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    RodeoHouston 2018

    Zac Brown Band showcases superb sing-along set list at RodeoHouston

    Chris Gray
    Mar 13, 2018 | 1:49 am
    Zac Brown Band Zac Brown mid-song singing
    Brown channeled country icons such as Alabama.
    Photo by Jacob Power

    The Zac Brown Band saves their fans the trouble of playing that old “spot the influences” parlor game — they just throw ’em into the set list. On March 12, that meant we got Van Halen, Van Morrison, Eagles, Kings of Leon, and one huge tease when the opening bars of “Homegrown” sideswiped ZZ Top’s “Got Me Under Pressure.” Missed it by that much.

    Meanwhile, the singalongs were loudest on originals like “Sweet Annie” and “Toes.” That’s how you know a band is really special.

    March 12 was ZBB’s seventh RodeoHouston appearance in eight years, skipping only 2016, and the announced attendance of 70,319 was ready for it. These guys pick the hell out of their instruments. They harmonize. Brown says things like “We love you, Texas” and sounds like he means it.

    On the first day of spring break, their opening run of “Keep Me In Mind,” “Homegrown,” and “Toes” couldn’t have sounded more appropriate if Brown and his mates had been standing on Galveston’s East Beach. This band was made for one of those plastic coolers with a built-in boombox; a good bit of their repertoire sounds like it should come served in a coconut.

    But they’re also smart enough to understand there is more than just one season. In fact, one of their most poignant songs — and probably one of the decade’s best absentee-musician ballads — is called “Colder Weather.” They may have ushered in the chills with Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody,” but they kept them going by by threading their own “Free” into Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” and Eagles’ “Take It to the Limit” around “Colder Weather.”

    Much credit is due to Brown for underplaying the James Taylor angle, but he has such a terrific tenor it’s hard to ignore the similarity. Those harmonies really clicked, too.

    It might be easy to forget when you’re grooving on the lava-lamp visuals of “Keep Me In Mind,” but this band is loaded for bear with fantastic musicians. They belong on on the same timeline as Alabama, the ’80s pop-country juggernaut disguised as suave ’70s soft-rockers; and The Band, ’60s roots-rockers with the chops of seasoned jazz players. ZBB takes all that stuff and delivers it with the genre-melting glee of your average Spotify playlist.

    That’s how you get moments like the totally badass “Panama” cover — talk about kicking off spring break in style — and songs like “Beautiful Drug,” a sort of bluegrass/EDM romp that shouldn’t work on paper but in concert comes off as a remix-friendly endorphin engine that, were this any other band, could probably close their show.

    But as it should, that honor remains with “Chicken Fried,” still pure happiness formatted into song. The climactic hoedown sounded enough like Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play In Texas” that it purged the memory of last week’s godawful “if you’re gonna run in Texas, you can’t be a liberal man” Ted Cruz ad. Handily, and not a moment too soon.

    Zac Brown Band set list

    Keep Me In Mind
    Homegrown
    Toes
    Use Somebody (Kings of Leon)
    Sweet Annie
    As She’s Walking Away
    Free
    Into the Mystic (Van Morrison)
    Colder Weather/Take It to the Limit (Eagles)
    Knee Deep
    Panama (Van Halen)
    Beautiful Drug
    Chicken Fried

    Brown thrilled the packed stadium with his favorites, plus a range of covers.

    Zac Brown Band individual shot
      
    Photo by Jacob Power
    Brown thrilled the packed stadium with his favorites, plus a range of covers.
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    Movie Review

    How to Train Your Dragon remake puts a fresh twist on the original

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 12, 2025 | 4:14 pm
    Toothless and Mason Thames in How to Train Your Dragon
    Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
    Toothless and Mason Thames in How to Train Your Dragon.

    Let’s get it out of the way right at the top: The new live-action How to Train Your Dragon, coming a mere 15 years after the original animated film, serves no real purpose other than to make more money for Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Pictures. However, unlike Disney’s approach toward remaking their animated movies, this attempt manages to succeed on its own merits instead of being a half-baked vessel for nostalgia.

    As fans will remember, Hiccup (Mason Thames) lives in Berk, a town on a remote island populated by Vikings who constantly have to defend themselves against rampaging dragons. Hiccup’s dad, Stoick (Gerard Butler), is the community’s vaunted leader, with a legacy that seems impossible for Hiccup to measure up to, especially since he’s stuck in the armory alongside Gobber (Nick Frost).

    But Hiccup has a knack for inventions, and his use of one new weapon during a dragon attack takes down a feared Night Fury. Finding the wounded dragon deep in the forest, Hiccup decides against killing it, leading to an unexpected bond between the two of them. Most of the film shows Hiccup trying to prove himself to his townspeople, including the fierce Astrid (Nico Parker), while also nursing the dragon he dubs Toothless back to health with the help of another one of his ingenious creations.

    Written and directed by Dean DeBlois (who’s had the same roles on all four HTTYD films), the film is most notable for how engaging it is despite it retelling a story many already know and love. The biggest reason for this is a pivot away from telling a story mainly for kids toward one that feels like an extremely light version of Game of Thrones. Almost right away, there are real stakes for the people in the film, and the way DeBlois and his team stage the scenes, the danger can be felt by the audience.

    This sense of “realness” comes through especially well in the scenes between Hiccup and Toothless. The design of Toothless is faithful to the original, but the CGI makes the dragon feel amazingly believable. And when they start flying, the film literally and metaphorically takes off. At multiple points, the camera seems to have trouble keeping them in frame, a smart move toward verisimilitude when the filmmakers clearly could have made it an overly smooth watching experience.

    Even though it’s more serious than the original, the film still has plenty of fun to offer. Characters like Gobber (who replaces his two missing limbs with odd contraptions) and the ragtag group of teenagers who come to be in awe of Hiccup’s skills at taming dragons provide more than a few laughs. Hiccup isn’t quite as goofy as he was when voiced by Jay Baruchel, which turns out to be a good thing as his sense of purpose amps up the drama of the story.

    Thames’ performance gets better and better as the film goes along, as Hiccup goes from town whipping boy toward hero. He really shines in the last act when he’s given a few scenes that show off his acting range. Parker is equally good, demonstrating the girl power needed for the role, but also the softness of a potential love interest. Butler, the only actor reprising their voice role, is a great presence who sells the outsized personality of Stoick.

    Against the odds, this new version of How to Train Your Dragon is equal to the success of the first film, accomplishing the goal of making it feel like you’re watching the story for the first time. If live-action remakes are going to continue to come out, future filmmakers should study this film for how to respect both the history of the franchise and the audience paying good money to be entertained.

    ---

    How to Train Your Dragon opens in theaters on June 13.

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