Paisley's Wild Rodeo

"Crazed" stage rushing female fan makes Brad Paisley's opening night Rodeo concert interesting enough

It ain't hip to sing about tractors, trucks, little towns, and mama, yeah that might be true. But this is country music . . . .and we do - "This is Country Music"

Brad Paisley has painted himself into a corner.

His songs are just too likeable and his stage presence is so magnetic that he'll be singing "I'm Gonna Miss Her" for the rest of his career. As of late, Paisley has attempted to enter certain cultural conversations, but let's face it, he will never change the world through his music. His songs don't need to do anything but take a listener to a place where it's OK to take a long pull from a Miller Lite tallboy before kissing your sweetie at the rodeo.

It is in this spirit that Paisley's songs delivered on opening night of RodeoHouston 2014. Sort of.

The crowd of 56,569 Tuesday night — the most well attended opener in five years — was heavily composed of devoted Paisley fans who clearly didn't mind that this year's performance was short on nearly everything that makes a Brad Paisley show an enjoyable spectacle.

Notable absences in the opening night set were the heavy stage banter and downright good guitar work (a talent that Paisley doesn't get enough credit for) that made his previous rodeo stops memorable. However, I'd like to think that the absence of the misguided and horribly executed "Accidental Racist" from last year's Wheelhouse likely didn't bother anyone.

What Paisley's Tuesday night set lacked in oomph, it made up for in several moments that somehow only seem like they could have happened at a Brad Paisley show. In what I'm 56 percent sure was a stunt, a crazed fan was "ejected" during "Old Alabama" after climbing down into the dirt to hug Paisley when he left the stage. As the song picked up steam, she was gently lifted by security guards back into the crowd while Paisley laughed the incident off in an "aw shucks" sort of way.

Notable absences in the opening night set were the stage banter and downright good guitar work that made his previous rodeo stops memorable.

Though, I suppose that it is equally plausible that some fried Oreo-fueled Paisleyhead had traveled 120 miles from somewhere like Buna,Texas with an agenda to assault Paisley with a hug the moment he stepped in the dirt.

Either scenario works for me in equally wonderful examples of what sorts of fun can happen at a rodeo concert.

There was also the bizarre, off-key yelp that replaced the word "reality" each time Paisley sang the chorus of "Celebrity." Sing it out loud this way, and it's kind of fun. "When you're a celebrity, it's adios re-al-i-AHHHH!" Every single time that line came up, it would happen. Weird, sure. Though I can't get it out of my head, so I guess it worked?

Or there was the dizzying thematic lyrical rollercoaster ride that made up the majority of the set list. The set that Paisley delivered this year alternated between songs that extolled the virtues of leaving good old-fashioned "Southern Comfort Zones" to explore what life outside of xenophobia has to offer and songs that pandered to an audience brought up on tracks like "Alcohol" and "Mud on the Tires."

Last year's album, Wheelhouse, was well-received by most respectable music critics as an attempt at addressing topics that transcend the country music genre's stereotypes, yet what good are most of those songs when 56,000 fans in Reliant Arena have paid money and traveled for miles just to hear his classics?

Of the 12 songs that made up Tuesday evening's set list, only three of them were from Wheelhouse, and two of those three sounded a lot like Paisley as usual.

I suppose that's what you bargain for when playing to such a large crowd full of fans that just want to see a Brad Paisley show, but I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't have been really cool if Brad Paisley had opened with "Southern Comfort Zones" and then proceeded to treat an audience to a night full of Kris Kristofferson, Michael Murphey and Gram Parsons covers.

Now there were some country artists who knew how to leave the barstool, see the world, then go on to sing about it.

Set List:

Southern Comfort Zones

Mud on the Tires

Mona Lisa

This is Country Music

Celebrity

Then/She's Everything

Old Alabama

Ticks

Beat This Summer

I'm Gonna Miss Her

Alcohol

Brad Paisley isn't afraid to get up close with his fans, but one woman took it too far later on the Rodeo opening night.

Photo by Michelle Watson CultureMapSnap

Brad Paisley isn't afraid to get up close with his fans, but one woman took it too far later on the Rodeo opening night.

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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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Paisley's Wild Rodeo

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Brad Paisley isn't afraid to get up close with his fans, but one woman took it too far later on the Rodeo opening night.

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Movie Review

Margot Robbie ignites provocative new take on Wuthering Heights