Month: February 2024

Unless the Utah Jazz or the Houston Rockets make a push over the final 25 or so games of the regular season, we can clearly state which teams are going to make the playoffs out of the Western Conference. The order they make it, however, is nowhere near as clear, as the West is affectionately a jumbled mess full of teams that are constantly one winning or losing streak away from a major change to their fortunes.

Four teams are within 2.5 games of the 1-seed. Another four teams are separated by 1.5 games on either side of the Play-In line. At the very bottom of the conference are teams that have LeBron James and Steph Curry on them (although not on the same team, despite Golden State’s best efforts at the trade deadline).

Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

We’ll put these two together because they’re the two biggest stars on the two teams at the top of the Western Conference, and they are entering this stretch with the same goal in mind: finishing in first. Edwards and Gilgeous-Alexander are both magnificent players who have combined to win a grand total of zero playoff series in their careers. That’s totally fine — they’re young, they’ve gotten tastes of playoff basketball, and success is going to come sooner rather than later for both of them.

Edwards has a chance at throwing his name into the MVP discussion with a big second half of the year, while Gilgeous-Alexander has a real shot at just flat-out winning the award. They’ve been great so far for teams that are in the hunt for a championship, and now, it’ll be on them to try and find that extra gear over the final 27 games. The 1-seed and homecourt in the Western Conference are on the line, and there’s a chance a spot in the NBA Finals comes down to a Game 7 between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder. I’m sure either team would love to make sure that game happens in front of their fans. The bad news? They’ve already played four times this year, so there are no more Wolves-Thunder games on the schedule.

James Harden

No one is better at getting what they want than Harden. When he was done in Houston, he wanted a move to Brooklyn, which he got. Same with moving to Philly when he was done in Brooklyn, and same with the Clippers when he was done with the Sixers. And now, he wants a championship and a contract extension, but you don’t need me to remind you what he tends to do when the lights get really bright, as no player in the league has been defined more by their postseason failures than Harden.

The good news is he’s been excellent in Los Angeles after a rough start — the team has the second-best record in the league since getting past the initial, five-game losing streak that happened when he first got to town. The Clipper offense desperately needs his ability to run the show and get guys the ball in spots they like, and when he’s out there with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, Los Angeles is just pummeling teams (they’ve been very, very good when it’s Harden and only one of those two, as well). It’s worked out well so far, and keeping this up down the stretch would give L.A. a real shot of getting the 1-seed.

The Pelicans’ Big 3

At some point, the trio of C.J. McCollum, Brandon Ingram, and Zion Williamson are going to have to show they are a viable trio long-term. The team is 34-22 and find themselves 5.5 games back of the 1-seed, three games back of the 4-seed and homecourt in the first round, and five games up on the 10-seed. They’re a small losing streak away from falling down into eighth place (they’re 1.5 games up on Sacramento). In these moments, you want to lean on your stars, but the problem New Orleans faces: Things haven’t gone very well when their three stars are on the floor together.

All three are very good players, but per Cleaning the Glass, lineups with all of them on the floor together are being outscored by 2.6 points per 100 possessions. The team’s most used lineup — McCollum, Ingram, Herb Jones, Williamson, Jonas Valanciunas — is being outscored by 2.8 points per 100 possessions. The ones with only two of the three on the floor tend to be excellent, and it might behoove Willie Green to lean into those as much as possible. It would help if that trio could stop anyone on defense, as the lineups with all three of them on the floor are allowing 118 points per 100 possessions, which is impressive, considering the team’s defensive rating of 113.4 is seventh in the league. There is a really dangerous basketball team in here, and figuring out how to put their stars into positions to succeed is priority No. 1 down the stretch.

Bradley Beal

Sometimes it’s as simple as being healthy. When Beal plays, the Suns are 19-11. When he does not, they’re 14-12. The idea behind putting Beal with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker continues to make sense in theory, and when they’re on the floor together, Phoenix is a juggernaut — lineups with all three of them alongside one another are outscoring opponents by 12 points per 100 possessions (although it’s worth mentioning that the lineups with Beal and only one of the All-Stars have struggled, particularly the ones without Booker, as those lineups are getting outscored by 8.7 points per 100 possessions). And for all the concerns about whether they can stay healthy, Durant (played in 49 of 56 games) and Booker (46 of 56) have generally held up their end of the bargain.

