We Told You First

Kenny Chesney is Houston bound for free Final Four concert

Kenny Chensey knows that all signs are pointing at him performing in Houston forthe free Big Dance Concert Series.
Right back at you, Kenny Chesney.
Kings of Leon is already confirmed as the April 2 free Big Dance concert atDiscovery Green.
Courtesy photo

UPDATE: Officials confirmed Thursday night what CultureMap reported first: Kenny Chesney will be the headliner at The Big Dance Concert Series on April 3.

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No shoes, no shirt, no problems with creating a mega Final Four concert event.

Are you ready for a free Kenny Chesney concert in Discovery Green the Sunday of Final Four weekend?

Several sources have told CultureMap that the Big Dance Concert Series will showcase a major country music star in the free show Sunday night, April 3 from Discovery Green. The plan is to show this star's performance from Houston as part of the The Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards telecast, which will be broadcast that night from Las Vegas by CBS, the same network that carries the Final Four. The ACM Awards telecast will cut to Houston — no doubt noting, it's the site of the April 4 championship game — and throw it to this major star.

And all signs point to that star being Kenny Chesney — the man behind such hit albums as No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problems, When the Sun Goes Down and Hemingway's Whiskey. Chesney sings "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven," but this spring, everybody wants to get to Houston. Including apparently, Chesney.

Follow along with the CultureMap sleuthing that led right to Kenny.

When reliable sources told us that the April 3 Big Dance act would be a major country star with an ACM Awards tie, it quickly became a process of elimination — with a sharp eye kept on scheduling.

You can cross out anyone who's playing the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this year. A return so soon wouldn't generate the kind of buzz in the community the NCAA is focused on building with the free concert series. College basketball's ruler and its partners aim to make the excitement around the Big Dance Concert Series almost match the buildup for the games themselves — essentially creating the Final Four's version of the Super Bowl halftime show, only more spread out and accessible to any fan.

So you can dismiss Rodeo goers Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean and others. Sorry, but do-overs will just not do.

The second part of the equation centers on the Academy of Country Music Awards themselves. The Final Four concert country star must carry plenty of relevance in the awards show. Otherwise, the synergy doesn't work. You can't throw it over to someone in Houston who's not up for some major ACMs.

This puts the focus on stars like Taylor Swift, Toby Keith and Chesney. Miranda Lambert, Toby Keith, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban would be in the mix as well if you argue that a big enough star might necessitate a rethinking of the no-Rodeo repeats argument.

Only, you don't have to even get that far.

Because guess which acts have already been announced as performers at the ACM Awards, announced as acts that will be singing "from the stage" in Las Vegas? Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and Toby Keith.

Only one name is missing. Kenny Chesney.

The same Chesney who is up for five Academy of Country Music Awards, second only to Lambert.

The same Chesney whose picture is prominently featured on the ACM Awards website.

The same Chesney with the drop-dead handsome cowboy looks and the crossover appeal (ex-husband of A-list actress Renee Zellweger, Katy's own) that fits in with the already-announced April 2 Big Dance Concert Series headliner Kings of Leon (the Big Dance is working on booking a major pop act headliner for April 1).

There's strangely no word on Chesney being in Las Vegas April 3. Because all signs point to him being in Houston instead, entertaining an overflow crowd at Discovery Green and the CBS audience.

What region of the country is Chesney already scheduled to be in around Final Four weekend? He's playing Tulsa April 2, a quick hop to the Bayou City.

Several sources confirm that final negotiations for both the country and pop portions of The Big Dance Concert Series are taking longer than expected and say an official announcement will likely not be made until next week.

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Movie Review

Rachel McAdams goes feral in Sam Raimi's gory new comedy Send Help

Photo by Brook Rushton

Rachel McAdams in Send Help.

Director Sam Raimi has gone through different phases as a filmmaker, including leading the first Spider-Man trilogy and joining the MCU with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But he first gained notice with the gory and funny Evil Dead movies, a sensibility he’s returning to with his latest film, Send Help.

Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a meek and eccentric middle manager at a financial firm that’s just named Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) as its new nepo CEO. Bradley’s dad had promised Linda a promotion to vice president, but she gets passed over in favor of one of Bradley’s frat buddies, sending her into a mild rage. Still, she gets invited along on a planned business trip to Thailand, during which she hopes to prove her worth.

Unfortunately for most of the passengers on the private plane, it crashes into the ocean, leaving only Linda and Bradley alive on a deserted island. Linda, who has privately developed survival skills, adapts quickly to the forbidding environment, while Bradley tries to revert to bossing her around. But Linda quickly understands the power dynamic has shifted, and she uses this knowledge to try to keep Bradley in line, turning their stranding into a battle of wills.

Directed by Raimi and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, the film is the classic “so bad it’s good” kind of experience. McAdams, inarguably an attractive and charming person, is given stringy hair, an antisocial personality, and quirks like eating tuna fish at her desk to make her as off-putting as possible. Bradley, along with almost everyone else at her office, is stereotyped just as hard in order to set up the twist of fate.

When the action shifts to the island, things get even more over the top. The audience has already been primed for Linda to demonstrate her survival expertise, but the film does way more than just show her making fire. Whether it’s flawlessly building a shelter or hunting a wild boar, everything Linda does is portrayed in a slightly off-kilter manner. Then they turn everything up to 11, indulging in gore that is so unnecessary that you can’t help but laugh.

The filmmakers prove they’re in on the joke the rest of the way, including a variety of preposterous but hilarious scenarios that would cause massive eyerolls if they were actually trying to take the film seriously. While they do a great job of showing Linda’s ability to handle herself in the wild, they also show that she is somehow the only person in the world who could get a glow up after a plane crash and weeks living in nature.

McAdams, an Oscar-nominated actor for Spotlight, is way too high class for a movie like this, which makes her presence here all the more interesting. She is all-in on whatever Raimi wants her to do, and she’s at her most fun when she goes the animalistic route. O’Brien, who was great in the recent Twinless, doesn’t get as much of an opportunity to show his range, but he still proves to be an interesting foil for her.

Were it released in any other month, Send Help might be looked at as bottom of the barrel material. But with the movie year just getting started, it’s easier to forgive its outrageous plot twists and just have fun, especially since Raimi and his team put the rest of the film together so well.

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Send Help opens in theaters on January 30.

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We Told You First

Kenny Chesney is Houston bound for free Final Four concert

Movie Review

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