Riverboat Gamblers

The best band without a major-label deal at SXSW '06 doesn't want much for signing up: "We want ear-tube phones," singer Mike "Teko" Wiebe told the crowd at Emo's, "so we can look like assholes talking to no one as we walk down Sixth Street." In return, the Gamblers guarantee punk-rock catharsis. Ripping through fourteen songs in half an hour, they baptized pogoers and badge-holders alike in sweat and yell-along choruses as Wiebe, a beanpole Iggy Pop, literally bounced off walls, crawled atop the audience as far as his mike cord allowed and hung by his ankles from the rafter as he sang. The band's new album, To the Confusion of Our Enemies, will be out April 25th, to the delight of everyone else.

Listen to one track off the To the Confusion of Our Enemies album:

"True Crime"

Next: The Sword