best november concerts

Jelly Roll and Usher headline Houston's 10 best November concerts

In stressful times, one reliable way to blow off steam is live concerts. These settings might be some of the last bastions for melting away all our differences to experience artists performing their distinct brand of melodies, hooks, and beats. Music rarely, if ever, lets us down.

So in a particularly tense cultural climate, restore your faith in humanity by attending any of the 10 biggest concerts happening in Houston this month.

Old 97’s with Fastball, November 10, The Heights Theater
Two of the more underrated Texas acts that found initial success in the ‘90s will visit the intimate confines of the Heights Theater this November. Led by the handsome Rhett Miller, the Dallas-formed Old 97’s carved out a respectable and prolific career on the foundation of hook-filled alt-rock-meets-Americana, their latest being this year’s critically acclaimed American Primitive. Meanwhile, the Austin-formed Fastball garnered attention for the still-great rock radio hit, “The Way,” with their latest album being Sonic Ranch.

Can’t Miss Songs: “Question," "The Way."

Cyndi Lauper, November 16, Toyota Center
The neon-bright feminist icon Cyndi Lauper is doing one last dance, embarking on her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell tour to celebrate 40 years as one of the most successful pop stars of all time. The Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning songwriter ruled the charts in the ‘80s, and her outspoken voice on women’s issues has endured over the years alongside her hits. The Lauper-influenced pop duo AJ & Aly will open.

Can’t Miss Songs: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” “Time After Time,” “True Colors,” and “She Bop.”

Jelly Roll, November 17, Toyota Center
The first of several former RodeoHouston headliners to perform in Houston this month, Nashville’s Jelly Roll is, well, on a roll these days, taking over the country charts in true crossover fashion that’s become a popular strategy for hip-hop artists. His No. 1-hit “Save Me” has been inescapable since it was released in 2020, and he has parlayed that into a stratospheric rise to mainstream popularity after starting his career as an indie rapper. His new album, Beautifully Broken, scored him his first Billboard #1 pop and country album.

Can’t Miss Songs: “Save Me,” “Need a Favor”

GWAR, November 17, Warehouse Live Midtown
Not for the faint of heart, heavy metal legends GWAR are on a mission to melt your face off with their hyper-sexual, mythological and frankly, uncouth, guitar assault. Best known for their exuberantly over-the-top and grotesque costumes and interactive performances that involve actual audience members being consumed by onstage props or being sprayed by fake bodily fluids, GWAR have no time for pearl clutching. In other words, are you not entertained?

Can’t Miss Songs: “Immortal Corruptor,” “Lust in Space”

Mariah Carey, November 19, Toyota Center
The Queen of Christmas is coming. We’re not just talking about Mariah Carey’s biggest holiday hit song of all time, “All I Want For Christmas,” which should start blasting from speakers any day now. For those who haven’t heard enough of that tune, the superstar will also be taking the show on the road with a setlist full of festive favorites alongside non-Yuletide-themed hits.

Can’t Miss Songs: “All I Want For Christmas,” “Hero”

Manchester Orchestra, November 20, Bayou Music Center
A festival favorite, Manchester Orchestra, has steadily been building a solid fanbase in the Bayou City, seemingly playing city stages every year, even when there’s no new music to tout. Thanks to the genius of singer/guitarist Andy Hull, the Atlanta band’s sprawling, multi-genre sound is the catharsis many crave. Their last original album may have been released in 2021, but their strong live presence forged on large stages means that they’ll continue to draw a crowd.

Can’t Miss Songs: “The Gold,” “The Alien”

Kacey Musgraves, November 21, Toyota Center
The Texas-raised, seven-time Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves is one of the brightest lights in the new country scene. After winning multiple awards for 2018’s groundbreaking full-length, Golden Hour, Musgraves achieved her first No. 1 pop chart hit with Zach Bryan, “I Remember Everything,” and she appeared on Saturday Night Live following the release of her new album, Deeper Well. The strength of her live performance has only grown since she opened RodeoHouston in 2019, and Lord Huron and Nickel Creek round out a solid line-up at this Toyota Center headlining gig.

Can’t Miss Songs: “Follow Your Arrow,” “Butterflies”

Better Than Ezra, November 22, House of Blues
Three bands that had their own 15 minutes of fame on ‘90s alt-rock radio are playing within days of each other on different Houston stages. Denton’s Deep Blue Something (“Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) perform on November 22 at the Last Concert Café and SoCal rockers Everclear (“Santa Monica”) are at Sawyer Park Icehouse on Nov. 24. Of the three, our pick is Better Than Ezra at House of Blues, a trio that released a series of good-to-great albums featuring the power-pop gems, “Good,” “King of New Orleans,” and “Desperately Wanting” that found alt-rock radio success.

Can’t Miss Songs: “Good,” “Desperately Wanting”

Usher, November 27, 29 and 30, Toyota Center
Is R&B heartthrob Usher the biggest artist in the world right now? A sell-out Las Vegas residency, a Super Bowl halftime performance, and three-night run at Toyota Center at the end of the month points to (cue Lil Jon voice) “Yeah!” The seemingly ageless performer who first broke out during the Total Request Live era will draw from a vast catalog of hits in what might be some of the biggest shows of the year in Houston.

Can’t Miss Songs: “Burn,” “You Make Me Wanna,” “Yeah!”

Midland, November 29, 713 Music Hall
Country act Midland heads down the highway from their Central Texas home for a headlining gig at 713 Music Hall, their Eagles meets ‘80s country a perfect fit for their blue steel looks. A few years removed from their 2020 RodeoHouston opener, in many ways this trio pointed the way forward for country acts today, with outlaw attitudes up against catchy hooks as a recipe for success. They are back on the road with their new album, Barely Blue.

Can’t Miss Songs: “Drinkin’ Problem,” “Mr. Lonely”

Photos by Jordan Taylor Wright

R&B super star Usher comes to H-Town for a three-night run at the Toyota Center, November 27, 29, and 30.

concerts

Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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