We all know the drill: Teenage girls screaming over crooning boy bands and parents scratching their heads in disbelief. Now this phenomenon is about to take over Houston with the British boy band, One Direction.
The group of five British-Irish teenagers (OK, the oldest — Louis Tomlinson — is 20), who shot to stardom after attracting attention on the British version of X Factor, kicked off their first North American headline tour last month in Virginia. On Sunday the band hits The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands for a sold-out concert.
To help manage the One Direction mania, a merchandise stand will open one day early, hopefully to help lessen long lines during the concert.
To help manage the One Direction mania, a merchandise stand will open one day early, hopefully to help lessen long lines during the concert. The stand will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at Town Green Park (across from the H-E-B and the Pavilion).
One Direction T-Shirts, sweatshirts, posters, concert tour programs, photos and other items are available for purchase. Fans interested in shopping without a crowd are encouraged to arrive right when the stand opens. Parking will be available in local lots.
On concert day, a merchandise stand also will be open earlier than usual inside the House of Blues Hospitality Tent at The Pavilion. It will open at noon Sunday. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
Billie Eilish in Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D.
In 2021, at the tender age of 19, singer Billie Eilish was already the subject of a documentary, The World’s a Little Blurry. At that point, she had only released one album, so the film threatened to feel too early for such treatment. The ensuing five years have only made her a bigger star, though, so in many ways that movie now feels prescient for the person on display in the new concert documentary with the unwieldy title of Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D.
Directed by Eilish and blockbuster filmmaker James Cameron, the film takes viewers inside Eilish’s 2024-2025 tour in support of her latest album, 2023’s Hit Me Hard and Soft. Filmed mostly at her series of shows in Manchester, England, the movie is a showcase for Eilish’s music, but it also serves as a smaller exploration of the type of person she is, as well as the impact she has had on her legion of fans.
The draw of the film is the use of Cameron’s beloved 3D technology, which he has employed in each of the three Avatarfilms. Unlike in those films, where the 3D has the odd effect of making the visuals too realistic for their own good, the technique brings an intimacy to the large-scale show that underscores the unique bond the singer has with her supporters.
Eilish and Cameron go back and forth between performances at the concert to behind-the-scenes sequences, detailing the enormous effort it takes to put on a show like that and how Eilish spends her time getting ready for it. As in The World’s a Little Blurry, this film continues to portray the singer as down-to-Earth, someone who yearns to maintain the connection to her fans that she’s had since she released her first single, “Ocean Eyes,” 10 years ago.
And as the many emotional songs in Eilish’s concert playlist prove, the feeling from the crowd is mutual. While Eilish has multiple bangers like “Bad Guy,” “Therefore I Am,” and the Charli XCX collaboration “Guess,” it’s the sad songs like “Everything I Wanted,” “Happier Than Ever,” and the Oscar-winning Barbieanthem, “What Was I Made For?” that hit the hardest. The depth of feeling emanating from her many sobbing fans singing along to crushing songs cannot be understated.
For audiences of the film, though, it’s the breadth of camera angles and shot choices that make it truly dynamic. There are cameras everywhere, including in the crowd, inside a cube at the center of the stage that rises and descends, following Eilish as she traipses every inch of the long, rectangular stage, and even a small one Eilish uses to bring an extra personal touch to the in-arena screen. Combined, they capture the complete energy of the concert, something that is not always the case in a film of this type.
Eilish has almost as many movies — two — as she does albums — three — which borders on overkill for a singer of her age. But both her music and the movies show her to be a person who knows the responsibility of being a celebrity, someone who understands that her fans are the reason she’s famous at all. Her career may go up or down from here, but it’s clear she’s already made a huge impact on those who love her most.
---
Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D opens in theaters on May 8.
