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These are the 7 best shows to see in Houston this week

The concert season is in full-swing with plenty of local, national and international acts swinging through town. This week, it's the line-up of ultra-talented female singers that impresses with other notable shows by the fellas that will make for tough choices for music fans in the Bayou City.

Best show for the multimedia art aficionado
Eric San, also known as Montreal’s Kid Koala, is one of the most gifted, if not artistic turntablists on the planet. Yes, he has the scratching skills to go up with the best DJs around, but what makes him brilliant is his ability to blend different forms of media — video, graphics, and sound — into an exhilarating display. The musical genius, recently featured on the Baby Driver soundtrack and a favorite of Radiohead and Arcade Fire, will bring out his full arsenal at a rare Houston show.

The Society for the Performing Arts features Kid Koala performing next to Oscar-nominated production designer K.K. Barrett at Jones Hall, with a theatrical rendition of Koala’s graphic novel, Nufonia Must Fall. This event will include a live-adaptation of the book that features puppets, the strings of Afiara Quartet, and multiple screens and stages.

Kid Koala creates his own world at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana St., Friday, February 9. Tickets start at $34 but use the promo code ROBOTS for half-price tickets. The show starts at 7:30 pm.

Best place to hear the second coming of Elliot Smith
Los Angeles-based, 23-year-old, singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers plays a headline slot Friday hot on the heels of one of the best albums of 2017, Stranger in the Alps, after opening for Noah Gunderson at the Heights Theater last November. Bridgers, who has been writing music since she was 11 years old, has gained the attention of some of the best songwriters in the country, including Ryan Adams, and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. The latter appeared on one of the most heartbreaking songs of the past year, “Would You Rather.”

If you ever wondered what Elliot Smith’s love child would sound like if she was raised in Laurel Canyon bohemia, this is the show to catch.

Phoebe Bridgers sings sparse songs of beautiful melancholy at White Oak Music Hall, 2915 N Main St., Friday, February 9. Soccer Mom opens. Tickets are $13 in advance, plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm. Bridgers will also play a free in-store set at Cactus Music at 2:30 pm Friday afternoon.

Best modern day femme fatale
What a strange trip it’s been to follow Lana Del Rey’s career. First came the transformation from mediocre singer-songwriter Lizzie Grant, into her current incarnation as the chart-topping, pouty-lipped seductress that she’s known for today. Then, there was the cringe-worthy appearance on Saturday Night Live. Not to mention, the sexually violent Marilyn Manson video. Then this past week, there was a kidnapping attempt on her by a stalker.

Throughout it all, she’s been producing high-profile exercises in well-produced, breezy pop music filtered through the lens of the Twin Peaks soundtrack, speaking to multitudes of Millennials who have aped her fashion sense and embraced her romanticism of youth culture. That she’s playing a basketball arena on the back of last year’s No. 1 Lust For Life speaks volume to her power in the American musical landscape.

Lana Del Rey holds court at the Toyota Center, 1510 Polk Street, on Saturday, February 10. Kali Uchis opens. Tickets start at $39.50 plus fees. Doors open at 8 p.m.

Best chance to see a future megastar
Say what you want about reality TV mogul Simon Cowell — he’s generally right when he gushes about a future star. Grace VanderWaal, then a spritely 12-years-old, captured the hearts of viewers by winning the massively popular competition series America’s Got Talent. Now a wise-old 14 years, she’s following Taylor Swift’s playbook of starting off with a a pleasant, acoustic-driven pop record of her own songs in 2017’s full-length, Just The Beginning.

Soon enough, she’ll have fake celebrity boyfriends and a musical empire to run. Until then, be one of those who can say you saw her at the beginning when she hits Warehouse Live.

Grace VanderWaal performs an intimate, sold-out at Warehouse Live Studio, 813 St Emanuel St, on Monday, February 12. Check out Warehouse Live’s ticket exchange for a chance at admission. Doors open at 6 pm.

Best show for busting out your flannel shirts
One of the more melodic alt-rock bands to hit the mainstream in the grunge-era, Gin Blossoms hit the big-time with 1992’s New Miserable Experience, a still pretty-great album that mixed ’80s jangle-pop with heavy guitar chords of the ’90s. That album produced hits, “Hey Jealousy,” “Allison Road,” and “Until I Fall Away.”

