Rockin' Our Turntable: The Riverboat Gamblers

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 23, 2009 5:30PM

Well, it had to happen eventually. Underneath The Owl, the fourth album from Denton, TX quintet The Riverboat Gamblers, is not a perfect album. 2006's To The Confusion Of Our Enemies was gonna be a tough act to beat, since it distilled the band's earlier punk furies and condensed that chaos into molten drops of surprisingly sing-alongable manic rock. Underneath The Owl finds the band refining that process successfully, but the pop interjections are no longer surprising and unexpected.

Now we said the new disc ain't perfect but we should also go on the record as saying it doesn't have a single flaw either. What?! Imperfect and unflawed? How the hell do you reconcile that? Well,l allow us to redirect your attention to the phrase "no longer surprising and unexpected." By now we expect The Riverboat Gamblers to deliver tunes bursting with both energy and hooks galore, and we expect the group to deliver them in an envelope that appeals to both the emo kids and the tattooed drunk falling off his stool in the back of Delilah's. Underneath The Owl is the first time the group has delivered what we expected them to.

That isn't to say there aren't a few new kinks thrown down the line. Their songs have always been propelled by a fiery Southern swagger, but the appropriately named "The Tearjerker" is the first time a noticeable regional twang has made it's way into the music. While we certainly don't want the band exploring their "sensitive" side too deeply a few more surprising turns like that might have elevated the album. Instead we find the band hewing to and further refining a successful formula. Again, is that a bad thing? Of course not! But you asked us for a critical take on the new album so we feel we must shoot straight, so to say.

You know what else hasn't changed? the group's explosive stage show. This is a band that has literally broken itself and bled all over the stage. This is a band that goes from zero to sixty in half a second and then spends the remainder of their live set consistently gaining speed while deconstructing the more perfect pop of their tunes and smearing it all over the sweaty faces of the crowd. On the record The Riverboat Gamblers offer up finely tuned tunes sure to stick themselves in your ears for weeks to come. On stage The Riverboat Gamblers are a force of nature, propelled by good faith, strong booze, and the unshakable belief that one is truly alive in the midst of their squall.

The Riverboat Gamblers play Saturday, April 25 at Bottom Lounge, 1375 W Lake, 8 p.m., $14, 18+