But of course, it’s not like this team was assembled without any indication that these are guys who occasionally miss some time. This was the risk Phoenix always was going to take when it decided to go all-in on three superstars with checkered injury histories, and if the team is going to make noise once the playoffs roll around, getting Beal healthy and consistently going is crucial. That’s especially true if they want to avoid the play-in — Phoenix is currently in seventh, and the team is just as close to 10th place as it is third (four games each way). Their biggest problem? Tankathon gives them the toughest remaining schedule in the league with two games left against all of these teams: Boston, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Cleveland, the Clippers, and Denver. Are those the teams with the six best records in the league? You bet!

Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, and Klay Thompson

Steve Kerr opted to make a bold change in the team’s final game before the All-Star break, as he put Klay Thompson on the bench and leaned into a starting lineup of Steph Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, and Draymond Green. Well, it was bold on the surface, but when you look at the numbers, that lineup has been destroying opposing teams all year: It’s outscoring opponents by just over 27 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass.

Amid Thompson’s up and down year, the emergence of Kuminga and Podziemski has the Warriors looking like the Warriors when they’re out there with that trio of veterans. Kuminga appears to have gotten past his gripes about playing time as he’s become nearly indispensable, while Podziemski just has that Warriors thing about him where he seems like he always knows how to make the right play. Thompson, meanwhile, is still a good player; he’s just struggled to reach the highs he reached earlier in his career. That’s fine, and perhaps coming off the bench and getting to feast against second units is exactly what he needs to get on track, especially once Chris Paul comes back and can get him looks in spots where he wants the ball. And while the Warriors are 28-26 and have a bit of a hill to climb in the West — they’re the 10-seed right now and sit four games back of both the 6-seed and the 7-seed — they might actually be able to scale it.

The least hot ticket in America this weekend is CPAC, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, which seems to increase in craziness every year. How crazy is it now? So crazy that its far right speakers are saying the quietest parts extra loud. Things kicked off in appropriately scary gear right off the bat, with Trump stooge and Pizzagate loon Jack Posobiec telling the crowd that their goal is to bring an stop to the biggest part of the nearly 250-year-old American experiment.

“Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely,” Posobiec told the crowd, to scattered applause. He then chillingly added, “We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this, right here.” (What is “this”?

Not everyone applauded, but one person who did was Steve Bannon, who laughed and crowed, “Amen.”

Posobiec’s vow to end democracy comes mere weeks after Donald Trump, the prospective GOP nominee, straight-up said he’d be a “dictator,” which he vowed to only be for one day — as though dictators ever grow tired of wielding absolute power. That didn’t stop him from soaring in the polls, but perhaps people should take seriously the things said by a party that ended legal abortion nationwide. Then again, you know, Joe Biden is kind of old and sometimes says strange things.

You can watch CNN cover Posobiec’s startling words in the video above.

Donald Trump has never had much of a filter. What’s more, he has some, well, interesting thoughts bouncing around in his mushy head. That can get him into trouble — not much trouble, mind you, as he somehow has a chance of being re-elected president later this year. On Friday he spoke at the Black Conservative Federation Honors Gala held in Columbia, South Carolina, where he let slip something…strange.

“And then I got indicted a second time and then a third time and a fourth time!” Trump said. “And a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as — I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing.”

Trump’s comment comes on the heels of him nonsensically comparing himself to Alexei Navalny, the Vladimir Putin critic who mysteriously died in a Siberian penal colony. Talking about the many indictments he’s ratcheted up, he recently told a Fox News town hall crowd that he’s suffering from “a form of Navalny.” He said this, despite Putin being such a dear pal of his, even though he was also suggesting, like many, that Putin was responsible for Navalny’s death.

