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Sparta Mess with Texas

Fans filled Austin venue Emo’s on Tuesday night to witness the long-awaited return of El Paso-natives, Sparta, and local-favorites Sound Team, who danced through a dark, jaunty opening set. During Sparta’s heavy headlining slot, the band added new twists to songs like “Glasshouse Tarot,” and they pounded out five furious new tracks, including the blistering “Unstitch Your Mouth” off their latest release, Threes. Taking a break from kicking out the fist-pumping, emotionally-charged jams, Sparta frontman Jim Ward took a moment to talk to SPIN.com about their triumphant return and whether they felt the audience was ready for his band’s new, more mature sound. “We’ve been away for a while,” Ward said, “so Austin is definitely ready for us again.” ERIC UHLIR

We asked: Given that tonight’s headliners, Sparta, are from El Paso, and their openers, Sound Team, are from Austin, we want to know who rocks harder: Austin or El Paso?