Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: The Tontons + Featherface (Rev’d!) + Blackmarket Syndicate + The Mink Last Call + More

And here we are at Sat., September 1st, the start of yours truly’s very own birth month, and there are a crap-ton of good shows happening, almost all of ’em stellar H-town lineups. Here’s what sounds/looks good to me:

The Tontons/Featherface/Quiet Company/Hello Chief/Purple/Knights of the Fire Kingdom @ Warehouse Live
Featherface @ Cactus Music (3PM)
Expect tonight’s show up at Warehouse Live to be pretty damn packed, y’all. Why? Well, in part because headliners {The Tontons} recently got a shoutout on MTV‘s Buzzworthy site for song “Golden” — and justifiably so, to my mind, because it’s a damn good song (even if I find it odd to call a song that’s been out for nearly a full year now “new” (and “CAT-CHY”? Really? Gah…). Internet High-Five out to the Tontons crew for that cheery little win, either way; I wouldn’t be surprised if a bunch of new, fresh-faced young’un fans happened to come out to the show tonight to see what the article was talking about.

As well they should, because these four kids are freaking incredible; I could seriously listen to Asli Omar sing the phonebook, and guitarist Adam Martinez plays these stunningly heavy retro-psych riffs alongside the silky-smooth soul.

While The Tontons are riding high, mind you, they’re not the only high point for tonight — the show’s also the official CD release for {Featherface}‘s new full-length, Actual Magic, which is really, truly amazing. It’s quieter and more thoughtful than It Comes Electric (which I also love/loved), with the band incorporating both a dance-y sound and a cool Radiohead influence. Check out the full review here… Oh, and the band’s a hell of a lot of fun live, to boot.

If you can’t make it tonight, btw, well, you’re not totally screwed — head on over to Cactus at or before 3PM today, and you will be able to witness the Featherface awesomeness, albeit in somewhat abbreviated fashion. Plus, you can then pick up a copy of Actual Magic, because that’s something you really, really need to do. Trust me on this.

Back to the show…then there’s in-between band Quiet Company, who surged in out of nowhere late last year to become one of my favorite bands of, well, pretty much ever, actually. Their most recent album, We Are All Where We Belong, is a goddamn masterpiece of intricately-orchestrated, intensely personal, smart-as-hell indie-pop, and I’ve been forcing it on everybody I can (okay, that goes for the Tontons Golden EP and anything by Featherface, too, but y’know).

I saw Quiet Company play at Summerfest this year, and they managed to put on one of the best shows I was fortunate enough to witness all weekend. And that’s including some heavy-duty company, seriously. I’m looking forward to seeing ’em (and Featherface, come to think of it) for the second time.

Speaking of people I’m looking forward to seeing live, badass H-town rock quasi-supergroup {Knights of the Fire Kingdom} are playing, and I’m hoping to finally catch them in person. All I’ve heard so far are the handful of songs they’ve released on their Bandcamp page, but holy fuck are they awesome — think Rocket From The Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, or New Bomb Turks, and you’ll be in the ballpark. Driving, fiery, guitar-heavy rawk that owes allegiance to nobody and just wants to burn it all down.

This was originally intended to be two separate shows, I believe, with the Tontons, Featherface, & Quiet Company in the Studio room as Hello Chief, Purple, & Knights of the Fire Kingdom rocked out in the Green Room, and while I think the bands are still playing in different areas, the shows have been merged somewhat — now it’s a measly $10 for the whole deal…

Molotov Compromise/Blackmarket Syndicate/Dead to the World/The Freakouts @ Fitzgerald’s
And yes, there are other shows going on this evening, too, like this one, up at Fitz. I dearly, dearly love {Blackmarket Syndicate} — been a fan since I first heard their debut as Deathbed Repentance, Why Do We Even Try? — and I’m happy to see them playing more regularly around town these days.

