Beats Meet Broncos

Rave on: The Chainsmokers turn RodeoHouston into world's largest nightclub with an electro beat

A middle-aged man stood outside NRG Stadium, dressed in the traditional garb worn by the majority at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Sunday evening: a patterned button down shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots.

But his hat revealed that this wasn't an ordinary night. It read, "Make America Rave Again," a cheeky allusion to the show 74,280 people had just witnessed thanks to the electronic dance music DJ duo, The Chainsmokers.

Thanks to an early start time on a Sunday, many families touting sons and daughters familiar with the Top 40 radio hits of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall stuck around to check out the first EDM act to play RodeoHouston. The hour-long set turned NRG Stadium into the world's largest nightclub with big electro beats, pyrotechnics and fireworks, fog machines, and a trippy laser and light show. It immediately followed bull riding and mutton bustin'.

At first, it didn't seem as though the combo of cowboys and dancefloor bangers would mix, as the duo came out to stage with a bare table of four CDJs and a single microphone, not a single stringed instrument in sight. Taggart did sing vocal hooks on a handful of songs, but the setlist was comprised entirely of prerecorded selections, many just snippets mixed into one another.

Taggart even alluded to his strange surroundings at one point. "I know the expression is this isn't your first rodeo, but this really is our first rodeo," he said. "I don't think I've ever seen dance music in a situation like this."

But if a DJ's job is to get people moving, then The Chainsmokers succeeded by mastering the first rule of the craft — know your audience. The setlist not only included their biggest songs (No. 1 single "Closer," top 10 singles "Paris," "Don't Let Me Down," "Something Just Like This" and "Roses"), but a mishmash of songs familiar to everyone including "Rock And Roll All Nite" by Kiss, "Gonna Fly Now" from the film Rocky and "Under The Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They were obviously playing to the youngest in attendance by including tunes from emo rock (Panic! At the Disco), punk pop (Blink 182) and hip-hop (T.I., DJ Khaled).

While it may have left a segment of country diehards scratching their heads underneath their cowboy hats, the performance that amounted to two self-admitted party bros dancing on on a table and twiddling knobs was better received than anyone anticipated. The go-for-broke, expertly-choreographed visuals helped sell the entire package.

"Make some noise if this is your first rave," Taggart directed the crowd. And make noise they did, attendees turning NRG Stadium into a dance party, with a surprising amount singing along to many of the songs in the wide-ranging set.

Once one got over how weird it was to see two guys throwing down massive beats in the middle of a dirt pile, it was a lot of fun. Taggart and Pall were well aware of the irony of it all, at one point dropping the theme of Disney's The Lion King, with the former snickering that he couldn't believe he had just played it at a rodeo.

RodeoHouston deserves credit for thinking outside the box with its programming, knowing full well that families would be out on a Sunday to take in the sights. It was an ingenious way to keep butts in seats, or in the case of Sunday's performance, wiggling in the aisles.

Electric Daisy Carnival, eat your heart out.

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Setlist Note: Artists at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo generally have a setlist made available to media. The Chainsmokers did not, so this list was compiled thanks to good old Shazam. Songs that were not found or known are marked as such.

“Paris (Remix),” The Chainsmokers
“Don’t Let Me Down (Remix),” The Chainsmokers
“Inside Out (Remix),” The Chainsmokers
Unknown track
“Feel Your Love,” Flux Pavilion & NGHTMRE feat. Jamie Lewis
“Follow (Zomboy Remix),” Bro Safari
“Until You Were Gone (Skruz & Saturn Remix),” The Chainsmokers feat. Emily Warren
“Let ‘Em Know,” Datsik feat. Armanni Reign
“Rock and Roll All Nite (Remix),” Kiss
“Weaponize,” Pegboard Nerds & MIU
“What You Know,” T.I.
“Thief,” Ookay
“All We Know,” The Chainsmokers
“Gonna Fly Now (Rocky Theme) Remix,” Bill Conti
“Pop Dat,” 4b & Aazar
“Sweet Nothing,” Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch
“Cinema,” Benny Benassi X Skrillex feat. Gary Go
“Kanye,” The Chainsmokers feat. SirenXX
“I’m God,” Clams Casino
“All I Do Is Win,” DJ Khaled
“Split (Only U),” Tiesto & The Chainsmokers
“Show Me,” Tiesto & DallasK
“Can’t Get Enough,” Lookas
“Under The Bridge,” Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Roses,” The Chainsmokers feat. ROZES
“Setting Fires,” The Chainsmokers
“Paris,” The Chainsmokers
“Paris (Pegboard Nerds Remix),” The Chainsmokers
“What’s My Age Again,” Blink 182
“Wylin, Part 2,” Cesqueaux
“Tremor (Sensation 2014 Anthem),” Dimitri Vegas & Martin Garrix & Like Mike
“Bang,” WAVEDASH
“Closer,” The Chainsmokers feat. Halsey
“Closer (Wuki Remix),” The Chainsmokers feat. Halsey
“I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” Panic! At The Disco
“Ride,” Twenty One Pilots
Unknown track
“Something Just Like This,” The Chainsmokers & Coldplay
“King of Africa (The Lion King theme),” Douser
Unknown track
“Boozy,” Stoltenhoff
“Yellow (Remix),” Coldplay
“Don’t Let Me Down,” The Chainsmokers feat. Daya

Was this the most colorful RodeoHouston show ever?

The Chainsmokers Houston Rodeo stage 2017

Photo by Michelle Watson/CatchLight Group

Was this the most colorful RodeoHouston show ever?

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Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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