Live Music Now

These are the 5 best concerts to catch in Houston this week

It may be the heat, or the fact that kids are about to start back to school, but the local live music scene is slower in August — before the fall concert season picks up. That’s not to say there isn’t anything good to see in Houston this week. These are CultureMap’s best and biggest shows of the week.

CultureMap show of the week: Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, and Dwight Yoakum
Fans of the grittier side of country, Americana, roots, and folk music will find a lot to love with a bill that sees three powerhouses bless the lawn at White Oak Music Hall. Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, and Dwight Yoakum joined forces for the LSD Tour (see what they did there?) this summer, bringing three distinct voices together for a dream line-up. Grammy Award-winning Lucinda Williams is widely hailed as one of the best country-folk singer-songwriters in the game. Steve Earle is a roots rock rabble-rouser, known for his political activism as much as his songwriting chops. And last but not least, neo-traditional country crooner Dwight Yoakum makes country music of a bygone era before pop encroached into Nashville. This is a great opportunity to see three musicians who are critically adored within their respective genres, doing what they do best.

The LSD Tour featuring Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, and Dwight Yoakum stops at the White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 N. Main St., on Tuesday, August 7. King Leg opens. Tickets start at $58.50 plus a $19.80 service charge. Gates open at 5 pm.

Locals Gio Chamba light up the Continental
While bigger names stay away from the heat that is southeast Texas in August, it’s a perfect time to check out local talent. Gio Chamba, along with bandmate Coffee Guzman, has been making noise on the local scene for a few years now with an intriguing melange of Texas and international sounds, prescribing to the genre Digital Cumbia, which first got its start in South America, a mix of traditional cumbia, electronic indebted dance, and hip-hop beats. Gio Chamba infuses this with a healthy dose of Santana guitars, adding the requisite Tex-Mex temperature to the proceedings. The duo’s latest is last year’s album, Tejas, and they just released single, “Cobra Dinero” in June.

Houston’s own Gio Chamba performs at the Continental Club, located at 3700 S. Main St., on Thursday, August 9. San Francisco act Bang Data open. Show starts at 10 pm.

Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town co-headline in The Woodlands
Five-time RodeoHouston performer and Texas native Miranda Lambert (2008, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016) teams up two-time RodeoHouston band Little Big Town (2016, 2018) for a huge country show in The Woodlands for those itching to bust out the cowboy boots and tight jeans. Lambert is still touring her 2016 album, The Weight of These Wings, while Little Big Town is still promoting 2017’s The Breaker, but recently released the country version of "Get Lucky" (but not as good), the disco-inflected "Summer Fever," in June. Both groups boast enough No. 1 songs and albums to fill a barn, which points to a well-attended event.

Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town co-headline the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, located at 2005 Lake Robbins Dr. in The Woodlands, on Friday, August 10. The Steel Woods and Tenille Townes open. Tickets start at $25 for lawn seating, $64.75 for reserved seating, plus service charges. Gates open at 6 pm.

Jeff Lynne's ELO
Anyone who saw Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 will be instantly familiar with Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” which kicked off the movie with a memorable action scene. Following the dissolution of the band, original member, guitarist/songwriter, Jeff Lynne, carried on under the moniker, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, and why shouldn’t he have, since ELO was massive in the 1970s — heavily influenced by The Beatles and prog-rock that won the band huge rock radio play for hits such as “Don’t Bring Me Down,” “Livin’ Thing,” and “Turn to Stone.” Lynne is also famous for his turn in the ’80s supergroup The Travelin’ Wilburys, alongside his heroes, George Harrison and Roy Orbison (in addition to Bob Dylan and Tom Petty). If Lynne’s career in ELO is any indication, the stage production will be off the charts and there just might be a UFO sighting, imagery the band became famous for in their heyday.

Jeff Lynne’s ELO plays the Toyota Center, located at 1510 Polk St., on Friday, August 10. Alt-country heroes Dawes open. Tickets start at $49 plus service charges. Doors open at 7 pm.

CultureMap recommends: ATX’s Walker Lukens
Talented Austin singer-songwriter Walker Lukens is back in Houston this weekend with a headlining slot at the Continental Club. He made a couple of appearances last year at the start of his touring cycle for his great album Tell It to the Judge, a multi-genre mash-up that recalls Beck’s ability to take varying sounds and mix it into melodic magic, with a touch of Prince's showmanship. This featured appearance at one of the best intimate concert venues in the city will be well worth heading out for the late start.

Walker Lukens plays the Continental Club, located at 3700 S. Main St., on Saturday, August 11. Tickets are $12 in advance, plus a $3 service fee. Show starts at 10 pm.

Country star Miranda Lambert co-headlines the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion with Little Big Town on Friday, August 10.

Photo by Michelle Watson/Catchlight Group

Country star Miranda Lambert co-headlines the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion with Little Big Town on Friday, August 10.

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Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 doesn't match the first movie's enthusiasm

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films like M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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