Culture

Urban Factory, March 5 2011.

On March 5 Salmonella Dub, those stalwarts of the NZ music scene, played at Urban Factory in a gig which had been postponed from its original February 26 date. Since 1991 Salmonella Dub have been pioneering that fusion of dub, reggae and drum’n’bass that might be considering the quintessential “Kiwi sound”; it would be interesting, one of my friends remarked, to see how their subtropical irie-ness would translate to the subantarctic Dunedin climes on a night when a chilly Southwestern was keeping everything particularly brisk. 

 
MC Rude Boy warmed up the crowd before Salmonella Dub took to the stage at midnight. Joined by MC Mighty Asterix, who has evidently been growing his dreadlocks for longer than much of Critic’s readership has been alive, the group sent it on a wide variety of percussion and brass instruments, one member having evidently taken the famous Saturday Night Live sketch urging “more cowbell” to heart, and rocking out on the cowbell to his heart’s content. Singing, MC-ing, grooving and jamming, they worked the venue like the seasoned pros that they are, with plenty of hands raised for classics like “For the love of it” and “Longtime”. There was a mellow vibe amongst the crowd, for whom flannel and dreadlocks were the order of the day, except for one or two excitable young things (freshers, no doubt) who asked my friend Melanie if she was down to fuck. She declined.    
 

“You should mention how good this place smells in your review!”, Melanie exclaimed. She pointed out that Urban Factory smelt unusually fresh for a club; not here the acrid stench of old vomit or the beery yeastiness of dropped drinks. Half-way through the night the unmistakable salty-buttery scent of popcorn also wafted through the room, a surreal turn which left one confused guy in front of us to turn around: “do you smell popcorn?”. Was this the result of too much psychadelia or just part of the multi-sensory Salmonella Dub experience? Accompanying the music was a light show and visuals, the light melding blue and red, yellow and green, with even the occasional moment of strobe. By the time Salmonella Dub left the stage just after 1.30am, this reviewer was left with ears ringing and happily danced out.