Concert News

100-city tour brings Avatar: The Last Airbender concert to Houston

Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert will hit 100 cities including Houston.

Photo courtesy of GEA Live Marketing (Quatro Entertainment)

Fans will get to experience the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender in a whole new way when the tour Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert comes to Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land on Wednesday, September 18.

This will be the first opportunity for fans to experience the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender in a live format.

The Houston-area concert is part of a massive 100-city worldwide tour set to begin in Düsseldorf, Germany on April 27 and lasting through May 2025.

The tour will spread its love around Texas, with the following stops:

Dallas on September 15
San Antonio on September 19
Austin on September 20
Fort Worth on September 21

In other words, all the five cities where CultureMap has news bureaus. Smart thinking, Avatar.

Presented by Nickelodeon, GEA Live, and Senbla Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert will be an over two-hour show featuring a live orchestra playing the show’s iconic musical score alongside highlights and favorite moments from all three seasons of the series.

Emmy Award-winning composer and musician Jeremy Zuckerman has teamed up with show co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and editor Jeff Adams to expand the series original compositions for the concert series.

Tickets for the tour will go on sale on Friday, April 19at 10 am at Avatarinconcert.com.

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES

SEP 7: Gammage Auditorium | Tempe, AZ
SEP 10: Buell Theatre | Denver, CO
SEP 11: Orpheum Theatre | Omaha, NE
SEP 12: The Fabulous Fox | St. Louis, MO
SEP 13: Des Moines Civic Center | Des Moines, IA
SEP 15: Majestic Theatre | Dallas, TX
SEP 17: Walton Arts Center | Fayetteville, AR
SEP 18: Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land | Sugar Land, TX
SEP 19: Majestic Theatre | San Antonio, TX
SEP 20: Bass Concert Hall | Austin, TX
SEP 21: Will Rogers Auditorium | Fort Worth, TX
SEP 27 & 28: National Theatre | Washington, D.C.
SEP 29: Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts | Greensboro, NC
OCT 1: Mahalia Jackson Theatre | New Orleans, LA
OCT 3: Straz Center | Tampa Bay, FL
OCT 4: West Palm Beach, FL
OCT 5: Walt Disney Theatre | Orlando, FL
OCT 6: Moran Theater | Jacksonville, FL
OCT 8: Kings Theatre | Brooklyn, NY
OCT 9: Met Opera House | Philadelphia, PA
OCT 10: Count Basie Theatre | Red Bank, NJ
OCT 11: Oakdale Theatre | Wallingford, CT
OCT 12: Emerson Colonial Theater | Boston, MA
OCT 13: New Jersey Performing Arts Center | Newark, NJ
OCT 15: Belk Theatre | Charlotte, NC
OCT 16: The Hippodome Theatre | Baltimore, MD
OCT 17: KeyBank State Theatre | Cleveland, OH
OCT 18: Miller High Life Theatre | Milwaukee, WI
OCT 19: Cadillac Palace Theatre | Chicago, IL
OCT 20: Fisher Theatre | Detroit, MI
OCT 24: Palace Theatre | Columbus, OH
OCT 25: Overture Center For The Arts | Madison, WI
OCT 26: Murat Theatre | Indianapolis, IN
OCT 27: Andrew Jackson Hall | Nashville, TN
OCT 29: The Kentucky Center | Louisville, KY
OCT 30: Procter and Gamble Hall | Cincinnati, OH
NOV 2: Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts | Kansas CIty, MO
NOV 3: Orpheum Theatre | Minneapolis, MN
NOV 6: First Interstate Center for the Arts | Spokane, WA
NOV 7: Hult Center | Eugene, OR
NOV 8: Keller Auditorium Hall | Portland, OR
NOV 9: Moore Theatre | Seattle, WA
NOV 11: Velma V. Morrison Center for the Performing Arts | Boise, ID
NOV 12: Eccles Theatre | Salt Lake City, UT
NOV 14: SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center | Sacramento, CA
NOV 15: Fox Theatre | Riverside, CA
NOV 16: Reynolds Hall | Las Vegas, NV
NOV 17: Segerstrom Center for the Arts | Costa Mesa, CA
NOV 19 & 20: San Jose Center for the Performing Arts | San Jose, CA
NOV 21: San Diego Civic Center | San Diego, CA
NOV 22 & 23: Los Angeles, CA
NOV 24: Centennial Hall | Tucson, AZ

Movie Review

Evil Dead Burn maintains this year's streak of top-notch horror movies

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Luciane Buchanan in Evil Dead Burn.

Horror franchises tend to endure because of several reasons. First and foremost, the title conjures up nostalgia for older viewers, as the many of the most popular ones started in the 1970s or ‘80s. Sequels can recycle key elements of past films as long as they tweak the formula enough to offer something original. And they’re also relatively cheap to make, as new films can bring in young or lesser-known actors to be terrorized.

All of those reasons make Evil Dead Burn a smashing success, giving viewers reminders of the past while still becoming its own thing. The film is almost non-stop from the jump as a series of people, known colloquially as “deadites,” get infected by a malevolent force. A long, 15-minute opening set piece introduces the main characters, including Alice (Souhelia Yacob), her brother-in-law Joseph (Hunter Doohan), his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan), and his parents, Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgar (Erroll Shand).

They’re all mourning the death of Alice’s husband Will (George Pullar), who they think died while driving drunk. However, the infection in Will’s corpse soon latches on to Edgar, whose descent into murderous rage is initially masked by his intense grief. With the family all gathered together in an older, decaying home, no one is safe from the rampage of the supernatural force.

Written and directed by French filmmaker Sébastien Vanicek and co-written by Florent Bernard, the film is aimed directly at horror fanatics who are used to copious amounts of blood and gore. From the opening scene to the film’s final intense moments, Vanicek and his team come up with numerous hide-your-eyes sequences that test the stomachs of weak-willed viewers. But for those who can’t get enough of such things, they also indicate a creativity and willingness to push boundaries that is both thrilling and entertaining.

While some previous entries in the Evil Dead series leaned comedic, this entry follows the previous two films in 2013 and 2023 as as a pure horror. However, that doesn’t mean that the film is devoid of lightness. One of the most enjoyable aspects is Vanicek comically adhering to the concept of Chekhov’s gun. So many different potential weapons are introduced and later used that you can’t help but laugh when they come into play.

Ultimately, it’s the performances by the lesser-known cast that make the movie what it is. Doohan (Wednesday) plays a mild-mannered character who seems to be the main protagonist early on, but he cedes the spotlight to Yacob as the film goes along. The French actress knows how to hold the screen through both her actions and line deliveries. Shand, with his craggy face and bald head, turns into a superior villain, able to chill with just his intense stare.

Evil Dead Burn is not for everybody, but it’s another great addition to what’s turning out to be a banner year for horror movies. With highly effective, cringeworthy action sequences, moments that lighten the mood when needed, and a cast that carries the story, it’s an announcement of bigger things to come for all involved.

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Evil Dead Burn opens in theaters on July 10.

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100-city tour brings Avatar: The Last Airbender concert to Houston

Movie Review

Evil Dead Burn maintains this year's streak of top-notch horror movies

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