(Via Mediaite)

Yesterday (February 23), Olivia Rodrigo kicked off her highly-anticipated Guts World Tour. For weeks, the “Vampire” singer has teased tour merch, set design, and more. But thanks to Uproxx’s own Philip Cosores and his review of opening night in Palm Springs, California, we know exactly what the 21-year-old has to offer on the arena run.

In Cosores’ remarks, he dubbed Rodrigo: “officially an arena rock star,” thanks to her sheer display on stage during the Guts World Tour. If you were lucky enough to grab tickets to one of the sold-out shows, you are in for a treat. Continue below to view the setlist, remaining tour stops, and poster.

Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour setlist

1. “Bad Idea, Right?”
2. “Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl”
3. “Vampire”
4. “Traitor”
5. “Drivers License”
6. “Teenage Dream”
7. “Pretty Isn’t Pretty”
8. “Love Is Embarrassing”
9. “Making The Bed”
10. “Logical”
11. “Enough For You”
12. “Lacy”
13. “Jealousy, Jealousy”
14. “Happier”
15. “Favorite Crime”
16. “Deja Vu”
17. “The Grudge”
18. “Brutal”
19. “Obsessed”
20. “All-American B*tch”
21. “Good 4 U”
22. “Get Him Back!”

Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour dates

02/24 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center ~
02/27 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center ~
02/28 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center ~
03/01 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center ~
03/02 — New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center ~
03/05 — Orlando, FL @ Amway Center ~
03/06 — Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center ~
03/08 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center ~
03/09 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena ~
03/12 — St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center ~
03/13 — Omaha, NE @ CHI Health Center ~
03/15 — Saint Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center ~
03/16 — Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum ~
03/19 — Chicago, IL @ United Center ~
03/20 — Chicago, IL @ United Center ~
03/22 — Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena ~
03/23 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena ~
03/26 — Montreal, Quebec @ Bell Centre ~
03/27 — Montreal, Quebec @ Bell Centre ~
03/29 — Toronto, Ontario @ Scotiabank Arena ~
03/30 — Toronto, Ontario @ Scotiabank Arena ~
04/01 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden ~
04/02 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden ~
04/05 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
04/06 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
04/08 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
04/09 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
04/30 — Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena =
05/01 — Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena =
05/03 — Manchester, England @ Co-op Live =
05/04 — Manchester, England @ Co-op Live =
05/07 — Glasgow, Scotland @ OVO Hydro =
05/08 — Glasgow, Scotland @ OVO Hydro =
05/10 — Birmingham, England @ Utilita Arena =
05/11 — Birmingham, England @ Utilita Arena =
05/14 — London, England @ The O2/2024 — =
05/15 — London, England @ The O2/2024 — =
05/17 — London, England @ The O2/2024 — =
05/18 — London, England @ The O2/2024 — =
05/22 — Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportpaleis =
05/24 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome =
05/25 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome =
05/28 — Oslo, Norway @ Spektrum =
05/30 — Copenhagen, Denmark @ Royal Arena =
06/01 — Berlin, Germany @ Mercedes-Benz Arena =
06/04 — Hamburg, Germany @ Barclays Arena =
06/05 — Frankfurt, Germany @ Festhalle =
06/07 — Munich, Germany @ Olympiahalle =
06/09 — Bologna, Italy @ Unipol Arena =
06/11 — Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion =
06/12 — Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena =
06/14 — Paris, France @ Accor Arena =
06/15 — Paris, France @ Accor Arena =
06/18 — Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Sant Jordi =
06/20 — Madrid, Spain @ WizInk Center =
06/22 — Lisbon, Portugal @ Altice Arena =
07/19 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center ^
07/20 — Washington, D.C. @ Capital One Arena ^
07/23 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena ^
07/24 — Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena ^
07/26 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center ^
07/27 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Paycom Center ^
07/30 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena ^
07/31 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Delta Center ^
08/02 — San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center ^
08/03 — San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center ^
08/06 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena ^
08/07 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena ^
08/09 — Vancouver, British Columbia @ Rogers Arena ^
08/10 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center ^
08/13 — Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum +
08/14 — Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum +
08/16 — Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum +
08/17 — Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum +

