Concert News

Rock band U2 highlights Joshua Tree in stadium tour with Houston stop

Rock band U2 returns to the stadium stage in 2017 with a Houston stop.

Photo by Anton Corbijn

Rock band U2 is doing a stadium tour for 2017 that will hit a limited number of cities in America, including two in Texas. Called U2: The Joshua Tree Tour 2017, the tour will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band's classic album.

Each show will include a performance of The Joshua Tree in its entirety, with support from one of a number of special guests, including Mumford & Sons, OneRepublic, and The Lumineers in North America. In the European portion of the tour, U2 will be joined by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

U2 The Joshua Tree Tour will appear in Houston at NRG Stadium on May 24. They will play Arlington's AT&T Stadium on May 26. Tickets go on sale January 17 at 10 am at LiveNation.com. An exclusive pre-sale for U2.com subscribers starts on January 11.

The Joshua Tree was U2's fifth album, released to universal acclaim in March 1987. Singles included “With Or Without You,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and “Where The Streets Have No Name.” It was the band's first No. 1 album in the U.S., and it topped the charts globally, selling in excess of 25 million albums worldwide.

The year that followed saw the band create now-iconic moments: the traffic-stopping Grammy Award-winning music video on the roof of a Los Angeles liquor store. Time put them on its cover in April 1987, proclaiming them "rock's hottest ticket," and they won two Grammys including Album of the Year. They've since won 22 Grammys, making them the most awarded rock band in Grammy history.

The Joshua Tree was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and featured iconic artwork which cemented the career of photographer and director Anton Corbijn. Recording took place in Dublin at Windmill Lane Studios and Danesmoate, the house which subsequently became bassist Adam Clayton’s home.

“It seems like we have come full circle from when The Joshua Tree songs were originally written, with global upheaval, extreme right wing politics, and some fundamental human rights at risk. To celebrate the album — as the songs seem so relevant and prescient of these times too — we decided to do these shows, it feels right for now. We’re looking forward to it,” U2 guitarist The Edge says in a release.

The band's last tour was an arena circuit in 2015 for the Innocence + Experience Tour. The last time they did a stadium tour was in 2009-2011’s record-shattering U2 360° Tour, the most successful tour in history seen by over 7.3 million fans worldwide.

U2: The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 will kick off in Vancouver on May 12 for a run of dates across North America and Europe, and it will include U2’s first ever U.S. festival headline appearance at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival this summer, as well as a hometown show in Dublin’s Croke Park on July 22.

The North American tour dates are as follows:

May 12 Vancouver, British Columbia / BC Place with Mumford & Sons
May 14 Seattle / CenturyLink Field with Mumford & Sons
May 17 Santa Clara, California / Levi's Stadium with Mumford & Sons
May 20 Los Angeles / Rose Bowl with The Lumineers
May 24 Houston / NRG Stadium with The Lumineers
May 26 Dallas / AT&T Stadium with The Lumineers
June 3 Chicago / Soldier Field with The Lumineers
June 7 Pittsburgh / Heinz Field with The Lumineers
June 8-11 Manchester, Tennessee / Bonnaroo Festival
June 11 Miami / Hard Rock Stadium with OneRepublic
June 14 Tampa / Raymond James Stadium with OneRepublic
June 18 Philadelphia / Lincoln Financial Field with The Lumineers
June 20 Washington DC / FedExField with The Lumineers
June 23 Toronto, Ontario / Rogers Centre with The Lumineers
June 25 Boston / Gillette Stadium with The Lumineers
June 28 East Rutherford, New Jersey / MetLife Stadium with The Lumineers
July 1 Cleveland / FirstEnergy Stadium with OneRepublic

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Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer visits Houston in new Christmas movie Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

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Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

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