Hootie and the Blowfish will come to Dallas on June 15, 2019 as part of their Group Therapy Tour.
Photo courtesy of Hootie and the Blowfish
Hootie & the Blowfish will go on tour for the first time since 2008, including a stop at Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas on June 15, 2019.
The Group Therapy Tour, which will feature the Barenaked Ladies as opening act, will make 44 stops around North America, starting in Virginia Beach, Virginia on May 30. It was also be in Austin on June 13 and Houston on June 14.
The rock band, who hit it big in the mid 1990s, will be touring in part to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their massive debut album, Cracked Rear View. One of the best-selling albums of the '90s, the 1994 album spawned hits like "Hold My Hand," "Let Her Cry," and "Only Wanna Be With You." They went on to release four more albums, with the most recent being 2005's Looking for Lucky.
The band also plans to release a new album in 2019, although details are scarce. Since the group went on hiatus in 2008, lead singer Darius Rucker has become a country music superstar, scoring four No. 1 albums and hits like "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," "Alright," and "Wagon Wheel."
Hootie & the Blowfish fan club members can access an exclusive pre-sale that began on December 3. Barenaked Ladies fans who have purchased VIP packages in the past will receive an exclusive code to purchase tickets early on Wednesday, December 5. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, December 7 at www.LiveNation.com.
Anthony Mackie in Captain America: Brave New World.
If it feels like it’s been a long time since the last Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, that’s because it has. Deadpool & Wolverine technically counts, but it was really its own thing that was mostly disconnected from the larger story the MCU is trying to tell. And two out of the three MCU movies in 2023 were underwhelming, so Marvel remains far from the highs of its Avengers days.
They’re trying to get things going again with Captain America: Brave New World, the first glimpse of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) - formerly known as the Falcon - as the new Captain America. The film thrusts the audience right into the action, with Wilson on a mission to retrieve a MacGuffin stolen package for the U.S. government at the behest of President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). The two men continue to have a symbiotic relationship for the majority of the movie, with each needing the other and hating the fact that they do.
The main story of the film improbably (unwisely?) brings together two of the MCU’s least well-received films, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and 2021’s The Eternals. Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), apparently holding a longtime grudge since the events of The Incredible Hulk, plays a big part, as does the Celestial Island, which was last seen at the end of The Eternals and not mentioned in any property since that time.
Directed by Julius Onah and written by Onah and four other screenwriters, the best that can be said for this return of the MCU is that Mackie makes for a compelling presence. The combining of the Captain America elements with his Falcon persona makes for some pretty good action, with the character showing off some unique moves. On the downside, though, he’s mostly facing off against anonymous henchmen, so most of his fight scenes feel repetitive and uninspired.
The story itself is a mishmash of characters that only hardcore Marvel/MCU fans will know, with barely any attempt at reintroducing them to a broad audience. Sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) and wronged super soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) return from the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, providing some levity and gravity, respectively. Having Sterns back in the mix is never explained properly, nor is how he is able to wield influence over a large number of people.
If there’s to be any lasting memory from this film, it’s the introduction of the (fictional) indestructible material adamantium into the MCU. Previously known from the X-Men universe as what was used to strengthen Wolverine’s skeleton and give him his claws, adamantium is now a prized discovery found in the Celestial Island that, like any valuable material, causes normally level-headed people to get into fights over it.
Mackie brings enough charm to his acting that he can ably act as the lead, something he hadn’t previously been asked to do in the MCU. Ford is fine; his years of experience make him a natural for playing another president, although the transformation his character undergoes is goofier than it needed to be. Nelson has to act from behind some truly hideous makeup and he feels one-note most of the time.
For the MCU to make it back to their previous standing atop the blockbuster landscape, they’re going to have to deliver much more interesting characters and stories than are present in Captain America: Brave New World. It might be time to consider stand-alone stories instead of ones that rely on information that many moviegoers have long since forgotten.
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Captain America: Brave New World opens in theaters on February 14.