What would you do if I played drum n bass
Would you stand up and dance like a freak?
Lend me your ears and Ill tear them apart
With lots of low frequencies…

New venue. Guest djs from Newcastle and Melbourne. Big sound. Saturday night. Drum and bass. One would think these things would be a recipe for a excellent night. After a while to contemplate it, I have come to the conclusion that if that’s what one was thinking, then one would be absofuckinglutely correct. Dubplate, on June 14, turned into a big night in which I sweated myself silly dancing to some nicely varied d’n’b.

I think my personal favourite for the night was the man from Melbourne. Doppel-beefnut-ganger played a set of the phattest tunes I could have asked for. Dark and dominating, the bass was at least as big as his arms, and along with tracks by Black Sun Empire and the like, apparently we were subjected to some hot new CDRs which I must confess I had NO idea about. I couldn’t have picked the newies from the oldest track played, but fortunately I am still able to give my opinion on them. They were fucking brilliant, and I base this rather astute observation on the fact that I was not bored once during the set and I got into every track I heard. The crowd fluctuated throughout, but at most times there were people dancing up a storm on the floor, and everyone seemed to be digging the tunes almost as much as me.

Paul Blackout was a great dj to watch – he really looked like he was enjoying himself and the atmosphere. He was also damn good to listen to, with a slightly less darker set keeping the Bab’s punters committed to a policy of sweaty madness. I know my main d’n’b man Subsonic was forced to retire hurt for a short period of time because, as the doctors told me, he fucked up his knee from too much dancing. Could there be a better compliment to a set? All signs point to yes, but not by much that’s fo shizzle.

It was great to see some interstaters playing in Canberra and I was muchos impressed by them. But let us not for a single second forget our own local heroes. Displaying a fine sense of mateship and Australianness, while being aware but not afraid of the terror caused by big fat doses of bass, they proceeded to get the crowd worked into more of a frenzy than feeding time at fat camp. The usual Dubplate suspects were great — Paf provided a darker alternative to what para was busting out in the back room, both of the lads warming up the dance floor with great style and equally tight tracks. Escha, as usual looking a lot scarier behind the decks than the reality of his teddy bear personality, was a lot of fun with a funked up selection getting the enthusiastic early crowd moving. Low Ki and Buick both played smooth rolling sets to a pretty hyped crowd, and the atmosphere in the back room was, for most of the night, pretty damn intense. The presence of emcees definitely was a factor in that, and although sometimes too hot, packed, and sweaty for this reviewer to handle sometimes (especially when dancing was the only thing on the cards) it was awesome and totally rad to see drum and bass getting such a good response.
Para’s closing set was a stand out set for the night too, with Scotty D playing a booty busting set, tightly mixed with a stand out track selection which had a late night front room crowd going pretty nuts.

Dubplate fucking rocks. No two ways about it. Ill be seeing those of you with good taste at the next one in September.