Live Music Now

These are the 7 best concerts to catch in Houston this week

Before we get to the best shows of the week, let’s take a moment to point out a win-win for the local music scene and community members of the near-north end of the city.

On April 24, news broke on a settlement of a lawsuit brought by community members against music venue White Oak Music Hall. Neighbors of the concert space complained about the noise from lawn shows, while White Oak owners and operators stated they were simply trying to provide progressive programming at a mid-sized venue the city sorely lacked close to downtown.

Both parties agreed on a set number of shows White Oak Music Hall can have, how late shows can go on nights that Houston ISD is in session, and White Oak agreed to no shows during student STAAR testing nights. Also, decibel levels will be monitored at all times. For music fans, White Oak can go back to having lawn shows and booking bigger acts to play to more attendees.

While surely arduous, both sides should be commended for reaching a compromise that appears to be positive for both sides. For more, please see the story by our content partner, ABC13.

Speaking of shows, there are plenty of great ones in the week ahead. Here are CultureMap’s best and biggest:

Goin’ to Church

Nashville based country star Eric Church was set to play at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion just after Hurricane Harvey rolled through town. Instead of canceling the show outright, Church rescheduled and invited 300 first responders as his guest. Classy dude. Church has been a major headliner for a few years now, having opened RodeoHouston back in 2015. He has numerous No. 1 hits to his credit and is known for his patriotic party tunes and stylish looks.

Eric Church performs at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, located at 2005 Lake Robbins Dr., The Woodlands, TX. Steve Earle and the Dukes and The Texas Gentlemen and Elle King open. Tickets start at $43 for the lawn and reserved, plus fees. General admission for pit is $129 plus fees. Gates open at 7 pm.

Feel the Byrne at White Oak
One of the godfathers of indie rock, former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne has made a career on not only writing great songs, but making performances as visually striking as the subject matter of his lyrics. Expect more of the same when his American Utopia tour comes to town, promoting the similarly titled album, his first solo album in several years. According to his website, he “has been collecting stories, news, ideas, and other items that all either embody or identify examples of things that inspire optimism." Anyone who’s seen the classic concert film, Stop Making Sense, knows they can expect a show that’s a delight for all senses as he brings his vision to life.

David Byrne performs on the White Oak Music Hall Lawn, located at 2915 N Main St. on Saturday, April 28. Acclaimed indie rock act Perfume Genius opens. Tickets are $55 plus fees. Gates open at 7 pm.

Think Pink
Thank the Houston Rockets for a scheduling change. Popstar Pink was set to play on Sunday, April 29, but that date has been moved to Friday, April 27 in case the arena is needed if the Rockets’ first-round match-up goes to Game 7 (any sports fan know it shouldn’t get to that point). No matter what night she plays, Pink will put on a barnstormer, with her Beautiful Trauma tour garnering rave reviews. She has two decades of hits to pull from, so fans won’t be leaving disappointed and due to demand, a second show was added.

Pink and her catalog of hits will be at the Toyota Center, located at 1510 Polk St., on Friday, April 27; and Saturday, April 28. Tickets start at $79.95 plus fees. Show starts at 7:30 pm on Friday, 8 pm on Saturday.

Pyro, leather and metal in Sugar Land
Metal comes to Sugar Land! The U.K. masters of heavy metal, Judas Priest, are still going strong after nearly 50 years in existence. They just released their highest charting U.S. album, Firepower, and are currently on the first of two announced tours across the continent. Expect lots of pyro, leather, and breaking of laws as this legendary band plows through their extensive songbook.

Judas Priest bring the metal to Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land, located at 18111 Lexington Blvd., Sugar Land on Sunday, April 29. Saxon and Black Star Riders open. Tickets start at $33.25 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

White nights
One of the busiest men in the music industry, Jack White is back on the road with his latest solo effort, Boarding House Reach. He’s also up to his old tricks, some might say diva-like behavior, as this will be a no cell-phone performance. Having been in The White Stripes, Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather, it will be interesting to see what his set-list will be like. No matter what he plays, White is worth the price of admission just for his guitar chops alone. Fortunately for Houston music fans, we get him two nights.

Jack White shows off his guitar heroics at Revention Music Center, located at located at 520 Texas St., on Monday, April 30 and Tuesday, May 1. Tickets start at $79.50 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm at both shows.

A big voice in the Bayou City
Merrill Garbus has been one of the most interesting artists in music since she debuted her Tune-Yards project back in 2006. She and bandmate Nate Brenner's meshing of seemingly disparate genres have captivated audiences everywhere. Her latest album, I can feel you creep into my private life, follows in the tradition of previous releases with syncopated rhythms, strange time signatures, synth and electronic flourishes along with Garbus' best instrument, her rich voice that she wields like a paintbrush on a canvas.

Tune-Yards bring the unexpected to White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 N Main St., on Tuesday, May 1. My Brightest Diamond opens. Tickets start at $21 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Jason Isbell brings the Nashville Sound
Americana singer-songwriter Jason Isbell and his band The 400 Unit are on a hot streak. Their latest album, The Nashville Sound, has received great reviews, it received two 2018 Grammy Awards for Best Americana Album and Best American Root Song (“If We Were Vampires”), and it’s sold 120,000 copies, an impressive feat in the age of digital streaming. This follows two Grammy Awards for his 2015 record, Something More Than Free. Come see what the fuss is about and in the process, see a band at the height of their powers.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit plays at Smart Financial Centre located at 18111 Lexington Blvd., Sugar Land on Wednesday, May 2. Richard Thompson opens. Tickets start at $32.50 plus fees. Show starts at 8 pm.

