Music Matters

Concert picks of the week: Two Billy's and a "Not so Silent Night"

British rapper Jay Sean at Verizon Wireless Theater

If last week’s all-Saturday night slate of CultureMap concert picks presented any quandaries for those who had early Sunday morning church service, this week’s picks should be a revelation (no pun intended… sort of).

In an effort to get the holiday week started off right, the best shows in Houston are all on Friday night.

Even touring artists want to go home for the holidays. In that spirit, Houston should be the last stop (or maybe second-to-last stop) for these folks before they pack up the guitars and point the tour bus in the direction of family and eggnog.

Friday

“104.1 FM, KRBE Not So Silent Night,” featuring All-American Rejects, Cobra Starship, Jay Sean and Justin Bieber at the Verizon Wireless Theater

Look closely at this line-up, friends. This is the future of your FM dial (or, for the more technologically advanced, satellite new rock stations). If top 40 pop-rock is your genre of choice then you won’t want to miss this line-up of up-and-comers who one day in the not-too-distant future could all be headlining their own shows.

The All-American Rejects are the best known of the bunch and those who enjoyed year-old third album, “When the World Comes Down,” will want to mark this date as a “cant-miss.” The band has dubbed this month of dates as the last in support of the album before they go into the studio to create new songs in 2010.

No doubt, that older AAR favorites like “Swing, Swing” and “Dirty Little Secret” will make the set list as well.

Cobra Starship adds a much needed blast of smart-aleck teenage pop and British beatboxer Jay Sean will add the thump. But the most curious member of this line-up is Justin Bieber. Riding a wave of cotton candy-coated pop confection hits like “Favorite Girl” and “One Time,” it’s possible he’s getting ready to be the “It” boy of teeny-bop for 2010.

If so, this will definitely be the most intimate setting he’ll ever play in Houston.

Sold out, but KRBE listeners have a chance to win tickets. Tune in at 11:07 a.m. for a chance to meet Jay Sean, 2:37 p.m. for a chance to meet Cobra Starship and 4-7 p.m. for a chance to meet Justin Bieber. 714-490-KRBE.

Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters at Fitzgerald’s

To see a movie star like Billy Bob Thornton (yes, the BBT who was married to Angelina Jolie and liked “french-fried ‘taters” in Sling Blade) trying to expand his artistic range on a small club concert stage, one normally has to pay big bucks to attend a music conference like South by Southwest. This is a rare chance to see a show like that for a mere $20 ($15 in advance).

Even if it’s not the most inspired night of music you’ll ever see, Billy Bob and his band have proven over the last few years to be musically competent and much better than your average local bar band.

And give Thornton and his band points for having guts. It takes a lot of belief in the music to come down to this part of Texas playing rockabilly and electric country and expect to win a crowd. (It doesn’t help that Billy Bob and The Boxmasters dropped out of a Canadian tour supporting Willie Nelson earlier this year for reasons that are still not totally clear).

Curiously, Thornton does not place himself front-and-center like past actors-gone-rock-stars Russell Crowe and Juliette Lewis. He sings, but he does so from the behind the drum kit.

Give it a chance. You may like it enough to buy a copy of The Boxmasters new album, “Modbilly.” Or you may just have a good story about seeing a celebrity perform in a great ol’ Houston landmark. Either way it’s a win-win.

Ticket $15-$20.

Billie Joe Shaver at the Firehouse Saloon

It has been said that the key to being a successful songwriter is experiencing enough life and strife to keep the artist well supplied with material. If that’s true, Corsicana native Billy Joe Shaver has enough lyrical fodder for about the next 200 years.

Shaver has worked for the military and as a rodeo cowboy. He’s been married, divorced, married and divorced again… and that was just to the woman who gave birth to his son, Eddy.

He, sadly, lost both his wife and mother to cancer in 1999 and tragically lost his son, guitarist and songwriter Eddy Shaver, to a heroin overdose a year later.

Through it all Shaver has kept on writing and stayed on the road touring for some 35 years now. Some say his first album, 1973’s “Old Five and Dimers Like Me” is a classic outlaw country album, (with all due respect to Willie, Johnny, Waylon and Kris). Others feel he represents the definition of “Texas music” about as well as anybody could.

Whatever, you believe, come hear his stories set to song. It’s well worth the price of admission for a man who’s given a lot for his art.

Tickets $15.

British rapper Jay Sean at Verizon Wireless Theater

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Movie Review

Over-the-top acting and incoherent plot drag down Her Private Hell

Photo courtesy of Neon

Sophie Thatcher in Her Private Hell.

Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn is not someone who plays nice with the general film world. His 2011 film Drive introduced him to American audiences in a big way, but that pulsating thriller was followed up with artier films like Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon that eschewed coherent plots in favor of moody, atmospheric pieces.

Winding Refn, who hasn’t made a feature film in 10 years, has gone fully down the rabbit hole with Her Private Hell. Taking place in a liminal space that kind of resembles Earth but also feels like someone’s dreams/nightmares, the film focuses on Elle (Sophie Thatcher), an actor currently starring in a sci-fi film. Staying at a hotel with newcomer Hunter (Kristine Froseth), the two bond over their shared passion and the legend of Elle’s father, Johnny Thunders (Dougray Scott), who’s now married to Elle’s friend Dominique (Havana Rose Liu).

After spending a good amount of (mostly incomprehensible) time with that group, Refn introduces Private K (Charles Melton), who seems to be living in post-World War II Japan. He is looking for his daughter, who might have been taken by a mysterious figure known as “Leatherman,” and he will stop at nothing to find her, fighting whoever stands in his way.

It becomes clear almost right away that Winding Refn has no desire to engage in traditional storytelling in this film. The main characters wander through neon-drenched streets and buildings, which are often surrounded by a mist that is referred to on multiple occasions but never explained. Everyone speaks as if in a constant state of wonderment, and there are many moments where it’s unclear if events are actually happening, part of a movie-within-a-movie, or something else entirely.

Unlike his previous films, Winding Refn has taken the characters in this film completely out of the real world, with every scene taking place in a sparsely decorated room or street that is obviously a movie set. While there are moments where this decision really works, especially the striking first shot of a human-like figure mixed in with a cityscape and clouds, most of the time it only adds to the stilted nature of the film as a whole.

In fact, the entire movie has the feel of an avant-garde theater exercise. Every actor seems to be trying to outdo the others with awkward performances and out-sized reactions. Two very specific characters make appearances in both sides of the story for seemingly no reason other than to inject their weirdness into both spaces. The shocking violence that crops up on occasion would have more of an impact if it was related to anything intelligible.

Thatcher (Companion) and Liu (Tuner) are among the young stars who have had breakout moments in recent years, but neither of them is served well by this hot mess of a movie. They, along with Melton, still demonstrate the talent they possess, but the oddity of the film weighs them down. Scott makes an impression for all the wrong reasons, while Froseth is called upon to play a character who might as well not be there at all.

If there’s any kind of message that Winding Refn was trying to convey with Her Private Hell, it’s lost among the flashing lights, overload of pink, and jewel-like structures. Filmmakers who try to make art for art’s sake have a place in the world, but this film too often feels like people are making things up as they go, with no real goal in mind.

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Her Private Hell opens in theaters on July 24.

movies film

Music Matters

Concert picks of the week: Two Billy's and a "Not so Silent Night"

British rapper Jay Sean at Verizon Wireless Theater

Movie Review

Over-the-top acting and incoherent plot drag down Her Private Hell

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