Garth News

Top 5 revelations from Garth Brooks' Arlington show press conference

Garth Brooks at press conference in Arlington on July 29.

Photo by Malcolm Mayhew

One day before his sold-out show on July 30 at AT&T Stadium, country megastar Garth Brooks was doing what Garth Brooks always does the day before a show: meeting up with the media.

Casually dressed in blue jeans and a sweatshirt, Brooks hosted a press conference with about 20 reporters from local and regional media as far as Waco in the stadium's press room, where he leaked some highlights re: the Arlington stop on his 2022 Stadium Tour.

It's unusual for a musical act to hold a press conference the day before, especially when the show is already sold out. It's not like he needs to sell tickets. But Brooks is not your usual musical act.

These are the top 5 things Garth Brooks shared about the upcoming concert in Arlington:

1. The set list
Longtime fans will recall Brooks' trio of record-breaking, sold-out shows in 1993 at the now-gone Texas Stadium in Irving, the other house that Jerry Jones built, which were visual and theatrical wonders. Brooks flew over the audience via wires and utilized one-of-a-kind technology simulating a rainstorm in which audience members got wet.

"Back then, we weren't afraid to make any mistakes," he said. "We dropped five brand-new songs that people hadn't heard yet. Today, you'd be too scared to do that, right? I'm still looking for that renegade guy that I was back then, but it's kind of a balance. I know I need to play certain songs. I mean, nothing would piss me off more than going to a concert and just hearing a bunch of new stuff."

2. The backup band
Brooks' backup band will include members of the G-Men, a group of studio musicians who have performed on every Garth Brooks studio album, but have rarely performed live with him. The seven-piece band was inducted into the Musician's Hall of Fame in 2016.

"So the guys that do the records are different from the guys that do the tours," Brooks said. "I told them, 'You guys need to get out there and see what you've done.' They’ve done every record from "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" to "Dive Bar," but they've never gone on the road with us."

They'll join Brooks' current tour band, which includes veteran and new members. "There's five of us left from our 1988 shows. And then there are two guys from '91 and '92, and our fiddle player joined in 1994. We also just took on a kid named Bobby Terry. He’s the newest member."

3. FaceTime with Garth
Concert attendees will be given a code at Saturday's show for a chance to FaceTime with Brooks after the show. This has been a new feature during this tour which has proven to be hugely popular.

4. The show at AT&T Stadium will be recorded
Brooks revealed that the concert would be recorded, although he didn't say exactly for what.

"You don't come into this place without wanting to preserve history," he said.

5. Garth hearts Dallas-Fort Worth
Brooks spent much of the conference reminiscing about the area, saying, "This is where it started," he said, name-dropping venues such as the Crystal Chandelier, Borrowed Money, and Billy Bob's.

"I remember how hard it was getting my first show at Billy Bob’s," he said, recalling his first gig there in 1989. "I don't think you can (write) any page in any chapter of our story without talking about Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington. They've been a great home for us and thank God they continue to be."

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Movie Review

Podcaster lets creepy noises get under her skin in Undertone

Photo courtsy of A24

Nina Kiri in Undertone.

While the horror genre is still capable of producing some innovative filmmaking, most of the output tends to fall back on jump scares and other tropes to deliver their terror. So when a film like the new Undertone tries something different, it should be applauded for the effort, even if it’s not as successful in its execution.

Evy (Nina Kiri) is a podcaster who co-hosts a show called Undertone, which focuses on paranormal videos and sounds they find on the internet. Her co-host, Justin (Adam DiMarco), lives in London, so - for kind of contrived reasons - in order to make the time difference between them work, Evy records at around 3 am her time. Evy - who lives at home with her bedridden, dying mother - is the skeptic of the two, consistently debunking clips that Justin presents to her.

Her doubts are tested when Justin brings in a series of 10 audio clips that purport to be about a boyfriend recording his girlfriend as she talks in her sleep. The audio begins in a lighthearted manner and quickly turns creepy and then sinister as unexplained things start happening. Evy senses that what she’s hearing is bleeding into her own world, especially when inexplicable actions take place in her mother’s bedroom.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Ian Tuason, the film is effective early on when it introduces the story concept. Making great use of sound design, Tuason essentially puts the audience inside Evy’s head, where every little sound is heightened. Setting the podcast sessions in the middle of the night ups the anxiety level for both her and the audience.

However, as the film goes along it gets a little tedious watching Evy listen to the audio, even as Tuason attempts to keep the film dynamic by moving the camera around her. The premise of the story - progressively going through 10 clips - and Tuason’s framing of shots that focus as much on the background as they do on Evy seem to promise more interesting results than actually transpire.

What ultimately holds the film down more than anything is its lack of different viewpoints. The only other person who’s actually seen is Evy’s mother, who is unable to speak. Evy speaks to Justin, another friend, and a doctor over the course of the story, and while each broadens our understanding of Evy somewhat, none of them make her a truly three-dimensional person. Getting a little more information about her history might have helped the story work better.

Kiri does her level best to vary her acting in the various podcast scenes, and even when they start to get repetitive, she remains compelling and watchable. It’s difficult to judge the other actors based on audio alone, but knowing that DiMarco also starred in season 2 of The White Lotus helps to visualize him and his acting style.

Undertone does well in creating a spine-chilling mood, but it needed something beyond that to become a truly great horror movie. Tuason shows some promise as a filmmaker, especially in the way he uses the camera to create tension, but a more complete story will serve him better the next time around.

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Undertone is now playing in theaters,

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