Live Music Now

These are the 7 best concerts in Houston this week

It's only a few weeks away and we still don't have any word who will be playing at Travis Scott's second edition of Astroworld Festival at NRG Park on November 9, which follows last year's model of not releasing the line-up until the day before the event.

Let's hope Scott is up to starring at his own party after dislocating his knee at the Rolling Loud festival in New York City a few weeks ago.

Rumors are rampant around the line-up with some whispers claiming that Pharrell Williams is being targeted as a headliner for the event, but nothing is concrete at this point. Not that it matters. The show is sold-out. And if last year was any indication (Post Malone and other big name hip-hop stars), this year's bill will be just a huge.

Thankfully, we know exactly who will play this week on Houston stages. The CultureMap shows of the week are:

The Suffers at Houston Zoo
After being on the road extensively since the release of their second album, Everything Here, everyone's favorite Houston-based Gulf Coast soul act The Suffers are back home for a spell with talk of the group starting work on their third album.

They will play the unique Feasts with the Beasts event at the Houston Zoo. The 14th annual edition will feature tastings by some of the best Bayou City restaurants. The last time they played a ticketed show in Houston, they immediately sold out. This is a great chance to see the city's best band, hang with some cool animals, and nosh on some choice eats.

The Suffers are at the Houston Feast with the Beasts at the Houston Zoo, located at 6200 Hermann Park Dr., on Friday, November 1. Tickets start at $119 plus fees. The event starts at 7 pm.

CultureMap show of the week: The Chainsmokers at Toyota Center
The Chainsmokers — EDM duo Alex Pall and Drew Taggart — aren't going to win any awards for songwriting prowess any time soon, but they remain one of the biggest draws in the post-electronic music commercial golden age.

Case in point: Back in 2017, the drew nearly 75,000 to NRG Stadium during RodeoHouston to see their version of beats, lights, and lasers — one of the biggest surprises of rodeo season. Since then, they've been plugging away with more of the same, bright electro house so prevalent on Top 40 radio while trying to earn some credibility with critics to mixed results, summed up by their newest EP, World War Joy. But for anyone who's into this type of show, this one will be big, dumb fun.

The Chainsmokers play Toyota Center, located at 1510 Polk St., on Saturday, November 2. 5 Seconds of Summer and Lennon Stella open. Tickets start at $29.50 plus service fees. Doors open at 6 pm.

CultureMap recommends: Khruangbin at White Oak
This performance has the feeling of being one of those "I was there when" experiences. Houston's largely instrumental Khruangbin is slowly morphing into a major success story, one of the coolest acts in the game right now, gaining major notice by international music publications for their thrilling melange of funk, hip-hop rhythms, '60s and '70s psych-rock, surf rock and soul, Eastern influences, and killer stage presence, down to the wigs worn by guitarist Mark Speer and bassist Laura Lee.

Joined by talented drummer Donald Johnson Jr., the trio made waves with Con Todo El Mundo, which led them to touring across the globe. This one feels like a homecoming with a lawn show serving as a coming out party for a group that is about to blast off.

Khruangbin is at White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 N. Main St., on Saturday, November 2. Tickets start at $29.50 plus fees. Gates open at 7 pm.

Young Thug at NRG Arena
Some trivia for you: Young Thug won a Grammy for Song of the Year for contributions to Childish Gambino's "This is America." The auto-tuned Atlanta rapper also hit No. 1 as a guest vocalist on Camila Cabello's "Havana."

But now, the fashion forward hip-hop star is taking a turn in the spotlight with his first major headline tour following the release of his full-length debut, So Much Fun. He'll be joined by SNL star Pete Davidson's best friend on this H-town tour stop, Machine Gun Kelly.

Young Thug performs at NRG Arena, located at 1 NRG Pkwy, on Saturday, November 2. Machine Gun Kelly opens. Tickets start at $18 plus fees. Doors open at 6 pm.

Jade Bird at HOB
British born singer-songwriter Jade Bird sounds like she was brought up in Greenwich Village, New York in the era of Bob Dylan rather than London in the 2010s. Her confessional style is reminiscent of the current wave of female folk-rock and Americana acts like Maggie Rogers or Lucy Dacus.

In other words, she's pretty darn good. Her debut, self-titled full-length is fire. "Lottery" could be a Phoebe Bridgers song. "Uh Huh" sounds like a lost track by Courtney Barnett. If you want to experience what intimate shows are all about, this is a good place to start. This has a chance to be magic.

Jade Bird performs at House of Blues, located at 1204 Caroline St., on Saturday, November 2. Flyte opens. Tickets start at $18 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Trisha Yearwood at Smart Financial
The queen of country takes time off from her multi-million home cooking empire to get back to doing what she does best. Trisha Yearwood left Garth Brooks in charge of their Oklahoma estate to hit the road behind her latest album, this year's acclaimed Every Girl. She'll be playing what could be considered an intimate show in Sugar Land when she easily could have headlined larger venues.

Yearwood headlined RodeoHouston in 1994 and 2006, as well as costarred with her husband to close out the 2018 edition. Lucky for her Houston-area fans that she'll bring countless country chart hits from her nearly 30-year, multi-Grammy award winning catalog, including "She's In Love with the Boy," "Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love," and "XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)."

Trisha Yearwood performs at Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land, located at 18111 Lexington Blvd. in Sugar Land on Sunday, November 3. Caylee Hammack opens. Tickets start at $39.50 plus fees. The show starts at 7:30 pm.

Schoolboy Q
Once associated with Kendrick Lamar, the South Central, Los Angeles-raised Schoolboy Q launched his own successful hip-hop career in 2011 and has since been known as one of the smartest rappers in the game, just like his name suggests.

After a couple of well-received independent albums, Q landed at the influential Interscope Records and hit No. 1 with his major label debut, Oxymoron. Since then, he's collaborated with Kanye West, Macklemore, and the late Mac Miller. His newest album, Crash Talk, entered the charts at No. 3 when released earlier this year.

Schoolboy Q plays Revention Music Center, located at 520 Texas Ave., on Monday, November 4. NAV opens. Tickets start at $37.50 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

H-town's The Suffers perform at Houston Zoo's Feast with the Beasts on Friday, Nov. 1.

Daniel Jackson

H-town's The Suffers perform at Houston Zoo's Feast with the Beasts on Friday, Nov. 1.

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Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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