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.

Tobe Nwigwe/Facebook

Hometown hero Tobe Nwigwe performs at Bayou Music Center on Friday, December 30.

Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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