The tour will see vocalist and songwriter Brooke Singer pairing with Dunedin musicians Penelope Esplin and Robin Cederman, of the Prophet Hens, while guitarist John Fitzgerald is busy studying for his University of Otago exams.
Tomorrow, the band will perform a fundraiser show at Taste Merchants.
In a small and immersive setting such as Taste Merchants, the band's delicate atmosphere and sighing sophistication will be gorgeous to behold.
Reverberation, the annual multiband event at the Dunedin Musicians club, runs on Friday and this year is a special one as it marks two occasions: the reunion of the 13th Floor Elevators (though not at Reverberation), and The Tommy Gunners' 100th gig.
An outsider, cult mystic, drug casualty, and feral R&B vocalist, Roky Erickson's 13th Floor Elevators is considered the first true psychedelic band. Expanding '60s consciousness with a powerful fusion of garage-rock-surf and LSD-influenced musical exploration - including amplified electric jug player Tommy Hall, who insisted the group only perform, rehearse and record while high - the Elevators were pioneers whose significant cultural influence far outweighed their popularity. They resurfaced this year at the Austin Psych festival in Texas.
It's an influence that Reverberation organiser Craig Gemmell's Tommy Gunners have been mining at each of their gigs since debuting in 2007, mixing the Elevators with more modern punk rock, such as The Clash.
''I have always drawn from the energy of surf and garage bands,'' Gemmell said.
''Strangely, the first time I was aware of that surf tremolo picking was something Holmes Sterling Morrison jun [one of the founding members of the rock group the Velvet Underground] played, but I am not sure which song.
''I first became aware of the 13th Floor Elevators when Primal Scream covered Slip Inside This House on 1991's Screamadelica. It's always interesting to hear what influences your influences!''I also heard a story, which I can't confirm, that Roy Colbert would hand out tapes of the Elevators to aspiring young Dunedin musicians in the '80s. So I was thinking at the time of the first Reverberation show in 2011 that Erickson had a big hand in shaping a lot of stuff I had grown up listening to. Honour an inspiration!''
As well as preparing for their 100th show, the Tommy Gunners are in the throes of making their ''probable first and last album'', shifting through a catalogue built up over the past eight years and recording them at practice. The group has plans to record with Arthouse Media's Paul Sammes.
''[We're] still playing the same songs mostly. I would like to get them recorded and out of my system! I hope that over the years we have at least got better! But ahhhh ... so many setbacks when you're an older person in a band. People like the idea of being in a band again, join, and then leave when the weekly practice upsets the wife/girlfriend family routine etc. Every time someone leaves it's a six-month setback, sometimes more, so as far as the band's sound changing over the years, I feel it's been a very slow evolution ...''
Be there
French For Rabbits European Tour Fundraiser with support from Nadia Reid and Grawlixes, tomorrow at Taste Merchants (Lower Stuart St), doors 7pm.
Reverberation 2015 featuring King Weasels Army, Bulletproof, Convertible, The Tommy Gunners, The Violet Ohs, Doll Drums and Ejets, Friday, September 11, Dunedin Musicians Club, 7.30pm.