The following single from the Empire Records soundtrack (much better than the actual movie), “‘Til I Hear It From You,” kept them on the radio for years, but the band’s legacy is firmly tied to a time when Friends was must-see TV on Thursday nights. This show will either be a fun nostalgia trip or a reminder of how old we all are getting.

Gin Blossoms flashback to a time when guitar band topped the charts at House of Blues, 1204 Caroline St., on Tuesday, February 13. Tickets start at $30. Doors open at 7 pm.

Valentine’s Day dates for varying tastes
Are you and your bae fans of late-’90s/early-2000s, lo-fi indie-rock, and looking for something special to do this Valentine’s Day? Then check out the return of David Bazan’s cult-project Pedro The Lion at Rockefeller’s, who produced some of the most critically acclaimed albums of the aughts in the vein of Sebadoh and Pavement.

Feeling a bit friskier and looking for something more bump-‘n’-grind? Popular rapper G-Eazy has you covered at the Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land. He’ll be showcasing his huge radio hits, “Me, Myself & I” and similarly titled “Him & I” alongside a big line-up of hip-hop acts as part of the Beautiful & Damned tour.

Pedro The Lion plays Rockefeller’s, 3620 Washington Ave., on Wednesday, February 14. Marie/Lepanto opens. Tickets start at $20 plus fees. Doors at 7 pm.

G-Eazy hits the Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land, 18111 Lexington Blvd., on Wednesday, February 14. Trippie Redd, Phora and the Anthony Russo Band open. Tickets start at $29.50. Show starts at 8 pm.

Superstar rapper G-Eazy will bring the flow to Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land on Valentine's Day.

G-Eazy/Facebook

Superstar rapper G-Eazy will bring the flow to Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land on Valentine's Day.

music concerts

Movie Review

Margot Robbie ignites provocative new take on Wuthering Heights

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in Wuthering Heights.

Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights is one of those classic books assigned in high school English classes, and it has received a number of film adaptations over the years — each of which differ in numerous ways from the source material. Purists won’t receive any reprieve from Emerald Fennell’s 2026 adaptation, with a title that is stylized as "Wuthering Heights” for good reason.

Cathy (played as an adult by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) have known each other their entire lives, with Cathy’s alcoholic and inveterate gambler father (Martin Clunes) taking in Heathcliff on a whim when he was a boy. The two bond as they grow up together, although Cathy always seems to have an eye on moving up in society from their relatively impoverished lifestyle.

Cathy finally gets her wish when the rich Linton familyled by Edgar (Shazad Latif), moves in down the road, Despite discovering she has feelings for the now grown-up Heathcliff, Cathy sees Edgar as her way out and agrees to marry him. A scorned Heathcliff flees, returning years later as mysteriously wealthy. His reappearance ignites something in Cathy’s soul, and the two engage in a perhaps unwise affair.

Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) infuses the dusty material with an energy that’s not typically present in stories set in this particular time and place. Aside from the occasional Charli XCX song (the singer created a whole concept album for the film), the film looks and feels like a period piece, albeit one that doesn’t get bogged down in the drudgery that can sometimes come from films set in the distant past.

Much of that has to do with the lust the filmmaker puts into the story. Even if you’re not familiar with Brontë’s book, you can rest assured that Fennell has strayed far from the text, giving Cathy and Heathcliff thoughts and actions unthinkable in the 19th century. Fennell plays with expectations by opening the film with audio featuring creaking noises and a man grunting, conjuring up a situation far different than what is actually happening, and she also makes liberal use of rain, sweat, and tears to make the actors enticing.

What she can’t do, however, is make the two lead characters compelling. Cathy is a striver who never seems to know what she wants out of life, and Heathcliff goes from a bore to a brute over the course of the film, with no clear indication that he likes anybody, much less Cathy. Anyone expecting some kind of grand romance will be disappointed as Fennell is much more interested in making the film weird, like having the walls of Cathy’s room look like her skin, complete with freckles.

Robbie and Elordi do well enough with the material, and it’s clear that both of them are committed to bringing Fennell’s vision to life. Their styles tend to balance each other out, and if the story had been committed to their characters’ relationship, they might be lauded for their chemistry. In the end, though, the supporting actors feel more interesting, including ones played by Hong Chau, Alison Miller, and Clunes.

This version of Wuthering Heights should never be construed as an alternative to reading the book for any high schoolers out there. While Fennell makes the film interesting with her technical filmmaking choices, the story never finds its footing as it fails to sell the one thing that it seems to promise.

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Wuthering Heights opens in theaters on February 13.

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