Music Matters

This week in music: OneRepublic, Janet Jackson, Modest Mouse highlight touring lineup

Following Hurricane Harvey, the need for many to get back to a sense of normalcy is as strong as a stiff pour at your favorite watering hole. While the cleanup and hard recovery continue, thankfully, the rain clouds are gone and there's a bright ray of sunshine in the form of several fantastic shows for Houston music fans to enjoy.

If the upcoming week is any indication, we are in for a great fall season, with the city attracting some great performers. Stayed tuned here, every Thursday, for our guide to can't-miss concerts. And read on for the top must-see performances this week:

Thursday, September 7

Nineties alt-crooners the Goo Goo Dolls will play the tunes you used to dance to at homecoming — the once inescapable “Name” and “Iris” are among the most memorable. The group brings their scrappy, balladic alt-rock to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, with a performance by Phillip Phillips also on the bill. As part of Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, bring non-perishable donations for the Houston Food Bank and receive a voucher for a free ticket. You can't beat a heaping dose of nostalgia for a good cause.

Over at The Heights Theater, a venue that continues to impress with solid bookings, Colin Hay of Men at Work fame (and a critically acclaimed troubadour in his own right) is joined by singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly. After his world-beating '80s Australian group disbanded, Hay has carved out a decent career as a singer-songwriter, even finding a place in pop culture with appearances on the network comedy Scrubs. He's touring behind his latest effort, FIERCE MERCY.

Friday, September 8

There was a time a few years back when you couldn't go to a major festival without the Atlanta-based alternative Manchester Orchestra on the bill. The talented quartet is out touring in support of one of the best albums of the year: the expansive, moody, and rafter shaking, A Black Mile To The Surface. Seeing them in the relatively intimate setting of the House of Blues will be a treat. Surfer Blood and Foxing will also perform.

Saturday, September 9

The most casual music fan will remember Janet Jackson for her 2004 trip to Houston when she corrupted the virgin minds of repressed conservatives after revealing a little too much during Super Bowl XXXVIII. Nipplegate (NSFW) is etched into our collective pop culture minds for better or worse. And that's too bad because she remains a music icon, touring the world for enraptured fans. She will surely, ahem, "titillate" when her State of the World Tour hits Toyota Center.

Sunday, September 10

I fully admit I was never a fan of ZZ Top. Until this year, I only knew them from their famed videos for "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs," which were played constantly on MTV in the '80s. But after catching them at Super Bowl Live in February, there's no denying this homegrown trio can wail with an impressive catalog of killer tracks. They might be getting up there in age, but these Texas boys are still as tight as ever and put on one hell of a show. They will travel a short distance from their Houston homes to perform at the Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land as part of their Tonnage Tour. Trust me, your dad will love it.

Tuesday, September 12

An embarrassment of musical riches will lead to a lot of folks taking Wednesday off with several top-notch shows to choose from Tuesday night.

Alt-rock darlings Modest Mouse hit House of Blues still touring 2015's Strangers to Ourselves. It's worth the price of admission if Isaac Brock and company play any of their back catalog, including songs from stone cold classic albums The Moon & Antarctica and The Lonesome Crowded West.

(UPDATE: The Modest Mouse concert has been moved from Revention Music Center because of flooding issues. A Live Nation representative says that its customer service department will contact those who have already purchased a reserved seat to handle relocations. All previously purchased tickets will be honored. If needed, refunds will be available at original point of purchase.)

Baltimore's smooth electro-pop auteurs Future Islands visit White Oak Music Hall to showcase the highly regarded 2017 release, The Far Field, surely bringing sweet, sweet dance moves by amazingly charismatic frontman Sam Herring.

Top 40 radio fans won't want to miss megastars OneRepublic at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. In case you were living under a rock, their 2013 chart-topping hit "Counting Stars" is closing in on two billion views on YouTube. That's in addition to a dozen other hits you've probably heard while flipping through FM stations. And if that isn't enough to get the teenager in your household excited, Ellen DeGeneres' favorite party-starters Fitz and the Tantrums will open along with James Arthur.

Other shows of note:

The Ruby Revue Burlesque Show at The Bronze Peacock at House of Blues (September 10; Two shows: 7 pm and 10 pm)
Melvins, Spotlights at Warehouse Live (September 11; 8 pm)
Bryan Adams at Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land (September 12; 8 pm)

Alt-rock darlings Modest Mouse hit House of Blues.

Courtesy photo

Alt-rock darlings Modest Mouse hit House of Blues.

the-heights hurricane concerts

Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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