Live Music Now

Here are the 6 best concerts in Houston this week

The concert season is slowing down ahead of Thanksgiving next week and the cold weather, but that doesn't mean plans aren't being made for sunnier and warmer days.

This week, British trio and arguably the biggest rock band in the world, Muse, announced they would kick off their Simulation Theory world tour in earnest right here in in Houston. The fact that they will place the more intimate confines of the Toyota Center, as opposed to a music festival or ampitheater, will make this one of the hottest tickets of the 2019. Tickets are on sale now and come with a copy of their latest album and tour namesake, Simulation Theory.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of shows to warm up with this week in the Bayou City. Here are CultureMap's biggest, best, and most notable shows of the week:

Ben Rector
Want to know how fast Americana/pop-rock singer-songwriter Ben Rector's star is rising? His latest album, Magic, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard magazine's Americana/Folk album chart, dethroning Chris Stapleton's 111-week run in that position. That's impressive. The Nashville-based piano player is on his biggest tour yet, Rector's new album isn't really Americana. It's more in line with the more upbeat odes by Coldplay or OneRepublic, so it's no surprise he's catching on in a big way.

Ben Rector performs at the Revention Music Center, located at 520 Texas Ave., on Wednesday, November 14. The Band Camino opens. Tickets start at $30 plus service fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

CultureMap recommends: Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles
Considered one of the the best Hammond organ players in the game right now, Cory Henry rolls into town with his band, the Funk Apostles, a collective of top-rate players. The two-time Grammy award winner is a master at mixing genres, including jazz, soul, R&B, and pop, meaning it'll be necessary to do some stretching before this show at the intimate Heights Theater as the grooves are set to commence. The group is touring behind their debut album, Love Will Find a Way.

Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles hit the Heights Theater, located at 339 W. 19th St., on Friday, November 16. Tickets start at $22 plus a $6 service fee. Doors open at 7 pm.

CultureMap show of the week: AstroWorld Festival
The biggest question on everyone's lips in the local music scene is who is going to play the AstroWorld Festival this weekend at NRG Park? We all know Houston's own Travis Scott will headline, promoting the album of the same name, and his partner, Kylie Jenner will be selling make-up. But organizers thus far abstained from revealing any other performers.

Inside sources told CultureMap that Post Malone, Lil' Wayne, and Rae Sremmurd will make appearances with a potential surprise guest, but take that with a grain of salt until the official word comes down. That hasn't stopped fans from snatching up all the tickets to this thing that no one really knows much about. Maybe the mystery is the point (insert chin-scratching emoji here)? Although we're not sure what point organizers were trying to make in keeping it a secret.

AstroWorld Festival takes place at NRG Park, located at 1 NRG Pwky, on Saturday, November 17. Tickets start at $119 (but may have to be purchased on the re-sale market). Gates open at noon. An after-party will go down at Spire Nightclub, located at 1720 Main St. Tickets are $50 plus service fees. Doors open at 10 pm.

Glo-stick nation: DJ Irene
Raver kids, time to pull out those phat pants, pacifiers, and candy necklaces. Houston had a pretty thriving underground rave scene in the late-'90s/early-2000s and very few DJs were more popular than house master DJ Irene. The Los Angeles-based producer has been a mainstay on the dance music circuit for 20 years and widely beloved by fans for her hard and funky beats and melodic, progressive interludes. There's no doubt that EDM wouldn't have blown up in the U.S. without her influence. This set will be a real treat for those who love to put their dancing shoes to the test.

DJ Irene comes to Gravity Nightclub, located at 2401 South Main St., on Saturday, November 17. Tickets start at $10 plus service fees. Doors open at 9 pm.

Iceage and The Black Lips
Danish post-punk band Iceage rolls into town for its second show of the year, this time at the bigger White Oak stage, largely based on the reception of one of the best albums of the year, Beyondless. Mixing the throwaway vocal stylings that recall The Strokes, fierce melodic punk of The Clash and The Ramones, with a dash of Joy Division, Iceage is one of the most exciting alt-rock acts going right now. They'll be joined by Atlanta garage-rock act, The Black Lips, meaning lots of bang for your buck when purchasing a ticket.

Iceage and The Black Lips co-headline at White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 N Main St., on Sunday, November 18. Surfbort opens. Tickets start at $20 plus a $8.53 service fee. Doors open at 7 pm.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
"Wake up, wake up, wake up — it's the first of the month..." With that opening refrain from "1st of tha Month," Bone Thugs-N-Harmony blasted on the the radar of hip-hop fans everywhere, combining mind-blowing lyrical prowess with impressivly layered, well, harmonies into a multi-platinum selling package that made the group one of the most popular acts of the '90s with huge hits such as "Tha Crossroads," "Thuggish Ruggish Bone," and "Young Thugs." This show in the tiny space that is Scout Bar should make a certain subset of '90s kids very happy.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony meet you at the crossroads that is Scout Bar, located at 18307 Egret Bay Blvd., on Monday, November 19. Tickets start at $35 plus fees. Doors open at 8 pm.

Americana singer Ben Rector performs at Revention Music Center on Thursday, November 15.

Cameron Powell

Americana singer Ben Rector performs at Revention Music Center on Thursday, November 15.

concerts music nightlife column

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

movies film