Ranking August's best concerts

Ranking the top 12 must-see concerts in Houston this month

Luke Comb at his November 2021 concert at AT&T Stadium.

Photo courtesy of Luke Combs

August is easily the busiest month of the year for live music throughout the Bayou City in 2024. The biggest venues will be packed with high profile artists strutting their stuff throughout the Greater Houston area.

Have a hankering to see country stars at their commercial and artistic peak? You got 'em. What about faves from across the rock and roll spectrum? No problem. Rising and established rap stars? Absolutely.

Digging through all the lineups, CultureMap is ranking the 12 most notable to help narrow down your concert calendar. That means many beloved acts got the short straw (sorry Third Eye Blind and 311), but honesty is always the best policy when it comes to a night out.

Did we get the order right? Sound off on social media (as if you need our permission).

1. Luke Combs, August 9 and 10, NRG Stadium
How big is certified country star Luke Combs? He’s performed at NRG Stadium before, formerly at the 2019 edition of RodeoHouston. Since then, he’s taken his career to a stratospheric level, recently breaking the internet for his emotional duet of “Fast Car” with Tracy Chapman at the 2024 Grammy awards.

Seemingly vying with Morgan Wallen for the crown as the top modern male country artist in the world, Combs has racked up 17 No. 1 songs across his eight-year stint as a professional performer. He’s parlayed his mega-wattage into a two-night stint headlining NRG Stadium as part of his Growing Up and Getting Old tour, a feat few performers can claim. He’ll bring Cody Jinks, Charles Wesley Godwin, Hailey Whitters, and The Wilder Blue on the Friday date and Jordan Davis, Mitchell Tenpenny, Drew Parker, Colby Acuff on Saturday night.

2. Def Leppard, Journey and Steve Miller Band, August 14, Minute Maid Park
Hair metal heads, unite! Def Leppard continues to be a rock juggernaut, long after their ‘80s heyday, with numerous songs still seeping into our daily lives via seemingly continuous radio play (“Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Photograph,” “Love Bites”) and younger artists discovering the guilty-pleasure riffage of the UK band (see Miley Cyrus’ recent appearance). Over 100 million albums sold can’t be wrong.

They’ll be joined on their Summer Stadium tour by a great lineup in Journey and the Steve Miller Band. The former last filled their own large-scale venue, playing to 72,000 at NRG Stadium back in 2022 at RodeoHouston, proving that the fans of the band – sans original vocalist Steve Perry – don’t stop believing in their live chops. Seventies giants, The Steve Miller Band, won’t be an afterthought, with countless hits of their own (“The Joker,” “Rock’n Me,” “Take the Money and Run”).

3. Chris Stapleton & Miranda Lambert, August 24, Minute Maid Park
Not to be outdone, one of Houston’s favorite country artists, Chris Stapleton, will also play to a packed audience at the confines of Minute Maid Park. The gravel-voiced, Nashville-based success story plays almost every year in H-town, but that hasn’t damped ticket sales for the “Tennessee Whiskey” crooner’s All-American Road Show tour.

He’ll be joined by solo country star, Miranda Lambert, who has been just as successful with her first seven albums going platinum. The bombshell blonde from Lindale, Texas first rose to fame after an appearance on the reality music competition, Nashville Star, in 2004 and since racked up No. 1 country hits in “The House That Built Me,” “Mama’s Broken Heart,” and “Bluebird.”

Grace Potter opens.

4. Future & Metro Boomin, August 12, Toyota Center
Forget about Drake and Kendrick. The prolific, three-time Grammy Award-winning artist Future touts one of the most impressive careers going, now playing arenas with producer Metro Boomin on the We Trust You Tour. Rising out of the legendary Atlanta Dungeon Family (OutKast, CeeLo Green), Future boasts ten No. 1 albums and a whopping 117 singles (61 as a featured artist). Maybe because he was bored or had some free time, he just released two albums this year alone, We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You.

5. Stone Temple Pilots & Live, August 22, The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
The ‘90s alt-rock nostalgia circuit is in full effect, and we’re here for it with two of the most successful acts from the era coming together for a cross-country tour in Stone Temple Pilots and Live. Each band – STP from California, Live from Pennsylvania – faced early claims they were aping Seattle grunge before settling into their own sound, now regarded in a much brighter light.

And both are celebrating 30 years of their critically best, and best-selling, albums. STP’s Purple is an alt-rock classic with timeless singles (“Vaseline,” “Interstate Love Song”). Live’s Throwing Copper is chockful of anthems, despite unfortunate placenta imagery (“Lightning Crashes”).

The equally underrated, Dave Pirner-led, Soul Asylum opens.

6. Ice Spice, August 26, 713 Music Hall
Few artists are as hot in the rap world as the 24-year-old, Bronx-raised Ice Spice. The current Rolling Stone cover star caught the hip-hop industry on fire with her unique look and rapping style, collecting awards and top 10 singles over the last few years after being discovered in the typical Gen Z way: on TikTok with her viral hit, “Munch (Feelin’ U).” She’ll be on the road promoting her first, just-released full-length, Y2K! – she was born on January 1, 2000 – after a series of high-profile guest appearances on singles with Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift.

7. Kings of Leon, August 16, Toyota Center
Remember when critics tapped Kings of Leon as the Southern Strokes? The early-aughts quaintly monikered the Followill brothers and cousin as such with their chicken-fried version of the NYC rock band’s garage rock sound when they first hit. Since then, they've grown into something much more muscular and streamlined, finding success with the 2008 hit album, Only by the Night, with the ubiquitous single, “Sex on Fire.” After a hiatus, the Followills are back with this year’s regarded Can We Please Have Fun.

