Live Music Now

These are the 5 best concerts in Houston this week

RodeoHouston is right around the corner, which usually means a dip in larger shows coming through town. Thankfully, rock and hip-hop fans will be satiated with some big name acts before Houston goes all boots and saddles for three weeks, kicking off with a powerhouse multiple Grammy Award winner next Monday.

CultureMap's best, biggest, and most notable shows of the week are:

CultureMap show of the week: Muse
Monster British rock trio Muse got off to a slow start. First compared to Radiohead upon their debut album, Showbiz, in 1999, they made a small dent on the U.K. charts and barely a blip in the U.S. But a tour slot on the 2004 Curiousa Festival bill alongside heavyweights The Cure and a fantastic album, Absolution, started their ascent, eventually culminating in albums and singles placing near or at the top of the U.S. charts and multiple headline festival slots, solidifying them as one of the best live acts in the world.

Critics may not love them, but there is no denying that Muse can seduce audiences like few other bands with their mix of glam, prog rock, and Queen-like theatrics. This is a can’t miss performance for any rock fan with the group having eight albums to pull a truckload of great tunes from, the latest being 2018’s Simulation Theory..

Muse takes over Toyota Center, located at 1510 Polk St., on Friday, February 22. Tickets start at $39.50 plus fees. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Meek Mill at Revention
Philly rapper Meek Mill’s career started out promising enough, his debut album, Dreams and Nightmares, reaching No. 2 on the charts. But his long list of run-ins with the law meant that he missed out on possibly millions of dollars in recordings and touring time. But his legal woes seemed to up the spotlight. Following the latest release from prison last year, Mill released his latest album, Championships, which went straight to No. 1, and he was invited to perform on Saturday Night Live. Unfortunately, this show is sold out with the only hopes of getting in the resale ticket market, but the hype is strong with this one.

Meek Mill is at Revention Music Center, located at 520 Texas Ave., on Saturday, February 23. Tickets start at $85 plus fees on the resale market. Doors open at 7 pm.

John Oates at Heights Theater
One-half of the classic ’80s group, Hall and Oates, John Oates is mostly known for his guitar work in that duo, but he’s also an underrated singer. While his first group was a going concern throughout much of the ’80s, Oates spread his wings in the early-2000s with a solo career, producing five albums under his own name. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is touring behind 2018’s Arkansas, which is much more influenced by blues, jazz, and gospel than the pop music of his early career.

John Oates performs at the Heights Theater, located at 339 W 19th St., on Saturday, February 23. Vanessa Peters opens. Tickets start at $24 plus a $6 service charge. Doors open 7 pm.

Cypress Hill at HOB
Cypress Hill rose to fame in the early-’90s, speaking to a generation of suburban kids with the group’s undeniably catchy melodies and off-the-wall lyrics a la nasal voiced B Real. Singles “How Could I Just Kill a Man,” and “Insane in the Brain” pervaded U.S. youth culture before harder-edged gangster acts shuffled Hill’s stoner-rap to the sidelines. But nostalgia being a powerful motivator and ticket seller, Cypress Hill is back on the road, promoting their latest album, 2018’s Elephants on Acid, sticking largely to their sticky-icky rap playbook.

Cypress Hill lights up the House of Blues, located at 1204 Caroline St., on Sunday, February 24. Hollywood Undead open. Tickets start at $34.50 plus fees. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

CultureMap recommends: Kacey Musgraves
When CultureMap spoke to Jason Kane, managing director of entertainment for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, at the annual RodeoHouston artist line-up announcement in January, he said Kacey Musgraves had been on his radar as a possible performer for the last few years.

Then she released the critically and commercially acclaimed, Golden Hour. Kane smartly booked the crossover country-pop star to open RodeoHouston festivities and she went on to win four Grammy Awards, including Best Album. Other than Cardi B (set to perform at Rodeo Houston on March 1), no other star is going supernova like Musgraves is right now.

Kacey Musgraves opens RodeoHouston at NRG Stadium, located at 1 NRG Pkwy., on Monday, February 25. Tickets start at $20 plus fees. Doors open at 6:45 pm.

The massive British rock band Muse is at Toyota Center on Friday, February 22.

Photo by Danny Clinch

The massive British rock band Muse is at Toyota Center on Friday, February 22.

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Movie Review

Fun visuals can't save The Magic Faraway Tree's meager plot

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree.

With kids and families always on the hunt for entertainment, it’s typically a safe bet for a movie studio to offer up something new, even if it is a film based on an old property. The Magic Faraway Tree, based on a series of books that started in the 1930s, is a very old property, one that its filmmakers have tried to liven up with a few stars, a lot of whimsy, and a boatload of CGI.

The Thompson family, led by stay-at-home dad Tim (Andrew Garfield) and breadwinner mom Polly (Claire Foy), are forced to move to a rundown country home when Polly gets laid off. The kids — Joe (Phoenix Laroche), Fran (Billie Gadson), and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) — are used to the perks of city life like wifi and electricity, and each of them rebels in their own way to their new lot in life.

Fran, enticed by a fairy named Silky (Nicola Coughlan), is the first to venture out of the house, making her way to a magic tree that transports her to a world full of strange characters like Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and more. Her adventures there not only broaden the world she thought she knew, but may be the key to helping her ailing family.

Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Wonka), the film is a pleasant enough lark, but it fails to fully capture the imagination. The five-member family has a lot going on, from an initially-mute Fran to a domestic situation that raises more questions than it answers. The film tries to incorporate an anti-technology message through Tim’s hatred of a smart refrigerator (voiced by Judi Dench!) and the kids' addictions to devices, but it’s quickly shed in favor of other options.

Once Fran makes it to the Magic Faraway Tree, there’s a nice shift in the storytelling, but it’s unclear what the ultimate goal is. It’s a good idea to have Fran, the youngest of the children, convince her older, more cynical siblings about the virtues of the magic world, but the conflict in the real world doesn’t seem to rise to the level needed for the escape the tree provides.

There also seems to be a missing link in the storytelling for viewers to understand the importance of the fantastical characters. The visuals of seeing Moonface and his crescent moon-shaped hair, a man with a suit full of banging pots, and more are fun for a while, but not enough to carry the whole film. A last-minute revelation feels like it was something that should have been disclosed much earlier to help strengthen the emotions of the story.

A two-time Oscar nominee, Garfield is making his first foray into family movies (if you don’t count playing Spider-Man), and while he does a good job, he doesn’t make the best fit for the semi-goofy role. The same goes for the Emmy-winning Foy, who isn’t given much of anything to do. The movie puts the story on the shoulders of the three child actors, and while each of them acquit themselves well, none of them are so outstanding as to be noteworthy.

With nearly 90-year-old source material, The Magic Faraway Tree needed to be something truly special to stand out in the 21st century movie world. Unfortunately, it features a mostly forgettable story that features some fun visuals, a couple of cute kids, and not much else.

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The Magic Faraway Tree is now playing in theaters.

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