Live Music Now

These are the top 5 must-see concerts in Houston this week

After three weeks of RodeoHouston and then a big, successful weekend with In Bloom, one would think that the music scene would take a breather before ramping up for the summer months ahead. But spring time continues its hot streak with great shows for the live music fan. Here are the Top 5 shows coming up in Houston:

Best buzz act to see in a club before they blow up
To get a sense of how big K.Flay, also known as Kristine Meredith Flaherty, is getting, just look to this past year’s Grammy Awards. The 32-year-old alt-rock singer found herself nominated for two awards, Best Rock Song for her hit “Blood in the Cut” and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for her 2017 album Every Where Is Some Where. This put her in the company of Metallica, Foo Fighters, Roger Waters, and Bruno Mars.

Even though she didn’t pick up any hardware, the future is bright for this talented singer whose exhilarating blend of beats, guitars and in-your-face lyrics a la Alanis Morissette is set to launch her to even greater heights.

K.Flay brings the fury to White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 N Main St., on Friday, March 30. Yungblud opens. Tickets are $15 in advance, plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm.

Yacht rock giants
The sweet, sweet harmonies of Chicago find their way to Sugar Land, where the classic rock group will bring their hits from across five (!) decades for fans who grew up to on them. Also known as one of the biggest dad rock bands of all time, Chicago has made a good late-career surge on the oldies circuit. The band started in the late-'60s when bands took to naming themselves after geographic locations for some reason (Boston, Kansas, America).

They started off releasing pretty good rock songs (“25 or 5 to 4”) before veering into the pure cheese of prom night ballads ("If You Leave Me Now," "Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Get Away," "You're the Inspiration") that many '80s kids probably can thank for their conception, but ultimately serve as a time capsule of an era when cars were really big, hair was shaggy, and fashion gaudy. Hey, 100 million albums sold can’t be wrong.

Chicago brings the oldies to the Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land, located at 18111 Lexington Blvd. in Sugar Land, on Saturday, March 31. JD & The Straight Shot opens. Tickets start at $79.50 plus fees. Show starts at 8 pm.

Smoothest R&B sounds of the week
Critically acclaimed R&B artist Miguel brings his smooth voice and boundary pushing catalog that combines Prince and Stevie Wonder influences with the production sounds of The Weeknd and Frank Ocean to Houston for a sold out show. Miguel has been making big waves on the charts, including three top 10 albums in 2012’s Kaleidoscope Dream, 2015’s Wildheart, and 2017’s War & Leisure, the first of which is considered a modern R&B classic.

Most urban music fans will know him from the No. 1 Wale smash, “Lotus Flower Bomb, which was all over the radio back in 2011.

Miguel performs to a full house at Warehouse Live, located at 813 Saint Emanuel St., on Tuesday, April 3. Sir and Nonchalant Savant open. Tickets are sold out but you can try your luck on the ticket exchange. Doors open at 8 pm.

A side-project with a hella great singer
Brittany Howard, the booming-voiced lead singer and guitar of the massive Alabama Shakes, is taking a break from her day job to hit the road with friends Becca Mancari and Jesse Lafser as the trio Bermuda Triangle to ply acoustic based Americana tunes. The group only has two recorded songs right now, the tropicalia-tinged “Rosey,” and rootsy “Suzanne” so expect to hear cover tunes and hopefully new renditions of songs from her other band.

Bermuda Triangle plays at the Heights Theater, located at 339 W. 9th St., on Wednesday, April 4. Liz Cooper & The Stampede, Becca Mancari open. Tickets are $20, plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Best NOLA party in HOU
By now, you’ve might have heard the story of Tank and the Bangas. The New Orleans funk-soul band, fronted by Tarriona “Tank” Ball and founded in 2011, broke it big when it won the NPR Tiny Desk Concert competition out of thousands of entries in 2017. The victory launched their career and they’ve been on the road ever since. The group quickly gained fame for putting on thrilling and infectious live shows emphasizing interaction between the band and audience. They are touring behind the release of the 2017 single, “Quick.”

Tank and the Bangas bring the NOLA party to White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 N Main St., on Thursday, April 5. Tickets are $16 in advance, plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm.

Smooth R&B artist Miguel performs to a sold-out audience at Warehouse Live on Tuesday, April 3.

Timothy Saccenti

Smooth R&B artist Miguel performs to a sold-out audience at Warehouse Live on Tuesday, April 3.

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Movie Review

New Marvel movie Thunderbolts* strikes with chaos and comedy

Photo by Chuck Zlotnick

Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, and Sebastian Stan in Thunderbolts*.

For the longest time, keeping up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe felt essential for movie lovers, even if not every movie lived up to expectations. But since the end of the MCU’s Phase 3 in 2019 and the ramping up of related TV shows on Disney+, the quality of the films and the disparate nature of the storytelling has vastly brought down how important each new movie felt.

That disposable nature is on full display in the new Thunderbolts*(the asterisk makes sense by the end), which tries to make hay with a bunch of characters who’ve only been seen briefly before. Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Ava Starr, aka Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) are each mercenaries who work for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Caught up in a scandal, de Fontaine attempts to have them eliminate each other, a scheme that results in them teaming up together.

Plans for revenge, which grow to include Yelena’s father Alexei, aka Red Guardian (David Harbour), and now-Congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), are waylaid by the presence of Bob (Lewis Pullman), who shows up mysteriously during the main trio’s escape attempt. It’s the powers that Bob displays that become the main thrust of the film, with de Fontaine trying to harness them for her own good and the others joining forces to prevent him from doing too much harm.

Directed by Jake Schreier and written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, Thunderbolts* does what most recent MCU movies have done: intrigue for a while before devolving into a confusing mess of CGI and poor storytelling. The filmmakers try for a light tone, especially through the comedic character of Alexei, but they never seem to find the right wavelength. The film takes a dark turn in its final hour, an interesting development that never reaches its full potential and comes to an abrupt end.

The collection of characters is as random as they come, with Yelena and Alexei last seen together in 2021’s Black Widow, John Walker last seen in the 2021 TV show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Ghost last seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018. Bucky, aka The Winter Soldier, is seemingly meant to be the main connective tissue that casual fans will know and enjoy, but his storyline fails to make sense, especially when he shows up out of nowhere at a crucial point in the film.

Ultimately, the film never makes a case for audiences to care about anything that happens. They throw a bone toward relating it to Captain America: Brave New World, and, of course, hint at upcoming movies, but Phase 5 of the MCU (which started with 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) has been so disjointed that it feels like the majority of it will never be spoken of again. If it doesn’t matter to those making the films, why should the audience invest in anything the characters are doing?

Despite the subpar nature of the film, it’s cast very well. Pugh is a great actor who far outshines anything she’s asked to do. Harbour hams it up amiably, and Russell finds a way to make the most of his character. John-Kamen doesn’t get as much to do as others, but she has a nice presence to her. Pullman (who, weirdly, played another funnily-named Bob in Top Gun: Maverick) has a tricky role, but he makes it work. And Louis-Dreyfus understands how to toe the line between corrupt and wholly evil.

If the next phase of the MCU (which starts with the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps) works, then the movies of the past few years will likely fade into oblivion. In the case of Thunderbolts*, it won’t be a big loss, as it showcases characters paired together for no discernible reason with forgettable results.

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Thunderbolts* opens in theaters on May 2.

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