Phantogram, the excellent genre mixologist duo, which performed some fiery sets over the years in Houston, will open.

8. Jane’s Addiction, August 19, 713 Music Hall
Jane's Addiction, the Perry Farrell-led Los Angeles, unit is back. Surprisingly, after a series of ups and downs, the grandaddies of alt-rock and Lollapalooza have aged well, but what makes this tour special is it’s the first time that the original members – Perry with guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins, and bassist Eric Avery – are touring together in over 30 years. Apparently, time heals all wounds on the way to a searing rendition of “Mountain Song.”

Post-punk cult act Love & Rockets support.

9. Santana & Counting Crows, August 17, Toyota Center
The guitarist who seemingly can’t be kept down, Santana, 77, is still a regular on the concert circuit — deservedly so — despite a recent health scare last year when he was hospitalized following a bout of dizziness during a performance. This time around, he’ll be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Supernatural, his late-career resurgence that produced multiple Grammys and the earworm single “Smooth.” He’ll be joined by “Mr. Jones” act Counting Crows who are still making music, recently releasing Butter Miracle, Suite One.

10. The Roots, August 16, 713 Music Hall
Taking a break from their day job as the house band for The Tonight Show, the Questlove-led, Philly act The Roots knows good music. “Hip Hop’s first legitimate band” is touring with rap groups who would be worth the price of admission on their own merits in Digable Planets and The Pharcyde, comprising the Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life tour. Any true Hip Hop head will no doubt be in attendance, each of those on the bill producing critically acclaimed, groundbreaking material over the course of their careers.

11. Limp Bizkit, August 11, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Limp Bizkit? The red, backwards ballcap? Doing it all for the “Nookie?" The god-awful album titles? The Woodstock ’99 riots? No matter what the answer is, Fred Durst and his band of rap-rock misfits are on a full-scale comeback with the ironically named Loserville tour. Xavier Wulf, Eddy Baner Bones, Riff Raff, Corey Feldman, and N8 No Face will make an appearance on a slate that is – no word of a lie – getting pretty good reviews.

12. Thirty Seconds To Mars, August 29, The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Oh, Jared Leto. The tries-too-hard frontman of Thirty Second to Mars will shed his Oscar Award-winning actor persona to play some tunes this summer, but only after he climbed the Empire State building to promote his new album, It’s the End of the World But It’s a Beautiful Day. Despite the cringe-factor that is the Leto life, here’s the thing: The sometimes vocalist can wail when he wants to, as proven on hit single “The Kill.” And the opening acts, AFI, Poppy, and Kenny Hoopla, are all solid if you like some metal mixed with your emo.

Luke Combs/Facebook

No. 1: Country star Luke Combs headlines NRG Stadium on August 9 & 10.

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Movie Review

Denzel Washington brings new spectacle to the Colosseum in Gladiator II

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Paul Mescal in Gladiator II.

There are some films for which making a sequel is natural, and others where a follow-up is wholly unnecessary. Gladiator, which made both tons of money and was named Best Picture at the Oscars, told an impactful stand-alone story that ended with the protagonist dead and no real loose ends. And yet because there’s always more money to be made, here we are 24 years later with Gladiator II.

The lead character this time around is Lucius (Paul Mescal), a general in a North African army who becomes a prisoner of war when the Roman army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) bests him and his troops in battle. Taken back to Rome, he is put in the pool of captured men forced to fight at the Colosseum for the amusement of twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracella (Fred Hechinger).

Lucius is controlled by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), an ambitious schemer who bets liberally on his prized fighter and always has an eye to move up in the world. Meanwhile, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the sister of Emperor Commodus from the first film, is now married to Marcus Acacius and has a unique connection with Lucius that is fairly obvious from the get-go.

Directed once again by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa, the film commits a number of sins throughout its 150-minute running time, the most blatant of which is that, aside from a few embellishments, it essentially tells the same story as the first film. Lucius, like Maximus, is a deposed military leader who’s out for revenge on the person who killed his family. Instead of one obnoxious emperor, there are now two. And the only way for Lucius to earn his freedom is to fight his way out.

Stories told in the same world can echo each other and, if done well, overcome those similarities. But Gladiator II is shockingly boring for a purported sword-and-sandals epic. Scott and his team try to introduce new elements to the fights, like a gladiator riding a rhinoceros or a ship battle inside the Colosseum (with sharks!), but most of the sequences are inert with no propulsion to them.

The action fails because none of the relationships in the film amount to much. There are stand-out characters like Macrinus and the twin emperors, but instead of creating antipathy or strong feelings of triumph or defeat, the story just kind of happens without any sense of excitement or importance. Much of that issue lies at the feet of Lucius, who simply doesn’t inspire in the same way that Russell Crowe’s Maximus did.

Mescal is a fine actor who’s done good work in more intimate roles, but he’s not up to the task of being an action star, at least not in this film. Any bombast he shows with the character feels forced, and the story doesn’t give him enough opportunities to counteract that lack. Washington, however, fills up the screen with his charisma, and it’s during his scenes that the film comes closest to being rousing. Quinn and Hechinger are a lot of fun as the twin emperors, but in the end they feel like retreads of Joaquin Phoenix from the original.

Any sequel should have a purpose that sets it apart from what came before, but Scott, Scarpa, and the rest of their team fail in that respect in Gladiator II. It’s a mostly lifeless film that delivers scenes that would be exciting if they had any kind of good story to back them up.

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Gladiator II opens in theaters on November 22.

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