Austinist Interviews Mike Wiebe from Riverboat Gamblers

The first-ever Fun Fun Fun Fest is this Friday, December 1st, at Waterloo Park. Over two dozen great acts are on the bill, including Spoon, Peaches, The Black Angels, Prefuse 73, and DJ Mel. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased online.

Gamblers perform on the punk stage at 6:55. --The Editors

How's Volcom treating you? Any Riverboat Gamblers skate decks
in your future?

Volcom has been great! They give us lots of socks, which is the most important thing to consider when choosing a record label. I really wanna do some Gamblers skate decks... It's getting more and more obvious that I won't be coming out with the pro model I had been planning on when I was 15 years old.

There are some pretty legendary names on the punk stage at Funx3 this year—any thoughts on sharing the stage with Circle Jerks and Negative Approach, or what Keith Morris' dreadlocks might smell like?

It's a pretty big deal to be on the same stage as the Circle Jerks for us. I remember when I first got into the Circle Jerks I was in the 7th or 8th grade and my friend's Mom had to explain what the name meant [?!-ed]. I'm a big movie nerd too so I'll have to restrain myself from geeking out on Zander Schloss about being in Repo Man which is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Mike, any plans to guest onstage a la The Briefs/Rancid show earlier this year?

I loved singing that song with the Briefs...it really doesn't take much to get me on stage and warble out of tune: just anyone asking...

Do you prefer festivals or rock clubs? Or does it just depend?

As long as people are into it I am usually happy. It's usually easier to get energy back from the crowd at a club, but I have had some really good festival experiences.

What do you have lined up for after the festival?

After the festival we are playing a benefit in LA with Against Me! and
The Bronx in mid-December, and we are trying to shoot a video at some
point...

Even for an up-and-coming band, you guys have a rep as serious road-dogs. What's your approach to touring after playing hundreds of shows?

I think as far as touring we try to mix it up and play with a lot of different types of bands that might put us in front of different audiences. I still feel like we have some more places to get to....

What's playing in the van/bus lately?

In the van we have been listening to a lot of a band called Dead to Me from S.F. Also we listen to a lot of comedy CDs...Patton Oswalt is a favorite.

Who's your favorite little/unknown Texas band of the moment?

A band from here in Austin called Crash Gallery. I expect them to
'splode next year.

Any thoughts as to why My Chemical Romance are a better live band than you? (ref. to Spin magazine's 25 Best Live Bands list)

You know...I'm just stoked to be anywhere on that list. We are pretty unknown compared to most of the bands on that list so it was really flattering to get recognized like that.