Concert News

Pop singer Niall Horan expands upcoming world tour to include stop in Dallas

Niall Horan will play at Dos Equis Pavilion on August 2, 2024.

Photo by Daniel Cavazos

Five months after announcing his 2024 "The Show" world tour, pop star Niall Horan has added six new dates to the North American leg, including a stop at Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas on Friday, August 2.

That bumps the number of dates on the tour in the United States and Canada up to 36, starting on May 29 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and ending on August 3 in Austin, making Dallas and Austin the final two stops on the North American leg.

No surprise for the native Irish singer - and former One Direction member - the world tour begins and ends in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Horan will start in Northern Ireland on February 20, going to multiple countries for three months before the North American leg. He'll finish up with seven final dates in Ireland and England, August 23-September 3.

The tour expansion announcement comes in between his two non-headlining concerts at the Austin City Limits Festival, the first of which, according to CultureMap's Amber Heckler, "exceeded expectations."

It's a massive tour befitting the rising pop star, whose first three solo albums - including the recent The Show - have become hits all around the world. As this is his first tour since 2018, which was in support of his debut album, Flicker, this will be the first opportunity for many fans to hear songs from all three of his albums live.

Ticket for the new dates, including Dallas, will be available with local presales beginning on Friday, October 13 ahead of the general on-sale on Wednesday, October 18 at 10 am at niallhoran.com.

The tour will also offer a variety of different VIP packages and experiences in North America, including an invitation to the pre-show Niall Horan-themed lounge, specially designed VIP gift items, and more.

NIALL HORAN – “The Show” LIVE ON TOUR 2024

5/29/24 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Hard Rock Live
5/31/24 - Tampa, FL - MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
6/1/24 - Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre – JUST ADDED
6/3/24 - Nashville, TN - Bridgestone Arena
6/5/24 - Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion – JUST ADDED
6/7/24 - Raleigh, NC - Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
6/8/24 - Bristow, VA - Jiffy Lube Live
6/11/24 - Philadelphia, PA - Mann Center for the Performing Arts
6/13/24 - New York, NY – Madison Square Garden – JUST ADDED
6/14/24 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
6/15/24 - Mansfield, MA - Xfinity Center
6/18/24 - Bridgeport, CT - Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
6/19/24 - Bangor, ME - Maine Savings Amphitheater
6/21/24 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Saratoga Performing Arts Center
6/22/24 - Buffalo, NY - Darien Lake Amphitheater
6/25/24 - Cincinnati, OH - Riverbend Music Center
6/26/24 - Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom Music Center
6/28/24 - Toronto, ON - Scotiabank Arena
6/29/24 - Toronto, ON - Scotiabank Arena
7/7/24 - St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
7/9/24 - Tinley Park, IL - Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
7/10/24 - Clarkston, MI - Pine Knob Music Theatre
7/12/24 - Maryland Heights, MO - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
7/13/24 - Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center – JUST ADDED
7/16/24 - Kansas City, MO - Starlight Theatre
7/17/24 - Rogers, AR - Walmart AMP
7/19/24 - Denver, CO - Ball Arena
7/20/24 - Salt Lake City, UT - USANA Amphitheatre
7/23/24 - Auburn, WA - White River Amphitheatre
7/24/24 - Ridgefield, WA - RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
7/26/24 - Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre
7/27/24 - Inglewood, CA - The Kia Forum
7/28/24 - Inglewood, CA - The Kia Forum
7/30/24 - Chula Vista, CA - North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
7/31/24 - Phoenix, AZ - Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
8/2/24 - Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion – JUST ADDED
8/3/24 - Austin, TX – Moody Center – JUST ADDED

concerts music

Movie Review

Oscar-winning director tackles WWII in melodramatic film Blitz

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Elliott Heffernan and Saoirse Ronan in Blitz.

The horrors of World War II are 80+ years in the past, yet they remain a fascination for many filmmakers. The latest film to tackle the era, Blitz, is centered around the German Blitzkrieg air raids on London in September 1940, but uses a more personal story to illustrate its impact.

Rita (Saoirse Ronan) lives with her 9-year-old son George (Elliott Heffernan) and her father Gerald (Paul Weller) in the lower class neighborhood of Stepney, but no one in the city is immune from the bombs being dropped by the Germans. The government has opened up some of the Underground (aka subway) tunnels for residents to use as bomb shelters, but the haphazard nature of their availability leads Rita to send George to safety in the countryside to protect him.

George, who is biracial, experiences racist abuse on the train, and instead of remaining with the other children to their destination, he jumps off and tries to make his way back to London. Meanwhile, Rita is doing her best to keep her mind off of George’s absence, working at a munition factory and volunteering at a bomb shelter, not knowing that George has put himself back in danger.

Written and directed by Steve McQueen, the film should be one that elicits emotions relatively easily, with ordinary people dealing with the effects of war and a mother separated from her only child. And while all the elements are present, there’s that certain something missing that leaves the story somewhat uninvolving. McQueen makes you want to see George make it back safely and for Rita to be reunited with him, but there is a degree of sentimentality that’s missing from the film as a whole.

Instead of going down that road, McQueen puts a big focus on the racism and bigotry experienced by various people in the film. Flashbacks give a sense of what George and his dad, Marcus (CJ Beckford), went through prior to the war, and Ife (Benjamin Clementine), a warden who tries to help George find his way home, encounters it multiple times while just doing his duty. While McQueen’s point that people of color still had to endure acts of hatred in a time when people should have been coming together, his methods of showing it are often heavy-handed.

Still, the film is well-made and remains visually engaging throughout. The combination of practical sets and CGI put the viewer right in the middle of the bombed-out London, and there are few missteps with how the city is presented. And even though the main mother-son story is only lightly effective, the trials and tribulations that each go through individually are interesting and occasionally suspenseful.

Ronan is a fantastic actor who might get nominated for an Oscar yet again for her other recent film, The Outrun, but this role pales in comparison. Whether it’s because the 30-year-old is a bit young to be fully believable in a mother role or because of the storytelling missteps, she’s merely good instead of great here. Heffernan does a solid job in his film debut, reacting ably to McQueen putting him through his paces.

Blitz joins the seemingly never-ending well of stories from World War II, and while it doesn’t succeed as mightily as other notable war films, it never becomes anything less than watchable. The family story at its center could have been more heartfelt, but McQueen is still a great filmmaker with a flair for visual composition.

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Blitz is now streaming on Apple TV+.

movies film