This Week In Music

This week in music: 5 shows bring the rock and local love to Houston

Oscar nominated singer-songwriter Aimee Mann will perform at The Heights Theater Saturday, January 20.

Photo courtesy of Dallas Museum of Art

For those about to rock, we salute you.

This week in music is chockfull of great rock shows across town, including internationally known touring acts, and a fundraiser show with some of the best local talent of early 2018.

Here are the best of the bunch:

Best place to see critically acclaimed indie-rock
San Diego’s Pinback will perform downstairs at White Oak Music Hall, bringing its electronically tinged indie rock to Houston. The band’s music — think early Modest Mouse — has built a solid fanbase on the back of great melodies, and vocal harmonies created by the duo of Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow. The latter threatened to retire from music a few years ago, and they haven’t produced an album in years, but the band is doing a string of shows, presumably behind the 10th anniversary of one of its most beloved albums, Autumn of the Seraphs.

Pinback performs Friday, January 19, downstairs at White Oak Music Hall, 2915 N Main St. Major Entertainer opens. Tickets are $20 plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm.

Best display of rock 'n' roll swagger
One of the hardest working bands in music, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, returns to Houston after a killer show back in late-2016, this time promoting its best album in years, Wrong Creatures. No band does rock 'n' roll quite like B.R.M.C. these days. The San Francisco trio is almost a throwback to a time where bands wore black leather, and wrote dark songs about temptation, broken hearts, and making deals with the devil. Their new album recalls their still-great first two albums, B.R.M.C. and Take Them On, On Your Own with slow-burners and exhilarating rockers that wouldn’t be out of place on the soundtrack of Twin Peaks. That they have survived band shake ups, and the sudden passing of their sound engineer — who was the father of guitarist Robert Levon Been — is a testament to the staying power of a great live act.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club performs Saturday, January 20, at the House of Blues located at 1204 Caroline St. Night Beats opens. Tickets start at $25 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Best chance to see a real-life Oscar nominee
Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann has had a prolific career. First, she fronted the '80s act 'Til Tuesday (remember “Voices Carry”?), then embarked on a critically acclaimed solo career that found her music adored by Hollywood producers. Her Oscar nomination for her song, “Save Me,” for the film Magnolia, and her subsequent appearance at the awards ceremony, was a surreal experience up against established film songwriters. It boosted her career, and she’s put out several fine folk-rock albums since, the latest being another critical hit in 2017’s acoustic-driven Mental Illness.

Aimee Mann performs Saturday, January 20, at The Heights Theater, 339 W 19th St. Jonathan Coulton opens. Tickets are sold out, but are available on the resale market. Doors open at 7 pm.

Best show to feel good about seeing local bands
Some of the best local bands will come together for a good cause Saturday, January 20, for Ashstock: Radiation Rock. The proceeds of the show will go to local dancer and teacher, Ashley Clos, who is fighting two separate forms of cancer. Thankfully, she has a great lineup supporting her cause, headlined by the fabulous, melodic Wild Moccasins. They’ll be joined by other local acts Buxton, BLACKIE, Narcons, Young Mammals, and Limb. If you want to see what’s going on in the Houston music scene, this is the show to attend.

Ashstock: Radiation Rock kicks off Saturday, January 20, at Walter’s Downtown, 1120 Naylor St. Tickets are only $10 at the door. Show starts at 7 pm.

Best comeback after a dumb move
Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson makes up a canceled show from late 2017, after a piece of his live stage set fell on him. He attempted to climb it mid-show — and had to be carted off to the hospital following the accident. He's back, after recuperating, to bring his brand of oft-controversial, glam-inflected, industrial rock to a sea of Manson devotees. He is touring behind last year’s Heaven Upside Down.

Marilyn Manson climbs the stage on Wednesday, January 24, at the House of Blues, 1204 Caroline St. New Years Day opens. Tickets start at $59.50 plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm.

San Francisco's Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will play the House of Blues Saturday, January 20.

Austin Photo Set: tom_black rebel motorcycle club_march 2013_1

Photo by James Minchin III

San Francisco's Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will play the House of Blues Saturday, January 20.

music 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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