Unfortunately, every time I see ’em on a bill, I cringe, too, because I totally blew reviewing the band’s new album, And the Peasants Rejoiced — I thought I could squeeze it in before the album’s release back in April, and I even tried to do it while on the road to Arizona (went to hike the Grand Canyon with my dad & little brothers), but I just couldn’t get it done. sigh. Sorry, y’all — soon, I promise…

My slowness on the review front has zero to do with the album itself, btw, because it’s flat-out great. Far, far more political than their last, it’s a rousing blast of embittered-yet-defiant, street-level, melodic punk rock that blows the doors off a lot of other bands claiming to be “punk” of some variety. Check it out.

The show also has {Molotov Compromise} as the headliner, which is very cool, because those guys broke up a while back; no idea if this is a permanent reunion or just a one-off deal, but it’s cool to see, either way. As an extra bonus, they’ve got {Dead to the World} playing, too — saw those guys back in the spring and was fairly impressed; read about that over here…

P.L.X.T.X/Killer Kill/Giant Battle Monster/MOTHS @ Dean’s
Been seeing a whole heck of a lot of P.L.X.T.X (pronounced “Pluto,” like the much-maligned planet), Bradley from {Female Demand}‘s new Atari Teenage Riot-like electronic project, lately, which is very, very cool. Haven’t seen him perform it live, sadly, but his EP, TIME, is mesmerizing and hypnotic and built to destroy your eardrums while you grin vacantly and stare off into a parallel dimension. If that doesn’t sound awesome, I dunno what to tell you.

Also playing are {MOTHS}, who I keep meaning to check out, and spazz-rockers {Giant Battle Monster}, who I believe have had to retool somewhat since the last time I saw ’em. Hopefully they haven’t lost any of that band-being-electrocuted quality they had back then, though, because it was something truly worth witnessing.

Last Call @ The Mink, featuring Grey Hours, Bandtastic 4, Silk Knives, Greg Gory, Death From Afar, & Rockaway Radio @ The Mink
Ah, The Mink, long may she, er, ride the waves? Dunno where I was going with that, really, but the sad reality is that the Mink’s owners have released a statement saying that they’ve sold the property after running it for the past year or so, and that the venue will close its doors after tonight’s show in order to renovate & whatnot for the new owners.

No idea what that’ll look like, or if live music will still be welcome at the bar — it’s been a relief to see the most recent owners keep the shows alive, even after the brouhaha about the club’s sale a year ago. Head on over there tonight to raise a glass & celebrate The Mink’s last(?) hurrah.

Runners-Up:
Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day, featuring Blaggards, The Dead Rabbits, & Think Lizzy @ House of Blues
Hatred Surge/PLF/Chest Pain/Black Coffee/Corrupt Bastards @ Walter’s ($7)
Taylor Lee & The Swamp Sessions/Adam Bricks/Charles Peters & The 10% @ The Continental Club
Wet Nurse/Tenement/The Vipers @ Notsuoh
Def Leppard/Poison/Lita Ford @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Recovery Room/John Lefler/Language Room/The Satellite Brigade @ Fitzgerald’s
Gritsy, featuring DJ Dara @ The Engine Room (1515 Pease)
White Ghost Shivers @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
Dreamland Music Festival, featuring Sluggo, Helicopter Showdown, JRabbit, Mantis, Rroid Drazr, Electro Enforcers, Trajikk, Bart Black, Murderland Collective, DJ Red, Lawrence & Celauro, Haters Make Us Famous, Plastik Zero, Moonstruck Red, Ozone, K9, DJ Ambition & MDA, Mad Mike, Sinik, Déjà vu, DJ Shwann, Tosh – The Vinyl Ninja, Andrew Morehouse, Chris Bee, Goombotic, Glasnost DJs, DJ Blazzed, Malibu, MissingLink, Kayyare, Wiseman, Glynn Leviathan, Cataklysmic Kontact, Randall Denny, Spyr@l, Darnell Lorenzo, Kidd Evol, Romini, & MC TR3 @ Fun Plex (13700 Beechnut; 8PM-4AM)
Mel Tillis @ Dosey Doe Coffee Company (The Woodlands)