Concert News

Janet Jackson returns to the road for summer 2023 tour with stop in Austin

Janet Jackson, Unbreakable tour, September 2017

Music icon Janet Jackson will be coming to Austin in 2023.

Courtesy of Janet Jackson/Facebook

After four years, Janet Jackson is back on tour — and that includes a stop in Austin. The five-time Grammy Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee will return to the road in summer 2023 with her ninth concert tour, called “Together Again."

Produced by Live Nation, the 33-city tour will hit arenas and amphitheaters, launching in Florida in April, followed by stops across North America including New York, Toronto, and California, before wrapping up in Seattle on June 21.

The tour will make three stops in Texas:

Dallas: Friday, June 2, at Dos Equis Pavilion
Houston: Saturday, June 3, at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Austin: Sunday, June 4, at Moody Center

She'll be joined by Grammy Award-winning recording artist (and Fast and Furious actor) Ludacris, who will join Jackson across all dates as a special guest.

Jackson's most recent stop was her "Unbreakable" tour in 2017. She'd planned a summer 2020 tour for her Black Diamond World release, but that was in the throes of COVID-19 and it got canceled.

The “Together Again” Tour will celebrate Jackson's 50th anniversary in entertainment and feature her biggest chart-topping hits, plus new music.

Tickets go on sale Friday, December 16 at 11 am at LiveNation.com.

Presale will be available to Citi cardmembers Tuesday, December 13 at 11 am through Thursday, December 15 at 10 pm via the Citi Entertainment program. For complete presale details visit www.citientertainment.com.

TOGETHER AGAIN TOUR DATES:

Friday, April 14 – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live Arena
Wednesday, April 19 – Orlando, FL – Amway Center
Friday, April 21 – Savannah, GA – Enmarket Arena
Saturday, April 22 – Birmingham, AL – Legacy Arena
Tuesday, April 25 – Columbia, SC – Colonial Life Arena
Thursday, April 27 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena
Saturday, April 29 – Memphis, TN – FedEx Forum
Sunday, April 30 – St Louis, MO – Enterprise Center
Tuesday, May 2 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center
Thursday, May 4 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
Saturday, May 6 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
Tuesday, May 9 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
Friday, May 12 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion
Saturday, May 13 – Baltimore, MD – CFG Bank Arena
Sunday, May 14 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
Friday, May 19 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center
Saturday, May 20 – Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena
Tuesday, May 23 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
Wednesday, May 24 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
Friday, May 26 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center
Saturday, May 27 – Tinley Park, IL – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre Chicago
Sunday, May 28 – Milwaukee, WI – American Family Insurance Amphitheater
Tuesday May 30 – St Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
Friday, June 2 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion
Saturday, June 3 – Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Sunday, June 4 – Austin, TX – Moody Center
Wednesday, Jun 7 – Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin Pavilion
Friday, June 9 – Irvine, CA – FivePoint Amphitheatre
Saturday, June 10 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl (not a Live Nation tour date)
Sunday, June 11 – San Diego, CA – North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
Friday, June 16 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
Tuesday, June 20 – Portland, OR – Moda Center
Wednesday, June 21 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena

concerts

Movie Review

Cillian Murphy tells a local Irish story in Small Things Like These

Photo by Enda Bowe/Lionsgate

Cillian Murphy in Small Things Like These.

Last we saw actor Cillian Murphy, he was starring in the titular role of Oppenheimer, a role that would go on to earn him a Best Actor Oscar, not to mention many awards for the film itself. Instead of a big, flashy follow-up to build on that momentum, Murphy has gone in the opposite direction with the small and personal Small Things Like These.

Set in the 1980s in Murphy’s native Ireland, the film centers on Bill (Murphy), who owns a coal delivery company. One of his clients is the local convent, and during a delivery he witnesses a young pregnant woman being forced into the convent against her will by her mother. The scene triggers memories from his own childhood when he was raised by a single mother.

Every subsequent delivery to the convent has him questioning his own morality, although his taciturn nature doesn’t allow him to share his misgivings with his wife, Eileen (Eileen Walsh). With the Catholic Church an all-encompassing entity in Ireland, even if Bill wanted to help the girls who are trapped and mistreated at the convent, he’s not sure of any way to go about it.

Directed by Tim Mielants and written by Enda Walsh, the film has a slow build to it, so slow that it is a little difficult to ascertain the point of the story. The filmmakers go back and forth between scenes showing Bill as an adult and Bill as a child, and even though they each contain elements of trauma for the characters, the connection between the two timelines is not as strong as they might want it to be.

Even when it’s not part of a scene, the power of the church is the driving force of the film. Bill is clearly having a crisis of faith given his history and what he sees, but his wife seems to be willfully ignorant of any faults of the church and remains a true believer. The few segments that take the audience inside the convent are full of unforgiving nuns, with Sister Mary (Emily Watson) as their ultra-stern leader.

Given that this is an Irish film featuring all Irish actors, heavy accents accompany the majority of the dialogue, making it difficult to understand at times. This is clearly not an issue with the filmmaking and it helps with the verisimilitude of the story, but anyone who doesn’t have a lot of experience with the Irish accent may find themselves a little lost and/or disengaged with the emotions of the story.

Murphy’s role in Oppenheimer and this one don’t share much in common save for the fact that he clearly put his whole self into each of them. This is a testament to Murphy’s skills and dedication that he cares as much about an inherently local story as he did about a world-changing one. Walsh and Watson are also great as two women who have a huge influence on Bill’s outlook on life.

Small Things Like These, based on the book by Claire Keegan, is not as huge a takedown of the Catholic Church as some other films, but it’s still a searing indictment of its arcane practices. It’s one made even more effective by using a smaller story of one man’s lonely fight against injustice.

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Small Things Like These opens in theaters on November 8.

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