RodeoHouston 2018

Too cool for controversy: Leon Bridges and Bun B bring swagger and trill to RodeoHouston

Bridges made the most of the RodeoHouston stage.

Photo by Steven Devadanam

You have to feel for Leon Bridges. The Texan soul singer faced some long odds at his RodeoHouston debut March 2. But he did it with style, and a smile.

Following recent Black Heritage Day entertainers like Usher, Alicia Keys and Mary J. Blige would be difficult enough. The 28-year-old Bridges has plenty of talent, but only one full-length album to his credit (2015’s Coming Home) and a fraction of those superstars’ popularity.

But since this year’s lineup was announced in early January, his spot has been at the center of a controversy over whether or not his music is, in a word, black enough for Black Heritage Day. (As a white man, that’s not my call to make — obviously.)

One theory holds that while white hipsters and music critics may love Bridges’ snappy ’60s-soul sound, programmers at black-oriented radio stations and other media outlets — perhaps less enamored of nostalgia — don’t. But neither side may fully fathom the gospel roots that nourish everything he does, despite “Flowers” or “Lisa Sawyer” (about his mom) being about all the evidence they’d ever need.

Anyhow, every year the rodeo’s talent buyers fill out the lineup based on a roulette wheel of availability, affordability and luck. Who knows how many names they crossed off this year before Bridges signed on? Maybe they just like his music.

In that they would not be alone. Bridges showed enough spark to suggest he’s been holding out on the people who have written him off as a simple Sam Cooke clone. Much more likely he’s just growing as an artist; this is a man whose second album is still in the future, probably later this year.

No sense in sugar-coating it: the announced attendance of 51,870 was down sharply from the previous few Black Heritage Days. The lower bowl was mostly full, the upper levels much less so. But to put that number in perspective, it’s barely 1,000 fewer than the considerably better-known Little Big Town drew Ferbruary 28. And it’s almost certainly one of the biggest non-festival audiences Bridges has ever seen.

As if he had a choice, the Fort Worth-raised singer’s set was heavy on Coming Home standouts: “Smooth Sailin’,” “Brown Skin Girls,” “Coming Home” and “Better Man.” All were sweet and snappy, as advertised.

The songs not off the album, like “The Juice,” were jazzier and splashier. Here Bridges nodded to a wider variety of influences than on his debut — “Superstition”-era Stevie Wonder, James Brown, New Edition, maybe a little Michael circa Off the Wall.

Dude can also write a slow jam, no problem.

To the crowd’s delight, he brought out none other Bun B for the UGK classic “One Day.” Singing the mournful hook, Bridges raised more than a few goosebumps while the Trill OG, basking in that never-ending H-Town love, capably handled the verses. Shame it didn’t go on longer.

Bridges’ main problem, but also one of his strengths, is his complete lack of camp. No wonder some people don’t quite know what to make of him. His band is first-rate and their close harmonies exceptional, especially backup singer Brittni Jessi. Even the songs that go a little light on drama are well-constructed. Sadly, absent any visual effects to speak of, they tended to get swallowed by the stadium.

But there were bright spots all the same. Near the end, the stirring “River” brought up the phones, a few to record and many more to illuminate the arena with their flashlights. “Twistin’ and Groovin’” was all good, clean fun. And for the first time all night, closer “Mississippi Kisses” got a good number of folks up and dancing enthusiastically.

A few more songs like that and Bridges might fill up some of those empty seats next time.

Leon Bridges Setlist

Smooth Sailin’
Born to Lose
The Juice
Brown Skin Girls
Coming Home
Better Man
Lisa Sawyer
One Day w/Bun B (UGK cover)
Only Us
Come Over
Beyond
First Good Time
Flowers
Twistin & Groovin’
River
Mississippi Kisses

Bridges brought a vibe of old-school cool.

Photo by Jacob Power

Bridges brought a vibe of old-school cool.

music rodeo

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

movies film