Think Pink at Toyota Center on Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28.

Courtesy photo

Think Pink at Toyota Center on Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28.

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Creed concert review

Creed serve up millennial nostalgia at pyro-packed RodeoHouston concert

Courtesy of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Singer Scott Stapp serenades the RodeoHouston crowd.

Hello, my friend, we meet again.

I’ve had a torrid relationship with Creed. As a circa-2000s punk rocker, it was implied that I was supposed to hate them. Nevertheless, I enjoyed those hook-laden Mark Tremonti riffs and Scott Stapp’s burly, Bono-grasping vocals, with just a hint of irony deep in the mix. I had “One Last Breath” on a burned mix CD, bunched in with Fugazi, Rancid, and Sham 69. I would skip it as quickly as I could, depending on who was in the car. Driving home from a long day slinging milk in the Kroger dairy cooler? Windows down, Stapp up.

When I began my music journalism career 20 years ago (!!!), I began sticking up for them, much to the consternation of a lot of my fellow writers who were hung up on stuff that was supposed to be cooler and hipper. Creed’s pop-culture zenith came right as The Strokes and The White Stripes were thrust on us by the music press as a counter to post-grunge, which other music writers were categorically allergic to. Remember when our biggest problems in America were bands that were overtly influenced by Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains?

In 2012, I interviewed lead singer Scott Stapp along the way for the Houston Press, and I distinctly recall Stapp being confused on our call that a guy from a smug alt-weekly wasn’t asking him stupid questions or making fun of his leather pants. The band was heading to Houston for a two-night stand at the Bayou Music Center in 2012 when they played 1997’s “My Own Prison” and 1999’s “Human Clay” in their entirety.

Fun fact: “Human Clay” has sold over 20 million albums alone, besting Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and Pearl Jam’s “Ten” by only a relatively small margin. Creed moved more physical CDs when people actually bought music.

Somehow, along the way, people stopped hating Creed and Nickelback, and the hate gave way to pre-social media, millennial high school, and pre-9/11 nostalgia. The similarly maligned Nickelback sold out the rodeo in 2024.

On Wednesday, March 11, I saw junior high school kids wearing crispy new Creed shirts with their parents. Gen Alpha is beginning to get curious about what mom and dad were up to during spring break 2001, and Zoomers are rediscovering Y2K fashions. Haven’t you seen those “Mom, What Were You Like In The ‘90s?” memes?

Creed has been sold out for weeks, drawing 70,007 attendees. If you had told someone 10 years ago that Creed would sell out RodeoHouston, they would have been skeptical. And yet here we are, staring down at a sold-out Creed show. These things run in cycles. Emotions fade. Annoyance turns into wistfulness for the days of Nokia brick phones and 99-cent gas. You can even go on a Creed Cruise now.

Creed hit the stage just before 9:30 pm, an enviable bedtime for most elderly millennials, kicking off with the TOOL-chugalug of “Bullets,” with Stapp and Tremonti making the best use of their stage platforms, crucial devices for any major rock band in the 2000s. Unrelenting pyro shot from the dirt surrounding the stage every time Stapp lifted or flailed his arms like Elvis if he discovered cardio.

The dirge of “Torn” — the second single from My Own Prison — was pyro-less, likely giving the cannons a few minutes to cool off. The sweaty Stapp, at just 52, looks to be in better shape than he did 20 years ago, now sporting a conservative haircut like he stepped out of his company’s stadium suite or finished a twilight run at Memorial Park.

Stapp introduced “My Own Prison” with a preachery pep talk that wouldn’t sound out of place at an altar call at Sturgis. The crowd hung on every emphatic word. Maybe seeing two middle-aged dudes wearing Stryper shirts down on the concourse made more sense than I realized. Is Creed actually just TOOL that accepted Christ? The graphics behind the band could’ve fooled me.

Stapp introduced “One” with a speech on commonalities and love. Looking back, Creed’s lyrics were much too earnest, hitting at a time when critics were still hungover from grunge.

During “With Arms Wide Open,” the rodeo cameras would routinely cut to tattooed dads and rocker chicks in the crowd playing air guitar along with Tremonti and singing their guts out like they did the first time they heard it on 94.5 The Buzz. For a large segment of the crowd, they might have had a Gen-X parent jamming this stuff on the way to school in the morning.

“Are you ready to get higher in here, Houston?” Stapp yells. The place erupts as “Higher” starts. Stapp was in his element, pyro shooting off, his silver jewelry dangling, taking in the crowd, like he didn’t expect such a response.

Possibly the last true rock power ballad ever recorded, “One Last Breath,” got the biggest screams of the night; it might also be the Gen-Z “Don’t Stop Believing” as long as we’re making wildly controversial statements. [Editor’s note: Isn’t that Mr. Brightside? -ES]

Welcome back, Creed, from pop-culture purgatory, and props for what might have been the loudest RodeoHouston show in years.

SETLIST

Bullets
Torn
Are You Ready?
My Own Prison
What If
One
With Arms Wide Open
Higher
One Last Breath
My Sacrifice

Courtesy of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Singer Scott Stapp serenades the RodeoHouston crowd.

rodeohouston houston livestock show and rodeo concert review