+ with The Breeders
^ with PinkPantheress
~ with Chappell Roan
= with Remi Wolf

Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour poster

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Werner Herzog was once shot during an interview. He once pulled a giant boat over a mountain. He once ate a shoe after losing a bet, and had it filmed for a movie. He once rescued Joaquin Phoenix from a car accident. He once made a movie where the entire cast performed under hypnosis. He also recently watched 30 minutes of Barbie, and he came away with the correct conclusion about Barbie Land.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the legendary filmmaker and scene-stealing actor went on Piers Morgan: Uncensored, during which he weighed in on some of this year’s Oscar crop. He admitted he hasn’t seen Oppenheimer yet, but he did see some but not all of the one about a living doll who suffers an existential crisis.

“Barbie, I managed to see the first half hour, and I was curious,” Herzog told Morgan. “I wanted to watch it because I was curious. And I still don’t have an answer, but I have a suspicion. Could it be that the world of Barbie is sheer hell?”

The director of Even Dwarfs Started Small added, “For a movie ticket, as an audience, you can witness sheer hell, as close as it gets.”

He’s not wrong! The plot of Barbie kicks off when its titular hero is struck with a sudden and violent case of self-awareness, wondering aloud if anyone else has ever thought about death. Barbie Land is so pink it may or may not have almost caused a paint shortage. All the men (well, save one) are idiots who are this close to turning into patriarchal tyrants. Barbie ends [spoiler!] with Barbie escaping into our own horrible world, where she can finally have lady parts.

Of course, the filmmaker who once allegedly pulled a gun on his main actor when he tried to flee set hasn’t gotten to most of that yet; he still has another 80-some minutes left.

You can watch Herzog’s full Piers Morgan appearance in the video below.

(Via THR)

Tim Burton and Jenna Ortega are a match made in (miserable) heaven. Netflix knows this truth and saw fit to greenlight a second season of Wednesday after the series danced to the top of the Netflix all-time Top 10 TV list. The streaming service also decided that Uncle Fester needed his own show, too, so there are plenty of Addams and relations to go around in the coming years.

The star outcast of Nevermore Academy will have plenty of darkness to wade through upon her TV return, and the second season decided upon filming in Ireland rather than Romania, which could throw some different shades on the upcoming spooky visuals. Let’s talk about what else has been revealed for the next exercise of psychic powers from the deadpan-gloomy Raven.

Plot

Thank goodness that Netflix isn’t messing with the best part of this show — the infamous Wednesday personality, via Deadline and E! News:

“I’ve received some scripts now for the second season, and we’re definitely leaning into a little bit more horror,” Ortega told Laverne Cox while being interviewed for E! on the Emmys red carpet. “It’s really, really exciting because all throughout the show [Wednesday] never really changes and that’s what’s wonderful about her.”

She continued, “There’s some really good one-liners and I think everything is bigger. It’s a lot more action-packed. I think each episode will probably feel a little bit more like a movie, which is nice.”

From there, Ortega might have said too much on her feelings about the show’s first-season writing, but it’s also worth noting that the Scream VI actress looks forward to acting out more of Wednesday’s motives and why “her main drive with the monster was a kind of competitiveness.”

Obviously, the finale left some threads wide open, and the show will hopefully follow up on Tyler’s true nature and continue to sidestep a straightforward investigative approach on behalf of the title character. That, and Wednesday’s rebellion, made the show unpredictable and fun, especially when that fun gave a playful middle finger while embracing the “fun” characteristic.

Cast

There must be more of Thing, and there’s also going to be another member of the Addams clan coming right at ya. Will that be Cousin Itt? Please.

Otherwise, the deliciously perfect cast continues to exist with the unblinking Jenna Ortega back in braids and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman still doing the Morticia and Gomez thing. With a spinoff in motion, you’d think that Fred Armisen would make another appearance as Uncle Fester, and hopefully, we’ll see Gwendoline Christie, Jamie McShane Emma Myers, Riki Lindhome, Hunter Doohan, and Joy Sunday surface at least in spirit.

