Against Me! / Riverboat Gamblers
Alley Katz
Richmond, VA
Feb 27, 2007
By Julian Abbene
(SugarBuzz Wash DC/Richmond)
SugarBuzz Magazine
Riverboat Gamblers
www.myspace.com/theriverboatgamblers
The Riverboat Gamblers have big shoes to fill against an already hyped audience that started swaying and reciting lyrics to Against Me! even before they ever took stage. Little did the wall-to-wall kids know that they were about to get a slap in the middle of their acne-filled foreheads! The Riverboat Gamblers will prove that they can equally match the teen angst against sound confettied lyrical adult-rebellioned punk. Stage front vocals of Mike Wiebe instantly captures these young hearts with his literal determination of in-your-face approach along with the rest of The Gamblers’ high voltage guitar barrings. From a ½ inch frontstage beam jumps nimbly backwards back onto the stage, throws his mike to a dead drop, with hair and body splattered in sweat, dangles incessantly while hovering over the entire front portion of the balcony ledge, purposely stretching with croon-shouts at the balcony--milking the crowd.
After instructioning the sound man to crank up the volume, the second song, “What’s What” introed stripping fronts and illuminating stamped market-fresh rock and roll with roaring guitars from Fadit and Ian as they run through the songs off their newest CD, “To the Confusion of Our Enemies.” The song, ‘We Used To Call Wasting Time,’ runs with welcoming bass from Pat Lillard all the while Mike is shouting a southern drawl-out with twangs of muddied punk encrusted chords. With his infectious stage presence and dogged out restlessness, The Riverboat Gamblers successfully wire up the crowd.
Exposing vulnerable lyrics of principality about unpopular ugly Bettys and Bobs, these bad-ass Texans fool even the most pessiminist and prove they can hang with the best of them. Gunslinging, ‘On Again, Off Again,’ and linking a ‘Jaws’ bassline through rhythms regulated in reverb and control riffs, choralled freak-out ‘heys’ are chanted and ending in, ‘gimme gimme gimme this one, gimme gimme gimme that one.’ In the middle of the set, the band throws out an accapella lyrical quirk—in a quivering falsettoed into in, ‘Unicorn Shave Your Horn,’ then breaks into a mini explosion of guitars customizing a premonitioned firecracker ending to stop on a blurted scream.
In the end, the crowd was thoroughly as impressed with The Riverboat Gamblers as The Riverboat Gamblers were with the Richmond crowd. That goes to show you—preconceived notions of any band only keep you ignorant.
Against Me!
Right after The Riverboat Gamblers left the stage, the Richmond crowd remained stationery with anticipation. Matter of fact, additional crowd singing takes hold picking up momentum with volume and young camaraderie. Guards were down as the melody is picked up in unison—beckoning Against Me to take stage. The feel of electricity certainly is in the air as they step on.
Suddenly, with just a few bars of the first song played, out of nowhere this absolute dumb-shit of a girl jumps onto the stage, and begins kicking Against Me’s large drum kit ferociously—all the while the band and crowd are completely dumbfounded with what to do. The drummer is now standing with an expression of bewilderment as the rest of the band exchange glances at each other. Non-stop kicking and a, ‘hey look at me, I’m cool’ smirk-demeanor along with me yelling out in annoyance, “Get her off the fucking stage!” has 2 bouncers bear-hug her spoiled writhing body from behind yanking her off with the crowd jeering with trails of laughter. However, without losing focus, the band began again.
Although this band looks quite ordinary, this band has won the Richmond crowd over with their mid-tempo folk punk. Like a folk-western meld, ‘Americans Abroad’ taken from their newest CD, “Americans Abroad, Against Me! Live in London,” best orchestrates their style with lyrics about questioning their own perseonal legitimacy no matter where they travel. Tom, the lead vocalist, gut-screams his heart out to well-thought melodies with an obvious political yet naive nudge. “Reinventing Axle Rose,’ halfway through the set is a heavier chorded anthem song, giving clear license for the entire 3-4 front rows to scream out crooned memorizations with passionate pointed fingers and shaking adolescent fists with the intention of stamping meaningful permanence. Messages dispersed throughout their songs about current uncertainties and the fearful urgency to get back to that place where reality was more tangible.
Between each song, the band huddles and then begins to play with tempo building strength to each song. Towards the end of the set, the floor is shaking from crowd swaying and is littered with broken bottles, various pieces of clothing and strewed coins. As the crowd bottlenecks outside, I ask myself, “If this young audience possess this much passion over Against Me…I wonder what kind of reaction they would have if the likes of cult Brit-punk great, TV Smith took hold here in the states?!”