Punk rockers Riverboat Gamblers make a splash

April means the end of classes, and most students who don’t live in Pittsburgh year-round will… April means the end of classes, and most students who don’t live in Pittsburgh year-round will leave the steel city for the summer. There are good reasons to stick around Oakland, however, not limited to enjoying its studentless atmosphere. One example — the upcoming concert of Texas punk rockers, The Riverboat Gamblers.

With fond memories of fry-laden Primanti Brothers sandwiches from the last time he played in Pittsburgh, guitarist Ian MacDougall eagerly anticipates the band’s upcoming East Coast tour.

‘Most of the tours we’ve done have been really awesome. We’re still good friends with every band we’ve toured with,’ he said.

‘ The Riverboat Gamblers has shared the stage with such bands as Against Me!, Dead To Me and Joan Jett.

Other members of The Riverboat Gamblers include lead singer Mike Wiebe, lead guitarist Fadi el-Assad, bassist Rob Marchant and drummer Eric Green.

The band’s name was intentionally chosen to be ‘crazy pretentious’ in mockery of other ridiculous band names.

‘The band was very tongue-in-cheek at first. It wasn’t taken seriously at all, just a party thing,’ said MacDougall.

MacDougall has been with the band for almost seven years, since the beginning of the band’s transition from singing jokingly sarcastic compositions with friends to becoming a musical entity with a serious following. Although The Riverboat Gamblers formed in 1997, it was years before the band started touring and recording professionally.

‘Now we’ve got a manager and an agent and a lawyer and publicists and all that, so we’re a little more serious in that way.

‘I joined right after I graduated high school. The guitarist at the time was going to Japan with another band right when the Gamblers were starting to become more serious and to tour,’ said MacDougall. ‘I got a call from Mike asking if I wanted to come and I was like, ‘Yeah, totally!”’

MacDougall described the band’s style as ‘punk-influenced rock.’ The Riverboat Gamblers cites fellow Texas band Big Boys as an influence, as well as classic ’70s punk bands — especially The Clash and The Ramones.

‘It’s hard to say that we’re influenced by one or two things in particular, there’s just so much out there,’ he said.

The one element decisively missing in the band’s music — counterintuitive to its Texan roots — is Southern twang.’

‘Being from Texas is just kind of a coincidence,’ he said. ‘Everyone always thinks we’re country music at first [because of the band’s name], but it’s too late to change it now.’

The Riverboat Gamblers recently released its fourth full-length album, its second with acclaimed producer Andrew ‘Mudrock’ Murdock, who has previously worked with Godsmack and Avenged Sevenfold.

The album’s title, Underneath the Owl, refers to a statue on a building in Austin, Texas, that gives off a Freemason, secret-society vibe.

‘It’s this crazy ominous thing, you can see this giant owl from everywhere in the city. It’s pretty scary — especially at night,’ he said.

The band spent one month writing almost 30 songs, 11 of which made it on the album. MacDougall said that the band prefers to do all serious writing and composition at home.

‘It’s just harder on the road to get into that headspace for writing about something that’s not immediately happening. No one wants to hear about sitting backstage, eating from the deli tray.

‘Everybody was pretty pleased with the finished result,’ he said. ‘I try not to read reviews because I think they’re kind of pointless, but we’ve gotten a lot of great face-to-face feedback from fans.’

MacDougall has a tried-and-true method of judging a concert’s quality.’

‘If I’m really tired when it’s over, that’s how I know it was good,’ he said. ‘It’s always fun, just as long as nothing f**ks up technically on stage and people enjoy it.’