April's Best Concerts

Rolling Stones and Bad Bunny headline Houston's 8 best concerts in April

After a thrilling, record-setting RodeoHouston season, we get back to our regularly scheduled programming of top-tier shows as the 2024 concert year heats up with marquee names gracing Bayou City stages.

National and international touring artists are back on the road with gusto, ticket prices showing no signs of abating from their post-pandemic inflation highs, forcing music fans to either take out another mortgage or get very selective as to how they spend their entertainment dollars. Whether its legacy acts squeezing out a few more tours before they call it a day or performers working at their peak with multiple headline shows in each city, it’s a multitude of riches for those who enjoy live music.

The following are the biggest and best concerts taking place in Houston this April.

The Black Crowes, April 5, 713 Music Hall
The brothers Robinson, Craig and Rich, aka The Black Crowes are celebrating 40 years as a band when they bring their Happiness Bastards tour to town. The tour moniker may be a sly nod to the issues the siblings faced over the years, reuniting in 2019 following a long hiatus fueled by bad blood between the two. But there is no denying the power of their blues-fueled American rock that produced a number of hits and made them stars in the ‘90s, such as “Remedy,” “Jealous Again,” and “She Talks to Angels,” selling over 30 million albums in the process. Amplified Heat opens.

Lauren Daigle, April 11, Toyota Center
Simply put, Lauren Daigle is one of the biggest Christian artists in the game right now, as evidenced by a headlining RodeoHouston in 2023. She burst onto the scene in 2015 with the crossover smash album, How Can It Be, which achieved platinum status, followed by two more hit records, the two-time platinum, No. 3 charting Look Up Child, and last year’s self-titled album. Her high-energy shows and positive message have earned her a devout following across the U.S.

Jade Bird, April 11, Heights Theater
A supremely talented British singer-songwriter, Jade Bird recently moved to Austin to pursue her career further after garnering critical and commercial acclaim across the pond with her self-titled debut in 2019, released at the tender age of 21. Her follow-up, Different Kinds of Light, only strengthened her songwriting prowess, calling on alt-rock, Britpop, indie and folk sounds with a fierce, heartfelt vocal delivery. She’ll be celebrating her latest EP, Burn the Hard Drive, out on April 10.

Adam Ant and The English Beat, April 20, Bayou Music Center
U.K. New Wave legend Adam Ant and ska-influenced The English Beat recall a time of eye-catching outfits, art school cool, synth-heavy melodies and inescapable hooks that ruled MTV and pop radio. Adam Ant broke huge around the world with “Goody Two Shoes” and “Stand and Deliver.” The English Beat, while not as high-profile as Adam Ant, had their fair share of hits as a beloved cult act behind songs such as “Mirror in the Bathroom” and “Save it for Later,” garnering radio-friendly popularity in their ‘80s heyday.

Social Distortion and Bad Religion, April 22, Bayou Music Center
Two of the best bands of their genre, SoCal punks Social Distortion and Bad Religion are a big reason that punk crossed over to the mainstream in the ‘90s, paving the way for countless acts such as Green Day, Offspring, Rancid, and Blink-182. Social D’s early ‘90s output, their 1990 self-titled album and 1992’s Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, next to Bad Religion’s No Control (1989) and Against the Grain (1990), are high-water marks, injecting socially progressive songwriting smarts on top of three-chord guitar assaults. It was only time before alt-rock radio came calling, transforming music forever.

Kane Brown, April 27, Toyota Center
A five-time American Music Award winner and rising country star, Tennessee-raised Kane Brown is riding a wave right now, with three Top 5 albums under his belt and number No. 1 country singles, including “What Ifs,” “Thank God,” “Heaven,” and “I Can Feel It.” The two-time RodeoHouston headliner is a steady presence on the country touring circuit whose spotlight and pop chart appeal seemingly grows with each successive year. Tyler Hubbard and Parmalee open.

Rolling Stones, April 28, NRG Stadium
Down to two original members following the sad passing of steady drummer Charlie Watts in 2021, The Rolling Stones – rock icons Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and gang – continue their seemingly non-stop touring to sold out stadiums worldwide, this time touring their pretty-good 31st studio album, Hackney Diamonds. While they have nothing left to prove, the now-octogenarians remain a huge draw because they have countless hit songs to pull from and they still bring the heat in a live setting, showing up bands 50 years their junior with insane energy and live visuals. Every time might be the last time we see them perform, so make plans accordingly.

Bad Bunny, April 30 and May 1, Toyota Center
After two sold-out shows at Minute Maid Park in late-2022, Latin superstar Bad Bunny will get comparably intimate with his rabid fanbase at two headline shows at Toyota Center for his Most Wanted tour. The prolific, Puerto Rican King of Trap is touring behind his 2023 album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, another offering of Latin soul, pop, R&B, trap, and reggaeton. It’s hard to state how much Bad Bunny has done for popularizing Latin music in the last decade, but it’s safe to say this is an opportunity to see a game-changing artist at his peak.

Photo courtesy of The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones hit NRG Stadium on April 28 for the Hackney Diamonds tour.

concerts live music

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.

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