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 Jade Bird

Jade Bird is at Heights Theater on April 11.

concerts live music

Movie Review

Glen Powell stumbles in remake of sci-fi classic The Running Man

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Glen Powell in The Running Man.

For all its cheesy ‘80s greatness, the original version of The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was a very loose adaptation of the novel by Stephen King. For the new remake, writer/director Edgar Wright has tried to hue much closer to the story laid out in the book, a decision that has both its positive and negative aspects.

Glen Powell takes over for Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards, a family man/hothead who can’t seem to hold a job in the dystopian America in which he lives. Desperate to take care of his family, he applies to be on one of the many game shows fed to the masses that promise riches in exchange for humiliation or worse. Thanks to his temper, Ben is chosen for the most popular one of all, The Running Man, in which contestants must survive 30 days while hunters, as well as the general population, track them down.

Given a 12-hour head start, Ben earns money for every day he survives, as well as every hunter he eliminates. Since he only has a relatively small amount of money to use as he pleases, Ben must rely on friendly citizens who are willing to put their own lives on the line to help him. That’s a task made even more difficult as the gamemakers, led by Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), use advanced AI to manipulate footage of Ben to make him seem like a guy for which no one should root.

Co-written by Michael Bacall, the film is shockingly uninteresting, working neither as an exciting action film, a fun quippy comedy, or social commentary. The biggest problem is that Wright seems to have no interest in developing any of his characters, starting with Ben. Our introduction to the protagonist is him trying to get his job back, a situation for which there is little context even after we’re beaten over the head with exposition.

The situation in which Ben finds himself should be easy to make sympathetic, but Wright and Bacall speed through scenes that might have emphasized that aspect in favor of ones that make the story less personal. The filmmakers really want to showcase the supposed antagonistic relationship between Ben and Dan (and the system which Dan represents), but all that effort results in little drama.

Ben has a number of close calls, and while those scenes are full of action and violence, almost every one of them feels emotionally inert, as if there was nothing at stake. It doesn’t help that Wright doesn’t set the scene well, making it unclear how far Ben has traveled or who/what he’s up against. There are times when Ben feels surrounded and others when he can walk freely, weird for a society that’s supposed to be under almost complete surveillance.

Powell has been touted as a movie star in the making for several years following his turn in Top Gun: Maverick, but he does little here to make that label stick. With no consistent co-star thanks to the structure of the story, he’s required to carry the film, and he just doesn’t have the juice that a true movie star is supposed to have. Nobody else is served well by the scattershot film, including normally reliable people like Brolin, Colman Domingo, Michael Cera, and Lee Pace.

The Running Man is a big misfire by Wright and a blow to Powell’s star power. On the surface, it has all the hallmarks of an action thriller with a side of social commentary, but nothing it does or says lands in any meaningful way. Schwarzenegger’s one-liners in the original film may have been goofy and over-the-top, but at least they made the movie memorable, which is way more than can be said of the remake.

---

The Running Man opens in theaters on November 14.

movies film