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    RodeoHouston 2018

    Zac Brown Band showcases superb sing-along set list at RodeoHouston

    Chris Gray
    Mar 13, 2018 | 1:49 am
    Zac Brown Band Zac Brown mid-song singing
    Brown channeled country icons such as Alabama.
    Photo by Jacob Power

    The Zac Brown Band saves their fans the trouble of playing that old “spot the influences” parlor game — they just throw ’em into the set list. On March 12, that meant we got Van Halen, Van Morrison, Eagles, Kings of Leon, and one huge tease when the opening bars of “Homegrown” sideswiped ZZ Top’s “Got Me Under Pressure.” Missed it by that much.

    Meanwhile, the singalongs were loudest on originals like “Sweet Annie” and “Toes.” That’s how you know a band is really special.

    March 12 was ZBB’s seventh RodeoHouston appearance in eight years, skipping only 2016, and the announced attendance of 70,319 was ready for it. These guys pick the hell out of their instruments. They harmonize. Brown says things like “We love you, Texas” and sounds like he means it.

    On the first day of spring break, their opening run of “Keep Me In Mind,” “Homegrown,” and “Toes” couldn’t have sounded more appropriate if Brown and his mates had been standing on Galveston’s East Beach. This band was made for one of those plastic coolers with a built-in boombox; a good bit of their repertoire sounds like it should come served in a coconut.

    But they’re also smart enough to understand there is more than just one season. In fact, one of their most poignant songs — and probably one of the decade’s best absentee-musician ballads — is called “Colder Weather.” They may have ushered in the chills with Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody,” but they kept them going by by threading their own “Free” into Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” and Eagles’ “Take It to the Limit” around “Colder Weather.”

    Much credit is due to Brown for underplaying the James Taylor angle, but he has such a terrific tenor it’s hard to ignore the similarity. Those harmonies really clicked, too.

    It might be easy to forget when you’re grooving on the lava-lamp visuals of “Keep Me In Mind,” but this band is loaded for bear with fantastic musicians. They belong on on the same timeline as Alabama, the ’80s pop-country juggernaut disguised as suave ’70s soft-rockers; and The Band, ’60s roots-rockers with the chops of seasoned jazz players. ZBB takes all that stuff and delivers it with the genre-melting glee of your average Spotify playlist.

    That’s how you get moments like the totally badass “Panama” cover — talk about kicking off spring break in style — and songs like “Beautiful Drug,” a sort of bluegrass/EDM romp that shouldn’t work on paper but in concert comes off as a remix-friendly endorphin engine that, were this any other band, could probably close their show.

    But as it should, that honor remains with “Chicken Fried,” still pure happiness formatted into song. The climactic hoedown sounded enough like Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play In Texas” that it purged the memory of last week’s godawful “if you’re gonna run in Texas, you can’t be a liberal man” Ted Cruz ad. Handily, and not a moment too soon.

    Zac Brown Band set list

    Keep Me In Mind
    Homegrown
    Toes
    Use Somebody (Kings of Leon)
    Sweet Annie
    As She’s Walking Away
    Free
    Into the Mystic (Van Morrison)
    Colder Weather/Take It to the Limit (Eagles)
    Knee Deep
    Panama (Van Halen)
    Beautiful Drug
    Chicken Fried

    The stadium was alive with fluid harmonies.

    Zac Brown Band trio fiddler
      
    Photo by Jacob Power
    The stadium was alive with fluid harmonies.
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    Movie Review

    Heartfelt movie The Life of Chuck adapts optimistic Stephen King story

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 13, 2025 | 5:30 pm
    Tom Hiddleston in The Life of Chuck
    Photo courtesy of NEON
    Tom Hiddleston in The Life of Chuck.

    Just like actors, once a filmmaker becomes known for a certain genre, it can be difficult to escape that pigeonholing. Writer/director Mike Flanagan has worked for 20 years in both film and television, and literally every project he’s done has been related to horror. He’s finally breaking out with The Life of Chuck, which is ironically based on a short story of the same name by Stephen King.



    Told in three chapters in reverse order, the film is almost impossible to describe without giving away its magic. The first section centers on Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a teacher grappling, like everyone around him, with what seems to be the world falling apart. He’s comforted to a degree by reuniting with his ex-wife, Felicia (Karen Gillan), but is also baffled by multiple ads touting the retirement of Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) after “39 great years.”

    The second section consists of little more than a slightly younger Chuck happening upon Taylor (The Pocket Queen), a drummer busking on a street corner, giving Chuck and a younger woman, Janice (Annalise Basso), the inspiration to start dancing. The final section goes back to the childhood of Chuck (Benjamin Pajak), where he’s raised by his grandparents (Mark Hamill and Mia Sara), discovers dance as an outlet, and wonders about various small mysteries.

    Flanagan finds a way to deliver a lot of story with relatively little effort. Using a wry narrator (Nick Offerman), a limited number of locations, and a series of great small performances, he creates an intriguing premise with few straightforward answers. The structure of the film is designed to confuse the viewer until just the right moment, and the revelation forces you to reexamine everything that came before.

    The biggest accomplishment by Flanagan is making what are essentially three short films and having each of them resonate equally. The film contains elements of science fiction, although the first section may hit a bit too close to home for some of those watching. All three sections, though, have a heartwarming bent to them that sells their central idea without becoming overly saccharine.

    To do so, each of the characters have to connect in a short amount of time. The casting of the film is crucial, and not only does that department succeed with the main roles, but a series of small roles are filled expertly as well. Carl Lumbly as a funeral home owner, David Dastmalchian and Harvey Guillen as parents of students, Matthew Lillard as Marty’s neighbor, Q’orianka Kilcher as Chuck’s wife, and Jacob Tremblay as a teenage Chuck are just a few of the recognizable actors that do yeoman’s work in their brief time on screen.

    Hiddleston is only prominently featured in the second chapter, but his performance there and in small glimpses throughout makes a big impression. Ejiofor is given the star turn in the first chapter and he absolutely kills, both in moments by himself and in scenes with Gillan, with whom he has great chemistry. Hamill, making a rare non-voiceover appearance outside of the Star Wars universe, and Sara, in her first notable role in 11 years, are also very memorable in the final chapter.

    The Life of Chuck is a film that’s filled with emotion, but the full impact of the story is not felt until the final moments. It has a mysterious journey that is initially frustrating, but the performances keep the film going until it gets to its satisfying payoff.

    ---

    The Life of Chuck is now playing in theaters.

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