. Caton, a rising R&B singer, makes his acting debut in the film and winds up stealing every scene he’s in. The rest of the cast complements each other well, with Mosaku and Steinfeld being standouts.

Coogler has proven himself to be a savvy filmmaker in each of his previous four films, and with Sinners he combines the personal with crowd-pleasing elements to great effect. It features great music, an insightful story, and even some gory action for an experience you’re not likely to find anywhere else.

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Sinners opens in theaters on April 18.

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