Tank and The Bangas, The Last Balloon Tour

Tank and The Bangas bring The Last Balloon Tour to The Heights Theater on Saturday, November 21, with Ariel J. and Zeus opening. It's an all-ages show, so you can bring the kids along if you're planning a family night.

For those who've followed them, the title makes sense. The Last Balloon is the final part of a balloon-themed trilogy that started with Green Balloon and continued with 2022's Red Balloon, which earned a Best Progressive R&B Album nomination. This one was executive-produced by Austin Brown and recorded mostly at The Complex Studios in Los Angeles, with guests like Lucky Daye, Akeem Ali and Jelly Joseph appearing across the record.

It's a long arc for a band that started in New Orleans' poetry community in the early 2010s. The collective is led by singer Tarriona 'Tank' Ball and multi-instrumentalist Norman Spence II, and they've spent the last few years moving from the city's spoken-word scene into the broader spotlight. They got a lot of that attention after winning NPR's 2021 Tiny Desk Contest, and in 2024 they took home the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album for The Heart, The Mind, The Soul. A few years before that, Green Balloon earned them a Best New Artist nomination.

Doors open at 7 PM and the show starts at 8 PM at The Heights Theater, 339 W 19th St, Houston, TX 77008.