Metamorphosis at Minute Maid

Houston musical acts rock out at new Minute Maid Park drive-in music festival

If necessity is the mother of invention, an ambitious plan to bring a drive-in music festival to the Minute Maid Park parking lot fits the bill.

Metamorphosis is a new multiple stage, multi-act festival set for Saturday, June 13 between 7 to 11 pm. It will draw on multi-channel headphones technology made popular by silent disco events in which the attendee can select which performance to listen to at any given time. The makeshift festival grounds will allow for 350 vehicles configured between three stages.

Houston's live music scene has been stirring over the last few weeks as Governor Greg Abbott eases COVID-19 restrictions. Axelrad Beer Garden broke ground by hosting a drive-in rooftop concert last month. Other live music venues took the plunge by opening to limited capacity. Now, a group of local acts will band together to host their own event in Lot C of the empty Astros' home field.

The festival is the brainchild of Los Skarnales sax player, Chuy Terrazas, who knows firsthand how much musicians are hurting in the wake of thousands of canceled shows. He joined with friends in local bands to build the lineup. His ska-cumbia-reggae-punk group will perform alongside funk act, Bayou City Funk, the eclectic sounds of DJ I.V., the rock 'n roll-meets-funk of Lords of Kool, rap artist Guilla, and house-influenced electronic duo, NONC3NTS.

Tickets start at $50 per vehicle or $25 a person. Check in starts at 5:30 pm.

"This is all friends and how we can help each other," Terrazas tells CultureMap. "My musician friends haven't made any money the last two months. That's the beauty of this, it's not a concert promoter saying, 'Let curate this thing' This is community helping community."

Terrazas came up with the idea for the event after seeing similar events in Europe. As the owner of performance space Preston Theater next to Lot C of Minute Maid Park, Terrazas saw an opportunity to host a similar event in the expansive space. He teamed with sound and lighting company Limitless Lights and Sound, which has a history of organizing silent disco events where concert goers can toggle between different channels of mixes from different DJs spinning on stage.

The most interesting part of Metamorphosis is it will take the silent disco concept and take it to the live music festival space, a unique concept for an event of this magnitude. Each ticket holder will receive a sanitized set of headphones as they check in, then attendants will park their vehicle between three stages that feature simultaneous performances, each on different channels of the headsets. The Metamorphosis and Chrysalis stages will feature live bands and the Butterfly stage will have DJs.

"I don't think anyone has done this at a drive-in concert, where it's usually you watch a band on one stage," says Terrazas. "You'll have three stages that you get to watch, one in the center, and two on the sides. But they'll all be in your view and you flip between the bands and performers you want to listen to."

The idea to name the festival Metamorphosis came from the butterfly, an image found as a mural on the side of his Preston Theater space.

"Butterflies are a big theme because they represent evolving and growth. People started talking about us being shut-in during COVID was like being in a cocoon. We thought we'd call it Metamorphosis because it's tied to COVID and in metamorphosis, there are three stages, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly."

Attendees are permitted to bring their own snacks and beverages but food trucks will be on site. Patrons are required to wear a face covering and practice social distancing when outside their vehicle.

Thankfully, Terrazas plans on making Metamorphosis the first in a series of drive-in concerts, much needed for both music fans and struggling artists alike.

"For me, joy is gratitude and connectedness," Terrazas says. "You have to be grateful for what you have and but then you have to be connected too. For me, music is connectedness and for us, how can we connect safely?"

Famed Houston ska-cumbia-reggae-punk act Los Skarnales will perform at the Metamorphosis drive-in festival this weekend.

Violeta Alvarez

Famed Houston ska-cumbia-reggae-punk act Los Skarnales will perform at the Metamorphosis drive-in festival this weekend.

concerts festivals downtown music nightlife

Movie Review

Dakota Fanning-led The Sun Never Sets needs more direction

Photo courtesy of Independent Film Company

Dakota Fanning in The Sun Never Sets.

The movies of writer/director Joe Swanberg have always been an acquired taste, as he prefers to give his actors a loose framework of a story and let them improvise most of their lines to give the films a more natural feel. Sometimes that approach can yield great results, and sometimes — as in The Sun Never Sets — it can result in addled and maddening storytelling.

Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is in her early 30s and at a crossroads in her life. When a friend announces she’s pregnant, she starts to re-evaluate what she wants, including her two-year relationship with the older Jack (Jake Johnson). Although they love each other, their disagreements on having more children and extracurricular activities call their long-term viability into question.

Jack, not wanting Wendy to settle, encourages her to explore her options where they live — Anchorage, Alaska — telling her he’ll be waiting should she strike out. What he doesn’t expect is that Wendy’s ex-boyfriend, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), has returned to the city, giving her an attractive alternative. The three engage in a love triangle that proves frustrating and confusing for both the participants and the viewers.

What works best about the film is its location in Alaska, which rarely gets showcased in movies, and even more rarely in the way it is here. The story takes place in warmer months, and Swanberg gives his characters multiple opportunities to be outside, showing off Anchorage’s harbor, surrounding mountains, and seemingly vibrant city life. The subtle but effective way Swanberg frames various scenes makes the landscape enormously appealing.

It’s too bad, then, that the story never measures up to its surroundings. Too often Fanning, Johnson, Smith, and others seem to be grasping for their next line, unsure of what they want their character to do or say next. That lets their scenes mimic real conversations, but you might not realize how much you want scripted dialogue until you see actors trying to come up with their own in the moment.

The larger issue is that there’s no consistency from scene to scene about where the plot is heading. The characters of Wendy, Jack, and Chuck are extremely wishy-washy about their desires, with each of them vacillating back-and-forth in just how much they want to be with each other. Depending on your experience, this may or may not be true to life, but watching it is excruciating and not enjoyable or romantic in the slightest.

As actors, Fanning, Johnson, and Smith are talented and interesting, with each capable of connecting with viewers in different ways. But working in improvisation is a different beast, and only Johnson — who has worked with Swanberg multiple times — seems truly at home. A few others, like Debby Ryan and Anna Konkle, do well in the format and maybe deserved bigger parts.

Swanberg has proven in the past that his method of filmmaking can be insightful and entertaining, but that is not the case here. In The Sun Never Sets, his hands-off approach is a detriment to the flow of the film and the story as a whole, resulting in an experience that is far from what most viewers will want to go through.

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The Sun Never Sets is now playing in select theaters.

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