PASS IT ON

New Live Nation VIP pass gets you unlimited access to 2 hot Houston music spots

Use the VIP pass at 713 Music Hall

Photo courtesy of 713 Music Hall

Concert promoter Live Nation has launched a new pass that covers all General Admission shows at more than 50 venues across the country.

In Texas, that includes 713 Music Hall and Bayou Music Center in Houston; House of Blues in Houston and Dallas; the Echo Lounge and Music Hall in Dallas; Emo's and Scoot Inn in Austin; and the Aztec Theatre in San Antonio. The full lineup of clubs is listed below.

The pass gets you access to one club and it's good from October 1 to December 31. For Emo's and Scoot Inn, it's $59. For all other Texas clubs, it's $79.

Bayou Music Center is part of the new promotion. Photo courtesy of Bayou Music Center

But they're also offering a Multi-Club Pass for $299, which gets you access to all participating Live Nation clubs, including well-known venues like Irving Plaza in New York, The Fillmore in San Francisco, and the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

Upcoming shows for the fall may include artists such as Ali Gatie, Amon Amarth, Bad Omens, Better Than Ezra, Blue October, Dayglow, Giant Rooks, Giveon, I Prevail, Jacob Banks, Jessie Reyez, Jinjer, Måneskin, Marcus King, Mother Mother, Noah Cyrus, Pusha T, Russell Dickerson, Toadies, Trivium, and Yung Gravy.

How to purchase
The Club Pass is on sale now through September 30 at clubpass.livenation.com while supplies last. Each venue will have a limited number of Club Passes available.

Once you own a Club Pass, you get added to the club's membership list. On the day of the show, you show your ID to get a ticket at the Club’s box office.

Venues
Venues participating in Club Pass include:

713 Music Hall (Houston)
Ace of Spades (Sacramento, California)
The Aztec Theater (San Antonio)
Bayou Music Center (Houston)
Belasco (Los Angeles,)
Bogarts (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom (Chicago)
Coca Cola Roxy (Atlanta)
The Depot (Salt Lake City)
The Echo Lounge & Music Hall (Dallas)
Echoplex and The Echo (Los Angeles)
Emo’s (Austin)
Egyptian Room and Deluxe at Old National Centre (Indianapolis)
The Fillmore (San Francisco)
The Fillmore Detroit (Detroit)
The Fillmore Minneapolis (Minneapolis)
The Fillmore New Orleans (New Orleans)
The Fillmore Philadelphia (Philadelphia)
The Fillmore Silver Spring (Silver Spring, Maryland)
The Fillmore Charlotte and The Underground (Charlotte, North Carolina)
Fillmore Auditorium (Denver)
The Foundry (Philadelphia)
The Gramercy Theatre (New York)
GLC Live At 20 Monroe (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Hollywood Palladium (Los Angeles)
House of Blues Anaheim (Anaheim, California)
House of Blues Chicago (Chicago)
House of Blues Cleveland (Cleveland)
House of Blues Dallas (Dallas)
House of Blues Lake Buena Vista (Lake Buena Vista, Florida)
House of Blues Las Vegas (Las Vegas)
House of Blues New Orleans (New Orleans)
House of Blues North Myrtle Beach (North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina)
House of Blues San Diego (San Diego)
Irving Plaza (New York)
Marquis Theater (Denver)
Mercury Ballroom (Louisville, Kentucky)
Observatory OC (Santa Ana, California)
Observatory SD (San Diego)
Roxian Theatre (Pittsburgh)
The Ritz (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Riverside Municipal Auditorium (Riverside, California)
St. Andrew’s Hall (Detroit)
Summit (Denver)
Scoot Inn (Austin)
The Wiltern (Los Angeles)
Tabernacle (Atlanta)
Theatre of the Living Arts (Philadelphia)
Varsity Theater (Minneapolis)
The Van Buren (Phoenix)

All venues listed for single venue Club Passes will participate in the Multi-Club Pass.

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New York Times critic awards Houston restaurant 2 stars in glowing review

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

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Let’s just call 2025 the year of ChòpnBlọk. In a review published Tuesday, December 16, the New York Times has awarded the Houston restaurant two stars (“very good”).

Written by chief restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the review touts many of the same qualities that the Times already praised when it included ChòpnBlọk on its list of America’s 50 best restaurants.

Rao writes that she usually avoids restaurants that serve food in bowls, but she’s impressed by the way that chef-owner Ope Amosu has put a West African spin on the concept.

“For inspiration, Ope Amosu looked to the kind of chain restaurants that were built to scale, where flavors are often subdued to appeal to the broadest possible audience, focus-grouped to death. But the delight of ChòpnBlok is in its sure sense of self, its lively, multidimensional cooking and clear, delicious vision for modern food from the Black diaspora,” Rao writes.

She singles out specific dishes, including the Nigerian red stew with short rib, the Black Star bowl with shrimp, and the signature Motherland, made with chicken, greens, and plantains. “It’s utterly simple, but draws you in for more with the mouthwatering twang of not-too-much MSG — an international shortcut to building umami that tends to be used carefully, and layered with other forms,” she writes.

The review also touches on the way Amosu switched the restaurant from counter service to full service — described as “warm, informal, and quick with the jokes” — and his time working at Chipotle to learn the basics of the restaurant operations.

A two-star review is only the latest instance of ChòpnBlọk receiving national attention. In addition to the Times 50 best list, Esquire recently named it one of America’s best new restaurants. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand designation for 2025. Amosu earned a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Texas in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

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