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.

Manchester Orchestra is at House of Blues this Tuesday, November 27.

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Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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