Live Music Now

These are the top 6 must-see concerts in Houston this week

This is easily one of the best weeks in music in Houston — in terms of sheer selection and star wattage; music fans will be busy. Here are this week's best shows.

Best dance party in the Bayou City
Los Angeles via Brooklyn indie-dance duo Matt and Kim built a positive reputation and a successful career off their high energy shows, consisting of only a keyboard and drums and two very enthusiastic performers. While seemingly underwhelming on paper, the charisma of Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino make it work, drawing audiences worldwide into their very own private dance party. Expect to hear new tracks from their upcoming sixth album, Almost Everyday, and songs that you assuredly heard via car commercials or at their last Houston appearance at Free Press Summer Fest in 2016. For more, read our CultureMap interview with Matt here.

Matt and Kim will have the audience pogoing at White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 N. Main St., on Friday, April 13. CRUISR and TWINKIDS open. Tickets are $30 in advance plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm.

Best nostalgia trip of the week
Fans of '90s rock, rejoice! Sponge, underrated alt-rock band of yesteryear returns to Houston to perform the sweet, sweet platinum-selling album Rotten Pinata in it's entirety at the Scout Bar this Saturday. While some of it has definitely aged as much as the band has, the hits still hold up, including the riff-tastic "Plowed" and acoustic-driven ballad "Molly (Sixteen Candles)." The Detroit act may be well past their heyday, but for those who made modern rock radio a must-listen nearly 25 years ago, this will be a fun trip down nostalgia lane.

Sponge relives the '90s at Scout Bar, located at 18307 Egret Bay Blvd. on Saturday, April 14. 5 Dollar Thrill, Empty Shells, Seven to Emote, Luna Lunacy open. Tickets start at $14 in advance. Door open at 7 pm.

Old meets new, jazz meets modern pop
Bust out the fedoras, suspenders and flapper dresses and get ready to dance, old school style with a new school twist. Take the biggest and best songs from the last twenty years and filter them through the lens of swing, ragtime and New Orleans jazz and you have Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox. Whether it's a Bille Holliday-esque take on the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army," a 1920 waltz of Radiohead's "Creep," or a jazzy ragtime version of Oasis' "Don't Look Back and Anger," fans of all genres will find something to like from this performance.

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox performs at House of Blues, located at 1204 Caroline St., on Sunday, April 15. Tickets start at $35 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

The '80s meets future sexy funk sounds
The smartest duo in all of music, Chromeo brings it's '80s-indebted electro funk to Houston. Founded in 2002 by David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel, the former holds his PhD in French Literature and has lectured at Columbia University, with the former an accountant when not rocking the synths on stage. Together, they have combined the smooth A.M. radio sounds of Hall and Oates and Prince with four-to-the-floor beats and slinky basslines, with a knowing wink to the past — while embracing futuristic sounds. The world-touring act will likely be dropping new tracks from their upcoming 2018 album, Head Over Heels.

Chromeo brings the electro-funk to House of Blues, located at 1204 Caroline St., on Wednesday, April 18. Phantoms & Wrestlers open. Tickets start at $33 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

The Foos in HOU
You got to give it to the affable rocker Dave Grohl, the man's a survivor. Following the suicide of Kurt Cobain and dissolution of Nirvana, undoubtedly the most influential band of the last 25 years, Grohl picked up the pieces and formed the Foo Fighters, which has gone on to produce more hits than his former band. The Foos bring their Concrete and Gold Tour to Houston, promoting the 2017 album of the same name. If you haven't purchased tickets yet, get on it — this one has a good chance of selling out.

Foo Fighters and their catalogue of alt-rock hits come to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Thursday, April 19. The Struts open. Tickets start at $45 for the lawn, $99 for seated and pit. Doors open at 6 pm.

A big country star in an intimate venue

It's a rare occasion when country fans get to see a multi-million album selling artist perform in a venue that holds a few hundred people. Nashville roots star Lee Ann Womack makes a rare intimate stop at the Heights Theater this week as part of her All the Trouble tour. She has won Grammys, Country Music Awards, and sung for Presidents, and now touring her latest acclaimed album, The Lonely, the Lonesome, and the Gone, which she recorded in this fine city's SugarHill Recording Studios. For those who love old school country, sung in the classic Nashville style, this is a must-see show. Move quickly on tickets - standing room and VIP seats are all that's left.

Lee Ann Womack performs at the Heights Theater, located at 339 W. 19th Street, on Thursday, April 19. Vandoliers open. Standing room tickets are available at $28 in advance plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Country star Lee Ann Womack performs at The Heights Theater on Thursday, April 19.

Lee Ann Womack/Facebook

Country star Lee Ann Womack performs at The Heights Theater on Thursday, April 19.

concerts music nightlife

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.

---

Sinners opens in theaters on April 18.

movies film sinners movie