Live Music Now

These are the 5 best concerts in Houston this week

A big welcome back is in order to one of H-towns best bands, The Tontons.

The local five-piece recently released new single, "Sychophant," featuring the airy, sultry vocals of charismatic singer Asli Omar over the chiming guitar jangle and melodic rhythym section we've come to love (concluding with a killer guitar solo). It is rumored the group is working on new music for a potential full-length to follow-up 2014's acclaimed Make Out King and Other Stories of Love. The song is available to listen to on Spotify and other streaming services. It's about time.

The Tontons just announced a December 28 show at the Heights Theater with psych-soul Austin band Black Pumas. Tickets are on sale now.

Meanwhile, here are CultureMap's best, biggest, and most notable shows for the week ahead.

Manchester Orchestra at HOB
Manchester Orchestra is neither from Manchester, nor an orchestra. (Discuss.) The Atlanta-based group fills the same sphere as War on Drugs, Cloud Nothings, and Gaslight Anthem in that they make sonically pleasing music that critics adore and sound great at festivals, but don't necessarily make a huge impact on the mainstream. That said, their latest, 2017's A Black Mile to the Surface, was darkly majestic alt-rock at its finest, one of last year's best offerings.

Manchester Orchestra is at House of Blues, located at 1204 Caroline St., on Tuesday, November 27. The Front Bottoms and Brother Bird open. Tickets start at $30. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

CultureMap show of the week: Cat Power
Cat Power aka Chan Marshall rolls into town and offers up a live performance of songs from of one of the best albums of 2018 in the gorgeous Wanderer, which harkens back to her earlier creative peak. Marshall started her career suffering from crippling stage fright, but she's since overcome it to become one of the better performers on the indie circuit. She's attracted collaborators among some of the most famous musicians in the world, including Lana Del Rey and Dave Grohl. In other words, she's a gem, producing some of the most compelling music of the last 20 years. Don't miss this one.

Cat Power headlines White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 N. Main St., on Wednesday, November 28. Tickets start at $32 plus service fees. Doors open at 7 pm.

Travis Tritt and Charlie Daniels Band
Those who like their country music gritty and as Southern fried will want to be sat around the rotating Arena Theatre stage this Thursday when country legends Travis Tritt and the Charlie Daniels Band team-up to bring their long line of hit C&W songs to what will surely be receptive Houston audience. Tritt and Daniels can both be described as flag bearers for the rebel country movement, replete with conservative values that neither are shy to share up-and-front through their song lyrics. In other words, there's a lot to like here for those of a particular side of the political spectrum or those who appreciate a dose of rock riffs and astute storytelling with their country music.

Travis Tritt and The Charlie Daniels Band co-headline Arena Theatre, located at 7326 Southwest Fwy. on Thursday, November 29. Tickets start at $49.50. Show starts at 8:30 pm.

CultureMap recommends: Gary Clark Jr. at Revention
The ghost of Stevie Ray Vaughn lives on in Austin performer Gary Clark Jr., one of the most respected guitarists in the game right now. Anyone who saw him tear it up at his Super Bowl Live performace in early 2017 knows the guy can wail on the six-string and fill a big space. His show at Revention will feel positively intimate compared to that gig, but fans will all be better for it as he'll likely be playing new cuts from his yet-to-be-named new album, set for release in 2019. Clark has been on the verge of blowing up nationally in a big way - this might be his smallest concert in Houston for some time to come.

Gary Clark Jr. performs at Revention Music Center, located at 520 Texas Ave., on Friday, November 30. Tickets start at $45. Doors open at 7 pm.

Gregory Porter at Cullen Theater
Known for his distinctive headwear, the ultra-talented jazz vocalist Gregory Porter brings his entrancing voice and sound to Cullen Hall. Porter is a two-time Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy Award winner for Liquid Spirit (2014) and 2017's Take Me to the Alley (2017). His rich baritone and merging of jazz, gospel, soul, and R&B has earned him fans around the world. Porter will be a part of KPVU's Holiday Jazz and Gospel Fest alongside co-headliner Avery Sunshine.

Gregory Porter is at Cullen Theater at the Wortham Center, located at 501 Texas St., on Sunday, December 2. Tickets start at $90. The show starts at 5 pm.

Cat Power performs at White Oak Music Hall on Wednesday, November 28.

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The Donn of Tiki

Texas-born tiki legend shines in new documentary with Houston screening

Still from The Donn of Tiki

The Donn of Tiki uncover's tiki culture's origins through one influential bar owner.

It seems like the 20th century phenomenon of tiki bars would have emerged organically, with no sole progenitor, but a quick online search always turns up the late, supposedly Texas-born bar owner Donn Beach. A new documentary called The Donn of Tiki follows the history of "tiki culture" from this influential origin, aiming to "separate fact from fiction," according to a press release.

The James Beard Media Award-nominated film will screen in Houston at the River Oaks Theatre on Tuesday, October 14. Austin can catch it at the Regal Westgate Stadium 11 on October 15.

In the film's first moments, it defines tiki as "Cantonese food, Caribbean mixology, and South Pacific decor combined to create an aesthetic that was exotic, yet undeniably American." It also wastes no time in characterizing Beach, portrayed in this film as a whimsical claymation figure, as an unreliable narrator.

Although Ernest Raymond Gantt, a.k.a. Donn Beach, was based in Hollywood when he opened his bar Don the Beachcomber in 1934, he was born in Mexia, Texas — or at least that's what the film settles on, using census records. The current website for the Don the Beachcomber brand, which was purchased by 23 Restaurant Services in 2022, repeats Beach's claim that his birthplace was New Orleans, Louisiana.

The film goes on to detail the escapism of tiki culture, the surprising subtly of the mixology despite the aesthetic overkill, and the business intricacies of bootlegging and commercializing indigenous practices in Hawai'i. As it'd be a crime to film a bland documentary about tiki culture, all the interviewees pull these historical threads while wearing vivid Pacific island prints.

Even taking into account Beach's penchant for yarn-spinning and legendary contribution to cultural appropriation, the film's official description calls him "a champion for authenticity, both in his work, and within himself."

Audience members at the Houston screening will be able to learn more from co-director Max Well during a post-screening Q&A. For now, local screenings offer the only opportunities the general public will have to see the film. However, an FAQ page on the documentary's website says the team is working on a Blu-Ray release with more content, including recipes, and they expect the film to eventually be available on demand on platforms such as Amazon Video and Apple TV.

The River Oaks Theater will host two screenings at 7:15 pm and 8:45 pm. Tickets ($21) are available here.

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