My word, DNBBQ’s are fun. Plenty of booze, quality tunage, and downright fan-bloody-tastic food, in a small, but not too small venue, the Abercrombie Hotel generally makes for a quality night out, and this was no exception.
 
I rocked up at around 6 o’clock to a nicely filled courtyard, filled with punters hoeing into some tasty South American beef ribs, the absolutely fantastic secret recipe Foreign Dub chicken, $9.50 jugs and nodding along to a spot of funk dropped by a few of the Dub boys on rotation. The food is worth the price of admission alone, I’m telling you. If you reach the next one, make sure you get there early.

All delicious meaty goodness aside, lets get on to the music. