Live Music Now

These are the 6 best concerts in Houston this week

Huge news from the indie music world this week as Australian psych-rock festival headliners, Tame Impala, are coming back to town on July 24, 2020.

This follows a sold-out show at White Oak Music Hall a few months ago that drew wide-praise. This time, they’ll be headlining Toyota Center with the fantastic Perfume Genius opening, a sure sign that the Kevin Parker-led group is still on an upward trajectory career-wise. The band, which recently played Saturday Night Live, will be releasing a new album, The Slow Rush, in 2020. Tickets to their Houston show go on pre-sale on December 11.

Toyota Center will host a few other major shows this week. Here, then, are CultureMap’s best shows of the week.

Rob Thomas at House of Blues
Rob Thomas continues to moonlight as a solo artist outside of his regular day job with Matchbox 20, back again to play a holiday show for a local radio station in an attempt to push his solo work, his latest being this year’s Chip Tooth Smile. But Beyoncé he is not, as a legion of Matchboxers probably wish he had brought the full group. Then again, if you like his work on Santana’s mega-selling “Smooth,” you’ll likely get a version of the song on Wednesday night.

Rob Thomas performs at the Mix 96.5 Deck the Hall Ball at House of Blues, located at 1204 Caroline St., on Wednesday, December 11. Dean Lewis opens. Tickets start at $52 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Andrea Bocelli at Toyota Center
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli might be one of the most famous singers in the world. While his blindness is a signifying trait, it’s his voice that has set him apart from other contemporaries. He’s sung with a who’s-who of music standouts, including Celine Dion (their duet “The Prayer” sold 10 million copies), Sarah Brightman, and Pavarotti. He’ll be joined by the Houston Symphony for his stop in the Bayou City.

Andrea Bocelli is at Toyota Center with the Houston Symphony, located at 1510 Polk St., on Thursday, December 12. Tickets start at $80 plus service fees. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Il Divo at Revention
Continuing the theme of good looking foreign dudes with great pipes that have sung with Celine Dion, Il Divo will bring their pop-opera act to Revention this week. Masterminded by American Idol creator Simon Cowell, this quarter of overly talented, good-looking men broke it huge with a clever operatic take on modern songs with their 2005 self-titled debut. There was little the populace could do to resist. Like every artist worth a lick looking to make some easy cash, these guys released a holiday album, so expect to hear some of those tunes as well as their hits, including songs from 2018’s Timeless.

Il Divo plays Revention Music Center, located at 520 Texas Ave., on Friday, December 13. NAV opens. Tickets start at $49.50 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

CultureMap show of the week: Cher at Toyota Center
Do you believe in life after love? How about a groundbreaking career going on 50-plus years with millions of albums sold? Cher returns to touring after five years off behind her 2018 album, Dancing Queen, an ode to the songs of Swedish pop stars ABBA.

Much like the stars of her era, Cher knows how to put on a show, complete with the costume changes, humorous banter, and huge charisma. Better yet, she’ll bring along Rock and Roll Hall of Fame act Nile Rogers and Chic to play some of the best disco hits from that bygone era. Expect to hear her biggest songs including the aforementioned “Believe,” “Turn Back Time,” “I Got You Babe,” and many more.

Cher performs at Toyota Center, located at 1510 Polk St., on Sunday, December 15. Tickets start at $57.95 plus service fees. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

The Last Bandoleros at House of Blues
The Brooklyn-via-San Antonio Tex-Mex-meets-The Beatles act the Last Bandoleros have been relatively quiet the last few years since they were heralded as one of the most exciting bands in country music. That said, they have been steadily releasing songs, including this year's "Enmorado," so hopefully they'll be releasing something more significant in the future. Regardless, the quartet is always a great live act and the reasonable price for this one makes it worth checking out.

The Last Bandoleros take the stage at the Bronze Peacock at House of Blues, located at 1204 Caroline St., on Sunday, December 15. Tickets start at $13 plus fees. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

She Wants Revenge at The Secret Group
Last year, L.A. duo She Wants Revenge played Scout Bar and somewhat shockingly, played a fun set of dark new wave-goth inspired tunes. This time around, they'll run through their second album, This Is Forever in full with their biggest hit "Tear You Apart" probably thrown in for good measure. For anyone who finds themselves at Numbers on a Friday night, this will be right up their alley. For everyone else, call this a guilty pleasure.

She Wants Revenge is at The Secret Group, located at 2101 Polk St., on Sunday, December 13. The Guidance opens. Tickets start at $25 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

CultureMap recommends: Snoop Dogg at House of Blues
Friend to Martha Stewart, multimedia star, and sometime rapper Snoop Dogg is in the middle of a 48-date tour to celebrate his 48th birthday, supporting his latest album, I Wanna Thank Me. He'll no doubt hit the stage to extol the virtues of cannabis, now the biggest spokesperson for the herbal life following the retirement of Willie Nelson from the recreational activity. While the newest album isn't anything groundbreaking, it'll be enough to bring out his fans in force, having sold over 35 million albums over the span of his varied career.

Snoop Dogg lights it up at House of Blues, located at 1204 Caroline St., on Monday, December 16. Tickets start at $59.75 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Andrea Bocelli is at Toyota Center on Thursday, December 12.

News_Houston Symphony_Andrea Bocelli_Italian tenor

Photo courtesy of Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli is at Toyota Center on Thursday, December 12.

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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.

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

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