RodeoHouston 2025

RodeoHouston taps Post Malone, Bun B, Reba McEntire, and more for 2025 concerts

RodeoHouston is back in the saddle again and is bringing major star power to the star-shaped stage for its 2025 lineup.

After drawing over 1.3 million people to concerts last year, officials revealed this year’s performers at a media event at NRG Center, next door to NRG Stadium. While the Beyoncé rumors didn't pan out, the acts playing from March 4-23 include a variety of genres, heavily focused on country, but also including pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, regional Mexican, and Christian music.

Tickets will go on sale at rodeohouston.com on Thursday, January 16, in two waves at 10 am and 2 pm.

Arguably the biggest standout is Post Malone, who makes his RodeoHouston debut on Tuesday, March 18 in what should be a massive draw. The hugely successful rap star is back in Houston after selling out two nights at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion last fall. His turn towards country music on his No. 1 album, F-1 Trillion, featuring the No. 1 single “I Had Some Help” with country bad boy Morgan Wallen, and songs with Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, was no doubt on the minds of RodeoHouston organizers.

One of the longest-running rodeo favorites, Reba McEntire will open the 2025 season on Tuesday, March 4. She holds one of the organization’s highest honors as the first woman inducted to RodeoHouston’s Star Trail of Fame in 2007. This will be her 20th performance on the rotating stage and her first time back in 11 years.

Other eyebrow-raising headliners include Bun B's Birthday Bonanza on Black Heritage Night (Friday, March 7). This is the fourth consecutive year that the chopped and screwed rap legend will bring his “International Players Anthem” to RodeoHouston, the 2024 edition being one of the most buzzed about shows of the year, with appearances by Drake, Nelly, Eve, Rick Ross, and others. As for who will turn up this year, let the speculation begin.

Also notable is fast-rising Americana honkytonk country artist, the San Benito, TX-raised Charley Crockett, making his debut on Monday, March 17. Anyone who has caught him on small club stages in Houston as he paid his dues will find this a reason to celebrate this huge step-up in audience size.

This year’s lineup is noticeably embracing a younger demographic, especially in the country ranks. Up-and-comers, Riley Green (March 5), Zach Top (March 11), and Kelly Clarkson’s favorite heartthrob Warren Zeiders (March 15) all make their debuts and are a glimpse at the future. The 24-year-old Bailey Zimmerman (March 8) achieved three consecutive No. 1 singles, including the album’s namesake, “Religiously,” deemed the biggest streaming country debut of all time upon its release.

Outside of the country genre, streaming stars and pop-rock trio AJR fill the pop-rock role that Jonas Brothers shattered records with last year, appearing on Thursday, March 6. Mexican singer-songwriter Carin León plays on Sunday, March 9, and two-time Grammy Award-winning contemporary Christian artist Lauren Daigle returns for her second stint on Wednesday, March 12.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Journey, follow-up their epic 2022 RodeoHouston performance on Friday, March 14, while Mexican-American band Grupo Frontera takes the mantle for the seat-filling Go Tejano Day on Sunday, March 16.

RodeoHouston loves their established country stars and plenty will return in 2025. The reliably great Brad Paisley plays First Responders Appreciation Day on March 10 for his 17th appearance; Jon Pardi makes his third appearance in a row on March 13; country band Old Dominion headlines for the second time on March 19; country rebel Cody Jinks is back after his 2023 debut on March 20; Conroe’s Parker McCollum makes it three times on March 21.

Country Hall of Famers, Brooks & Dunn, will tally their mind-blowing 22nd appearance on March 22. After nearly three weeks of performances, American Idol judge Luke Bryan will hip-swivel his way through his 12th show to close out the RodeoHouston calendar.

Always aware of the many different audiences that appreciate a day on the midway, organizers have another eclectic mix of youthful names and legacy acts, ensuring that many Houstonians will have a reason to head to NRG Stadium for at least one night of music this March. Giddy up!

Photo by Chinh Phan FotoWerk Group

Reba McEntire opens the 2025 RodeoHouston with her 20th appearance on Tuesday, March 4.

rodeohouston rodeo concerts

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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