Release Date

Not even Wednesday Addams could conjure up an exact vision of when her second season shall arrive, but with locations scouted and filming beginning in April, early 2025 is a realistic bet.

Trailer

Did we really think there would be a trailer yet? No way. So, we shall practice these dance moves instead.

Drew McIntyre defeated Bobby Lashley, LA Knight, Kevin Owens, Logan Paul, and Randy Orton to win the Men’s Elimination Chamber match. He will now go on to face Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 40.

Knight and McIntrye got the match started, and it didn’t take long for McIntyre to mock the injured CM Punk, teasing a Go To Sleep. Knight reversed it, tossed McIntyre outside the ring and continuously slammed his head into the Chamber pods. The buzzer sounded for Owens, who took out Knight and McIntyre before yelling at Paul.

Lashley was next out of the pod, using the cage structure to punish McIntyre outside the ring. Owens waited on Paul to leave the pod next, but it was Orton, who hit a signature power slam and a hanging DDT to the outside on Owens.

Lashley hit a spear on Knight, but he was able to roll out of the ring and avoid getting pinned. Lashley then went for a spear on McIntyre, but ended up on the middle turnbuckle. The buzzer sounded again, and it was Owens who was immediately in Paul’s pod. Owens slammed Paul into the pod wall, then tossed him into the ring. Owens and Paul went at each other outside the ring when Lashley tossed Owens through one pod, then speared Paul through another.

McIntyre landed the Claymore on Lashley and rolled him into the ring, but Lashley made his way back to his feet and applied the Hurt Lock on Knight. McIntyre came out of nowhere with another Claymore to pin and eliminate Lashley. As Lashley was leaving the ring, Knight hit the Blunt Force Trauma on both Orton and McIntrye. AJ Styles suddenly appeared and slammed a chair into Knight’s back before hitting the Styles Clash on the chair. McIntyre crawled over to gain the pinfall and another elimination.

Owens and Paul finally made their way to their feet and went at each other. After taking out Paul, Owens got into the ring and attacked McIntyre and Orton. Owens took out McIntyre and Paul before going after Orton, but the Viper hit an RKO for the pinfall.

Orton and McIntyre mixed it up in the ring as Paul made his way to the top of the pods. Paul landed a flying crossbody onto McIntyre. Paul pulled the brass knuckles out of his tights, but Orton hit an RKO out of nowhere to eliminate him.

Orton reversed a Future Shock DDT and landed his hanging from the middle rope DDT inside the ring. Orton called for the RKO, but McIntyre reversed into a spinebuster. McIntyre counted down the Claymore, but Orton couldn’t make his way back to his feet as he crumpled in back pain. Orton then exploded up for an RKO, but Paul hit him with the brass knuckles to allow McIntyre to pin Orton for the pinfall and earn a matchup with Rollins.

Becky Lynch outlasted Naomi, Tiffany Stratton, Raquel Rodriguez, Bianca Belair, and Liv Morgan to win the Women’s Elimination Chamber and a shot at the Women’s World Championship at WrestleMania 40.

Two WWE veterans in Naomi and Lynch got the match started before it was Tiffy Time and Stratton, the former NXT star, joined the chaos. The buzzer sounded again and it was Morgan who joined the fray, attacking Stratton, then Lynch, and eventually Naomi. Naomi escaped to the top of the pods and landed an over the top neckbreaker from the top of the pod on Morgan before Stratton rolled Naomi up for the first pinfall of the night.

Rodriguez hit the ring and went to work, dominating the field. She hit a fallaway slam with Morgan over the ropes into the ring, whipped Statton head-first into the cage, and landed a stalling suplex against the cage on Lynch. All three women went after Rodriguez, trying a stacking pinfall for two.

