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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 doesn't match the first movie's enthusiasm

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films like M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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