Review → Riverboat Gamblers – Underneath the Owl (2009)
Riverboat Gamblers - Underneath the Owl
The Riverboat Gamblers hail from Denton, TX. Texas is a huge goddamned state, and apparently has some hotspots for punk rock. I don’t know that Denton is one of them, but if the Gamblers are indicative of any sort of scene down in that corner of the Lone Star state, I’d say there’s some good stuff to be found down there.
Underneath the Owl finds the band slowing down their usual balls-to-the-wall attack, allowing more pop rhythms to find their way into the material. Check out the lead single, “A Choppy, Yet Sincere Apology” for an example. The band has always had a certain hint of pop-punk buried in the music, but it’s taken more of a front seat here. One other review I read suggested this was like a Sum 41 that wasn’t rubbish. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but it definitely seems the band is taking a page from the crop of pop-”punk” kids of the early ’00s.