The buzzer sounded and it was Belair’s chance to join the match. She went right after Stratton, took the work to Lynch, and eventually mixed it up with Rodriguez. Stratton set Rodriguez on the top rope, where Morgan did a jumping leg drop onto Rodriguez from the top of the pod. Stratton and Lynch made their way to the top of the pod as well, where Stratton threw Lynch off onto Rodriguez, then did a Swanton Bomb onto Rodriguez, Lynch, and Belair.

Back in the ring, Stratton went for the Prettiest Moonsault Ever on Morgan, but she reversed into an avalanche flatliner for the pinfall. Rodriguez got back in the ring and hit a double powerbomb on Lynch and Morgan. Belair arrived from behind her for the KOD for the pinball. Belair went for a 450 splash, but Lynch got her knees up. Belair then attempted the KOD on Morgan, but Morgan reversed it into a stunner.

Belair tried for a KOD again, but Lynch reversed and landed on her feet. Morgan rolled Belair up for the pinfall, then Lynch hit a Man-handle Slam for the pinfall on Morgan to earn her spot at WrestleMania.

Lynch will battle against the winner of Rhea Ripley vs. Nia Jax, which will main event the Elimination Chamber.

Just a few days following her 21st birthday, it already feels like punky-pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo is running out of benchmarks to clear.

She’s a Grammy award winner — including the coveted prize for Best New Artist in 2022 — and has also received prizes from the American Music Awards, iHeart, Billboard, and numerous critics prizes for both of her albums, 2021’s Sour and 2023’s Guts. She has starred in a successful television show (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series) and featured in her own Disney+ documentary (Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U), in addition to memorable SNL, Tiny Desk, and VMAs performances. She’s landed three songs at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and both of her albums on top of the Billboard 200, essentially positioning herself as one-of-one when considering critical and commercial success stories in the 2020s. And when you factor in brand deals with the likes of the Apple iPhone, Crumbl cookies, and even her own Erewhon Smoothie, the only big thing missing from Rodrigo’s musical resume is longevity, which, at this point, feels like a foregone conclusion.

Well, the only big thing except for the touring front.

While Sour was a monster moment by all metrics, Olivia Rodrigo’s touring behind it was far more conservative than you’d expect for an artist launching in such a bold, underlined, and italicized way. Sure, her Sour performances hit big amphitheaters and even a low-cap arena or two across both Europe and North America. Still, many artists would have parlayed that into an even bigger run of arenas, even stadiums. But for the young artist Rodrigo, it felt a lot more planned-out and controlled than just letting the success of her debut carry her as far as possible. Instead of performing without an end in sight, she went back and crafted a follow-up that doubled down on her alt-rock aggression and theatrical balladeering. With a minimal amount of material under her belt, she didn’t milk what she had for all its worth. Everything about how she positioned herself screamed that Rodrigo is in it for the long haul, rather than trying to capture lighting in a bottle.

That’s what makes the Guts World Tour — which kicked off last night at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California — all the more intriguing. Something changed in the live music space within the last year. Following the launches of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour — and to a slightly lesser extent, SZA’s run supporting SOS — major concert tours have felt like the true north star for shared communal moments. From the hardships of just getting tickets that exposed flaws in the live music infrastructure to the social media frenzy that the performances caused, big tours are poised to replace festivals as the marquee moments for young people to opt in to. You don’t need to look further than the waning sales demands for typical behemoth events to bolster this claim. Part of that may be concertgoers with limited resources are now spending their festival money on after-market single-shows, and part of that might be that festivals having difficulty booking these same top-tier artists who can make more money — and have more control — doing things on their own.

For 2024, Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is primed to follow in these footsteps. We’ve already seen the expected madness on the sales front, with tickets selling out fast and secondary prices shooting through the roof. And now, with the launch, we can say that Rodrigo delivers mightily on the anticipation with a show that balances many elements that would be in conflict in lesser hands. Whether it be her rock and pop tendencies, her teenage feelings with grown-up ambitions, or the actions of feeling larger-than-life while also personal and relatable, Rodrigo managed everyone’s expectations with the grace of an acrobat.

