Giveaway Time: The Tontons Head West, Tomorrow Night, and You Could Be There to See It

UPDATE: And yep, there go those tickets; thanks to the folks who commented & emailed!

There’s a small, select handful of bands in this city that honestly can do no freaking wrong in my eyes; literally everything they do somehow turns out to be awesome, in spite of all of the pitfalls of making music in this town. And {The Tontons} are up close to the top of that pile.

The band really, truly defies most of my attempts to describe ’em to friends & fellow music fans — I usually end up mumbling something about psych-rock and soul music and Billie Holiday and really loud guitars, and by then they’ve got this worried look in their eyes and have started to back away slowly.

It’s just weird, y’know, but they’re difficult to pin down — there’s no easy, “oh, yeah; they sound like [INSERT NAME OF BAND THEY KINDA-SORTA RESEMBLE].” The best comparison I’ve been able to come up with lately would be something like what The Black Angels might sound like if they let Adele do the vocals, and even that doesn’t truly do it justice.

They play music that’s sultry and heavy at the same time, with guitars just this side of a Hendrix album and that mindblowingly gorgeous soul-singer voice flying out over the top of all of it; it’s dirty and sublime and beautiful stuff.

Anyway. The upshot is that the band is good. Goooooood-level “good.” Really; trust me on this. (Or, heck, listen to their most recent EP, Golden, on over here.)

So I’m psyched as hell to see they’re playing tomorrow night, Fri., February 3rd, up at the wondrous Fitzgerald’s (where I’ve been seeing a heck of a lot of shows lately, believe it or not; feels like The Old Days…), and kicking off a wide-ranging tour of those states out West of us before swinging back east in time for SXSW (naturally).

Better yet, they’re playing with excellent, excellent pop kids {The Wild Moccasins}, whom I also love to death, a new-ish band I’ve yet to hear called {A Sea Es}, and {Portal Walker}, who is apparently also known as Vincent Priceless (I’d thought they were two different people, honestly).

And hey, we here at SCR have a pair of tickets to give away, courtesy of The Convoy Group — whoever wants ’em, email, comment, or tweet us at “contests (at) spacecityrock dot com” with the words “Tonton Me, please!” in the Subject. First person to respond wins.

Oh, and while we’re at it, check out the remix Dave Wrangler released early last month of the title track from the Golden EP — it’s a decidedly different take on the track, but I’m liking it almost as much as the original. Asli Omar‘s voice is just pretty much amazing in any setting…

The Tontons – Golden (Dave Wrangler Remix) by DAVE WRANGLER

Here’re the dates for The Tontons’ tour:

2/3 — Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s
2/9 — Austin, TX – Lambert’s
2/10 — Marfa, TX – Padre’s
2/11 — Albuquerque, NM – Burt’s Tiki Lounge
2/12 — Santa Fe, NM – The Underground
2/14 — Phoenix, AZ – Rogue Bar
2/15 — Las Vegas, NV – Beauty Bar
2/16 — Los Angeles, CA – The Mint
2/17 — San Francisco, CA – Thee Parkside
2/18 — Private Event
2/19 — Pasadena, CA – Old Towne Pub
2/21 — Denver, CO – Lion’s Lair
2/22 — Lawrence, KS – Eight Street Tap Room
2/23 — Wichita, KS – Barleycorns
2/24 — Tulsa, OK – Sound Pony
2/25 — Dallas, TX – Double Wide
2/26 — College Station, TX – Village Cafe
2/29 — Beaumont, TX – Tequila Rok
3/1 — Shreveport, LA – TBD
3/2 — Monroe, LA – 6th Street Bar and Grille
3/3 — Jackson, MS – Sam’s Place
3/10 — Austin, TX – Stubb’s
3/11 — Denton, TX – 35 Denton Festival
3/12 — San Antonio, TX – The Big Spill Festival
3/13-3/18 — Austin, TX – SXSW

That’s it for now, y’all — get on out to the show tomorrow night…