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 Mayday, first of May, a shitty night in the underbelly of Wellington City... dropping by the OMW to visit inmate Johnny Chrome who's got a set up deep in the bowels of the workshop, we go to check out Salmonella Dub. All fine and mighty except being the first of May, my money card has expired, and promptly gets swallowed by a digital deathtrap... shit Cold, stark reality bites. I never carry cash. Don't need to, the digital kid, yah? Stuck in the inner city with no functional means of survival. They never posted me an update of the plastic kind. No bucks til Monday except the few in coinage in my pocket. Johnny's broke too. Putting your own CD out does that. Half a dozen resturants later, we confirm that you can't get cash out on a VISA, especially one with no PIN set up on it, and by two dodgey looking guys late at night. A bit of quick talking gets us past the usually stoney faced doorgrrl, threatening me with GBH if John finds out. Who's this mysterious John character, anyway? The more than obliging James Cabaret staff flick some cash. enough to pay the bills and buy a beer. It's a rock gig, and when in Rome, go hard mate. Upshot of all the digital tomfoolery was we missed the Coneheads. Our sole reason for attendance. Phil came up to up. both said 'sorry, missed ya!" he grunted something like 'fuck...' and walked off. Sorry Phil, really meant to... Word has it they sounded very 80's. It's all right though, the 80's is coming back anyway. Yep, so we stuck around and dubbed it. Though they could have made a bit more of the dancefloor between bands. Instead of watching some roadies set up, why not point the lights in to the middle of the room and made more of a party vibe. Bands never get this one, do they? guess they try and work the bar as much as they can between acts. Pretty soon the main act was up, sounding very lush... big fat b-lines with the man Tiki riding the faders like a pro... Some great cheesy jammed disco in the middle of the set, but predominately on the downbeat, minimal but full dub vibe, with the drummer throwing in a lot of stripped back jungle breaks On the whole, very nice and a cool dance floor workout, but suffering from the downside of a cold, and from the back of the room, it seemed to me there could have been a bit more dynamic to the tracks they played and the set as a whole. As far as making a dance vibe work in a band setting though, no one in New Zealand can come close to Salmonella Dub.
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