Eric Church Review

Country rock star Eric Church sings like Springsteen at RodeoHouston finale

The 2024 RodeoHouston season will be remembered for record-breaking crowds, heaps of millennial nostalgia, spring hail storms, rolling SLABs, a mini-concert from Drake, and the debut of femme country boss Lainey Wilson.

The 20th and final day of Houston’s urban cowpoke convention was also Championship Sunday for the rodeo athletes — animal and human — that defy gravity and the laws of nature every night. It was also the final stand of Leon Coffee, the greatest and most colorful rodeo clown that RodeoHouston will ever see.

Fittingly, Eric Church’s brand of stoic foot-stomping Waylon-meets-Wilco country rock was perfect for a humid, rain-ridden Sunday afternoon matinee in front of 64,473 people. Sunday night was Church’s first RodeoHouston stand since 2015, when he opened that season.

Sunday night’s Church service kicked off just after 6:30 pm after the last mutton was busted on the stadium floor. Church’s 2021 single “Heart on Fire” was a great showcase for his expanded band, which now features horns and three brassy backup singers, giving everything “Exile on Music Row with the E Street Band” vibes. Church’s recorded output is decidedly more soul than outlaw, with Church sampling most every genre aside from Norwegian black metal.

2011’s “Country Music Jesus” pushed Sunday gospel brunch back into dinnertime. In retrospect, the song seemingly prophesied the coming of Chris Stapleton. “Drink in My Hand” was, of course, perfect for a Sunday St. Patrick’s Day set. In 2021, Church ventured into soul country territory with “Heart” and its companion “Soul.” In a live setting, the material gets along like a house on fire.

Sunday night’s audio quality in the stadium was impeccable, with every bit of burly brass onstage bouncing around the room. 2018’s “Desperate Man” gave Church some time to show some love to his mentor Ray Wylie Hubbard who he co-wrote it with, “Sympathy for the Devil”-style woo-hoos and all.

Church will be christening his own Nashville bar, Chief’s, with a 19-night residency at the six-story honky tonk starting April 5, and he recently gifted members of his Church Choir fan club with deeds to bricks in the walls of the music venue.

Judging by Sunday night’s RodeoHouston show, Nashville crowds are in for a fun, hellacious time over the next few months. Church is hitting a stellar bandleader peak.

Setlist

How ‘Bout You
Heart On Fire
Country Music Jesus
Drink In My Hand
Pledge Allegiance to the Hag
Hell of a View
Desperate Man
Record Year
Cold One
These Boots
Smoke A Little Smoke
Springsteen

Courtesy of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

Eric Church returned to the rodeo for the first time since 2015.

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teamwork makes the dream work

Arizona-based interactive venue opens in Houston with 24 challenges

Two players in the Cat Burglar room at Bam Kazam.

Photo courtesy of Bam Kazam

Physical and mental tasks are part of the fun at Bam Kazam.

Houston's live action arcade boom continues with the opening of Bam Kazam, a massive new challenge room facility located in the former Railway Heights Market space in Lazybrook/Timbergrove (8200 Washington). Opening this Saturday, September 12, it is the company's third location since starting in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2021 and the first one in Texas.

Catering to adults, the idea of Bam Kazam is to roleplay big budget cinematic adventures like solving puzzles in ancient tombs or being part of a heist. The facility contains 24 different levels across 25,000 square foot of space. Players are given up to two hours to complete rooms, with most rooms requiring between 1-5 minutes. Teamwork is key to succeeding.

“If you’ve ever watched an action movie and thought, ‘I could do that,’ well come find out,” Bam Kazam founder Victor Blake said in a statement. “Bring the friend who thinks they’re the brains and the one who thinks they’re the athlete. You’re going to need each other.”

Rooms in the Houston location include Rat Trap, where players navigate through a giant mousetrap to avoid an equally giant cat; a Cat Burglar scenario that involves rope walks to steal a priceless painting; and a ruined city full of logic puzzles inspired by the Indiana Jones franchise.

Tickets for Bam Kazam are $39 per player with a three-player minimum per team. Every possible room is available with a ticket, and players have unlimited tries per room to solve them. Tickets are half-off ($19.50) during opening weekend when purchased through the website.

Houston has been enjoying a boom in live-action themed gaming since the end of COVID. Sandbox VR opened earlier this year, following Activate debuting in the city in 2023 and the Department of Wonder in 2022.

Photo courtesy of Bam Kazam

Physical and mental tasks are part of the fun at Bam Kazam.

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