Live Music Now

These are the 5 hottest concerts to rock in the holidays in Houston

The annual Christmas extravaganza is back when the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is at Toyota Center on December 29.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra/Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/TSO]

It was the holiday wish heard around the country:

Dear Santa,

All we want for Christmas is Taylor Swift tickets.

Unfortunately, thousands of Houston residents were left out in the cold with a lump of coal — and no tickets to see the Anti-Hero star. Adding insult to injury, Tay-Tay fans had to go through Ticketmaster hell in an attempt to obtain entrance into three announced May shows at NRG Stadium. We feel their pain.

On the bright side, Houston wraps up one of the busiest music years in memory with plenty of holiday season shows that still have tickets left, no waiting room necessary. Here are five shows that are worth your time before 2023 arrives.

Chris Isaak
Sunday, December 18
House of Blues, 1406 Caroline St.

Heartthrob crooner Chris Isaak returns to Houston as part of his Everyone Knows it’s Christmas tour, playing your favorite holiday hits in his recognizable Americana-meets-rockabilly sound. Isaak, whom every teenager in the ‘90s will remember from the “Wicked Game” video that starred a scantily clad Helena Christensen, has maintained a healthy career since his commercial highpoint. He recently released his first album in six years in First Comes the Night this year, recorded in Nashville.

Tickets start at $35 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Toadies with Flickerstick
Tuesday, December 27
House of Blues, 1406 Caroline St.

A band that always rolls through Houston around the holidays, the ‘90s hit band Toadies head to the House of Blues stage. One of the better alt-rock acts to garner mainstream success, the North Texas act went platinum with their major label breakthrough, Rubberneck, producing radio hits like “Possum Kingdom” and “I Come From the Water,” the former still receiving regular airplay.

Unfortunately, label woes pushed their follow-up album back six years and by that time, audiences had moved on to new sounds. That doesn’t diminish Toadies killer live show, perfect for those who are looking for something that doesn’t involve family gatherings.

Tickets start at $30 plus fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Thursday, December 29
Toyota Center, 1510 Polk St.

The long-running, holiday-centric, lights and sound spectacular Trans-Siberian Orchestra makes its annual pilgrimage to the Toyota Center with its show, “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve – The Best of the TSO and More.” The “more” likely refers to the bonkers rock 'n' roll/metal versions of your favorite seasonal tunes set to eye-popping visuals that will make it nearly impossible to fight feeling the Christmas spirit.

Lasers, lights, dozens of giant video screens, a full-size orchestra, and a band of guitar shredders will get you more joyful than “Joy to the World.” Christmas dinner with the in-laws has nothing on this.

Tickets start at $29 plus fees. Doors open at 2 and 6:30 pm.

Tobe Nwigwe
Friday, December 30
713 Music Hall, 401 Franklin St., Ste. 1600

In what’s becoming a trend, Alief-raised cult rapper Tobe Nwigwe is playing another hometown show for the holiday season. A few months after a fellow Alief performer, Lizzo, performed at the Toyota Center, Nwigwe follows a similar path as an outspoken and positive-minded artist. He’s taken that outlook to critical acclaim, playing at the BET Awards in 2020 and reaching No. 4 on the Billboard R&B charts with “Jesus Says.”

Heavily influenced by the ‘90s hip-hop scene and his upbringing as a Nigerian-American, Nwigwe has elevated his star status in 2022 with an appearance in the Houston-based Netflix comedy, Mo, and a nomination as Best New Artist at the 65th Grammy Awards set to air in early 2023.

Tickets start at $22.50 plus fees. Show starts at 8 pm.

The Suffers with Fat Tony and Dem Roots
Saturday, December 31
Last Concert Café, 1403 Nance St.

Gulf Coast Soul collective extraordinaire, The Suffers, closes out a busy 2022 that saw them perform several U.S. tour dates to promote their third – and possibly best – album, It Starts with Love. That record placed on NPR music critic Ann Powers’ Top 20 Albums of the Year list, who called it a “major artistic leap.”

They’ll ring in the new year with some of the best local acts, including eclectic rapper Fat Tony, who also embarked on a national tour earlier this year, and Dem Roots. If there is one Bayou City band best suited to ring New Year’s Eve, it’s The Suffers, who always bring it in a live setting.

Tickets start at $50 plus fees. Doors open at 9 pm.

Photo courtesy of Chris Isaak

Christmas Crooner: Chris Isaak will perform holiday favorites at the House of Blues on December 18.

Movie Review

Dark satire Digger could bring an Oscar nomination for star Tom Cruise

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Tom Cruise in Digger.

For most of the 21st century, and especially the last 15 years, Tom Cruise has been a “movie star” rather than an “actor.” That’s not to say he’s a bad actor, but rather that his focus has been on making blockbuster movies where his unique ability to go all-in on action supersedes any need for introspection. Now perhaps past his action movie days, he’s giving full-on acting another try in Digger.

Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an eccentric oil baron whose current project is drilling for oil in Greenland. Turns out that’s a bad idea in multiple ways, most significantly when an explosion at the site manages to calve an ice shelf five times the size of Boston. That humongous piece of ice then starts on an inevitable collision course with mainland Europe, where it is predicted that there will be hundreds of thousands of deaths and uncountable property damage from the ensuing tsunami.

That sounds bleak, and it is, but the film plays the scenario for laughs thanks to over-the-top characters like Digger, his sister Emma (Sandra Hüller), U.S. President Compson (John Goodman), and the unnamed Vice President (Michael Stuhlbarg). As those people and others try to spin the disaster of epic proportions, others like the scientist Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) try to get the leaders to see reason or to take responsibility for their actions.

Written and directed by Alejandro Iñárritu and co-written by three others, the film has more than a few surprises in store, including one big one that will go unspoiled here. Suffice it to say that for anyone who might be put off by how Cruise (who seems to be channeling his Les Grossman character from Tropic Thunder) and others are acting in the trailers for the film may change their minds about the performances after actually having seen the complete product.

What can be said is that the film is a wild, wacky, and occasionally disorienting experience that also doubles as a cogent critique of the governments and corporations responsible for climate change and unchecked capitalism. Digger is a motormouth who often cuts off people with relevant information to impart, having already determined that he knows all he needs to know about a certain topic. He’s stuck in his ways in many respects, including trying to keep alive a 20-year-old cat that clearly wants to die.

Once the full scope of the story is revealed, it becomes easier to understand what Iñárritu and Cruise are trying to accomplish with the film. It has some similarities to Stanley Kubrick’s dark satire Dr. Strangelove, but it also tries to stay grounded in certain ways. The push-and-pull between those who only seem to be out for themselves and those who want to get to the truth of the matter is played out on different fronts throughout the film. Not all of it lands, but enough does to not make the film seem completely unhinged.

Cruise has been nominated for three Oscars, and it’s clear he’s aiming for a fourth nod with this performance. He does his best to sell every quirk and aspect of the character, epitomized by a gonzo speech that utilizes every mental and physical skill he can muster. The supporting actors are hit-and-miss, but Ahmed comes off the best as a person serving as Digger’s moral conscience. He’s an antidote to Cruise’s mania, but then turns it up to 11 when needed.

Not everything is as it seems in Digger, and the out-there approach by Iñárritu and his team falls into the love-it-or-hate-it dichotomy that applies to many of his films. The very fact that everyone involved was willing to dedicate their whole selves to such an off-the-wall concept makes it deserving of attention, even if not everything is a success.

---

Digger opens in theaters on October 2.

movies film