Music Matters

Your weekend music guide to iFest: Are you ready to street party?

Ozomatli are worth the iFest admission price just by themselves.
Joe Ely brings the Texas to iFest.
There will be a decidedly international flavor to this year's iFest.

I'm cheating a bit by making the entire Houston International Festival (iFest) my concert pick for the weekend.

With eight live music and performance stages showcasing Grade-A talent from Houston (local reggae band Irie Time) to Mali (the West African roots and rhythms of Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba) all day on Saturday and Sunday ... comparing it to any other club show in town is a bit like weighing the pros and cons between champagne and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

Now in its 40th year, the 2010 iFest shines a spotlight on the Caribbean, which, for this weekend and next (April 24 and 25), should turn downtown's west end into quite the reggae party.

The festival is open from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday and the music offerings are amazingly diverse (check out the full schedule). And that doesn't even include the 40-foot-long pirate ship reproduction that will house the Caribbean Living Museum or the historic 16th century fort and chapel recreations.

(My deal with CultureMap requires that I stick to writing about music, but let me say that all of these exhibits are a great way to mix some fun into your kid's social studies book learning).

Some of the acts on hand this weekend will be very familiar and others are international world music sensations that are little known in the United States. To keep music lovers from getting overwhelmed, I have devised a "can't miss" concert guide for each day.

Follow these listening tips and your iFest musical trip around the world will feel complete.

Today

12:30 p.m. — Irie Time (Chron.com Entertainment Stage) — What better way to warm up for an all-day celebration of Afro-pop and reggae than with this local band of reggae veterans? Irie Time keep the beats simple the way Bob Marley intended.

2 p.m. — Sister Morales (RoomStore Latin Stage) — If anybody ever decided to make the definitive Tex-Mex wedding reception soundtrack, Lisa and Roberta Morales would be featured prominently. The sisters have been exploring the softer side of border balladry long enough to be desert queens of the genre.

4 p.m. — Marcia Ball (Louisiana Stage) — Ball was born in Orange, Texas, raised in Vinton, Louisiana and plays and sings the blues as if she has never ventured outside the Gulf Coast. Her swamp boogie has been a staple in these parts for more than 30 years.

6 p.m. — Joe Ely featuring David Grissom (Bud Light World Music Stage) — If I have to explain who Joe Ely is then I advise you to turn in your Texas passport and move to New Hampshire immediately. He's a member of the Flatlanders and a Lubbock-born legend who has played with everyone from the Clash to Lyle Lovett. He is everything that is great about Texas music.

8 p.m. — Ozomatli (Bud Light World Music Stage) — It took a long time to work in some international flavor for this first day of iFest, but Ozomatli is worth the wait. This Los Angeles-based band mixes Latin percussion, rock electricity, brass fusion and hip hop beats into an amplified blender to make a sound that is exotic and intoxicating. Don't be surprised if they preview songs from upcoming album, "Fire Away," at this show.

Worth the price of admission all by themselves.

Sunday

12:30 p.m. — Norma Zenteno Band (Bud light World Music Stage) — A mix of Latin rock and percussion-and-string jams by an artist who's been a mainstay in Houston (and at iFest) for decades.

2:30 p.m. — Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba(Bud light World Music Stage) —I mentioned this West Mali string band up top. The chance to experience an internationally-revered ensemble like this is what iFest is all about.

4:30 p.m. — Mighty Diamonds (Bud Light World Music Stage) — It just makes sense to experience a little authentic Jamaican reggae during a Caribbean-inspired iFest.

6:30 — Tab Benoit (Louisiana Stage) — There's no better way to finish off the first weekend than some electric blues by a Louisiana-born master of the strings.

Tickets: $12-$17.

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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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