Riverboat Gamblers, Reno Divorce - Beauty Bar May 25, 2014

There wasn't much from this year's Punk Rock Bowling that interested us, but seeing the Riverboat Gamblers at a club gig was certainly enticing, so we ventured out for this late-night set of gamblin' in Vegas.

Not knowing how crazy traffic or the parking situation would be due to the festival, we left early and actually got downtown and found a space easily, so wandered around a bit checking out the mix of people on Fremont on this holiday weekend - the punk rockers, the drunk tourists and the ridiculous street performers. Basically, killing time because - no offense - we didn't really care about catching the openers.

We did get there just as Reno Divorce was setting up. Pet peeve - a band shouldn't use a city in their name unless they are from there, and these cats are from Denver. Anyway, they are tatoo'd, black-t-shirt-and-jeans punk rockers who opened with "Rumble"(as many others do) and then went into a set of Social Distortion-inspired punk, complete with a Mike Ness sound-alike singer. They were tight, with the proper Gibson guitars and Fender bass, but with fairly forgettable songs. Introduced with an admission of pandering was "Ace of Spades" but nothing else stuck with me, other than a use of capos - unusual for punk bands - and the singer/lead guitarist moving to the front of the stage for every solo. Oh yeah, they had a song about killing a girlfriend, right after asking people to donate to help a sick friend. People certainly dug them, but it was all a bit too generic for me.

On the other hand, the Riverboat Gamblers came out and immediately slayed the audience with a wildly energetic set filled with some of the best tunes - many of them from the terrific To The Confusion of Our Enemies. Other than the singer and lead guitarist, they were considerably more slovenly than the last time we saw them - they did have the guitarist , Zach, from Rise Against filling in, as well. Regardless, they were all highly exciting - especially the insane lead singer, who moves frantically and non-stop while singing great. While Reno Divorce played longer than scheduled and really over-extended their welcome, the Gamblers played for about half the time they were allotted but jam-packed that time with fantastic songs and an amazing performance. They ended with "The Art of Getting F#@%ed", their spelling song, which everyone joined in on, and at the climax, the singer jumped off the PA speakers and took out the Christmas lights that are the only lighting in the patio, much to the annoyance of the club but the amusement of the audience.

Well worth getting out in the middle of the night! The Gamblers say that they are going to take a hiatus and work on a new album, but hopefully they will get back out on the road soon because live is where it's at!