"mpg123 has no controls..."

It does with the -C option:

    -C, --control
        Enable  terminal control keys. By default use 's' or the space bar to
        stop/restart (pause, unpause) playback, 'f' to jump forward to the next
        song, 'b' to jump back to the beginning of the song, ',' to rewind, '.'
        to fast forward, and  'q'  to quit.  Type 'h' for a full list of
        available controls.

It's actually a very competent player, even able to play streams. Mplayer and cmus are also very good for audio playback in a minimalist environment.