If you were a fan of Rodrigo the rock star, the show’s bookends put her head-banging, guttural-screaming self on full display. “Jealousy, Jealousy” found her channeling Robert Plant’s hip-shaking swagger, while openers “Bad Idea, Right?” and “Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl” set the night in motion with blinding lights and fifth-gear propulsion. By the end of her 100-minute set, any pop-star frills that punctuated the performance’s middle sections had dissolved as Rodrigo busted out her own guitar playing on “Obsessed” and went full ’90s rocker with a bullhorn rap on “Get Him Back.”

But those “frills” were nothing to shrug at, either. Rodrigo covered for her own blindspots by having backing dancers fill in needed gaps for the mid-tempo “Pretty Isn’t Pretty” and the rambunctious highlight “Love Is Embarrassing.” And while the stage kept Rodrigo stationed on one end of the hockey arena, she slowly sailed on a floating moon around the venue for fans in the back to view her up close, offering up “Logical” and “Enough For You” in the process.

But the most impressive aspect of Rodrigo — her magic trick that no one does quite like her — is appealing to both the children who screamed when Rodrigo asked if it was their first concert, and the adults who use Rodrigo’s music to excavate feelings that either have been dormant since their youth or never went away at all. As a young woman, this is surely an aspect of her own music that she has to grapple with, performing songs she literally created as a love-lorn teen with newer tunes that have transitioned ever so slightly into more adult topics and language and signifiers. But Rodrigo is never alienating. She can sell shot glasses on her web store and also have cotton candy booths are her concerts. She can inspire kids to cosplay in their finest lavender finds for her tour while also trendset in Hot Topic-chic, fishnets, and boots as a bonafide style icon. She’s establishing herself as an artist that one generation will grow up with, and another can appreciate with a sense of nostalgia and camaraderie.

This was most clear early in the set during “Teenage Dream,” which was backed with a series of childhood videos of a young Rodrigo, and concluded with audio recording of some of her early performance forrays. She would note that she grew up not far from where the concert took place, in Temecula, California, but didn’t really have to underscore the meaning of launching her first arena tour so close to home, fulfilling a dream she had not many years before. The audience could easily understand that at just 21 years old, Rodrigo has both come a long way and still has a long way to go. But she’s now officially an arena rock star, and she’ll have to figure out what milestone to conquer next.

Setlist:
Bad Idea, Right?
Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl
Vampire
Traitor
Drivers License
Teenage Dream
Pretty Isn’t Pretty
Love Is Embarrassing
Making The Bed
Logical
Enough For You
Lacy
Jealousy, Jealousy
Happier
Favorite Crime
Deja Vu
The Grudge
Brutal
Obsessed
All-American Bitch
Good 4 U
Get Him Back!

The thing that makes Victor Wembanyama so special is his ability to do a little bit of everything on the basketball court. Rookies are not supposed to have their fingerprints all over the game the way that the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft is able to, and as a result, it seemed inevitable that he’d eventually get a five-by-five.

For those who don’t know, a 5×5 is when a player records at least five points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals in a game. It is exceedingly rare, as we haven’t had one in the league since Jusuf Nurkic in 2019, and the NBA has only seen 21 of them (it’s worth mentioning that blocks and steals were not kept before 1972, so Wilt Chamberlain assuredly has a lot of 5×5 games). But Wembanyama was able to pick one up in his 51st career game, as he went for a 5×5 on Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers.

You know how it’s pretty good when you make it onto a list with Michael Jordan? Well, this wasn’t 5×5 news, but it sure is good.

On the night, Wembanyama had 27 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, five steals, and five blocks in a 123-118 road loss to the Lakers. And according to the site NBAHoopsOnline.com, Wembanyama made some history here as he set the record for the fewest minutes needed to achieve a 5×5 — Marcus Camby previously had the record at 34 minutes, while Wembanyama did it in only 31.

Funny enough, he nearly had a 5×5 game on Thursday night, too, as he registered 19 points, 13 rebounds, five blocks, five steals, and four assists against Sacramento. While we had to wait an extra day for him to join this exclusive basketball club, we have a hunch this won’t be the last time he does this in his career.