Live Music Now

Here are the 6 best concerts in Houston this week

For those who are willing to take a break from watching musical disasters in the form of televised documentaries, there is plenty to catch in the real world in this week of live music.

Then again, it's pretty tough to look away from the train wrecks that are Surviving R. Kelly series and both Fyre Festival docs — one on Netflix and the other on Hulu.

Perhaps these shows will be a nice palate cleanser, showcasing artists performing music the way it was intended — with limited-to-no controversy and the utmost professionalism.

Here are CultureMap's biggest, best, and most notable shows of the week:

CultureMap recommends: Joan Osborne at Heights Theater
Yes, you'll probably remember her from the '90s VH1 smash hit "One of Us," but the one thing that has made Joan Osborne's career is her killer set of pipes. She's on the road, showcasing her critically acclaimed "Joan Osborne Sings the Songs of Bob Dylan" series she garnered critical acclaim for in New York City in 2016. That might seem like a weird dichotomy with Dylan known for his gravelly voice, but if anyone can shed new light on classics like "Tangled Up in Blue," or "Highway 61 Revisited," it's the Grammy Award-nominated, multi-platinum selling artist.

Joan Osborne sings the best songs of Bob Dylan at Heights Theater, located at 339 W 19th St., on Friday, February 1. Sherita Perez opens. Tickets start at $24 plus a $6 service charge. Doors open at 7 pm.

Eric Johnson Electric Band
Fans of guitar riffage will be drawn to the Eric Johnson Electric Band at House of Blues on Friday. Widely considered one of the best guitarists on the planet, Johnson spent his early years as a session musician for songwriters such as Cat Stevens and Carole King before striking a chord with audiences for his intricate fretwork in the early '90s, especially on the 1990 platinum album, Via Musicom, which earned him a Grammy award. Anyone who is a devotee to the six-string or just admires those with technical fortitude on the axe, this is a must-see show.

Eric Johnson Electric Band delivers the riffs to House of Blues, located at 1204 Caroline St., on Friday, February 1. Filmore opens. Tickets start at $25 plus fees. Doors open at 7:00 pm.

Rachael Yamagata
Alternative pop chanteuse Rachael Yamagata make songs perfect for late nights after the chaos of the nightclub or for lazy Sunday afternoons. Her ethereal hushed voice has won her fans, including Ryan Adams, Conor Oberst, and Rhett Miller of the Old '97s. Based on that list alone, it's no wonder her work is critically acclaimed, including her new EP, Porch Songs. Fans of quieter, soul-bearing pop music will find something to love here.

Rachel Yamagata is at White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 North Main St., on Friday, February 1. Radnor and Lee opens. Tickets start at $25 plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm.

CultureMap show of the week: Peter Murphy and David J of Bauhaus
It's hard to overstate the importance of Bauhaus in the annals of music history. Named after the German art school, Bauhaus formed in the fertile post-punk years of the late-'70s in Northampton, UK. The original line-up only lasted five years, but their impact was huge, influencing countless goth, new wave, and industrial acts through their most well known songs, "Bela Legosi's Dead" and "The Passion of Lovers." Inter-band discord ultimately led to their demise, but they've lived on with lead singer Peter Murphy and bassist David J touring their songs. Without them, there would be no Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Smashing Pumpkins, and countless other beloved rock acts. Consider this show a musical history lesson of the highest order.

Peter Murphy and David J of Bauhaus are at White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 North Main St., on Saturday, February 2. Tickets start at $35 plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm.

Rebelution at Revention
For those who still bust out those Sublime albums on the regular, Rebelution is here to fill in the hole in your Bradley Nowell missing heart. The California band has recently built an audience looking for easy-going roots rock that goes well with herbal refreshment, topping the Billboard Top 200 with their Live at Red Rocks album in 2016. They followed up that hit with their latest, Free Rein.

Rebelution play Revention Music Center, located at 520 Texas Ave., on Saturday, February 2. Tickets start at $29.50 plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm.

CultureMap free show of the week: '90s Night at The Rustic
Check out one of the city's best new venues — The Rustic — when it hosts '90s Night with DJ Gracie Chavez on Saturday night, playing your fave hits from the decade of plaid flannel, wallet-chains, and baggy jeans. The best part? It's free.

‘90s Night featuring DJ Gracie Chavez goes down at The Rustic, located at 1836 Polk St., on Saturday, February 2. Admission is free. Show starts at 9:30 pm.

Peter Murphy (pictured) and David J of Bauhaus will play all their gloomy hits at White Oak on Saturday, Feburary 2.

Peter Murphy/Facebook

Peter Murphy (pictured) and David J of Bauhaus will play all their gloomy hits at White Oak on Saturday, Feburary 2.

column music concerts nightlife

Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 doesn't match the first movie's enthusiasm

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films like M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

---

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

movies film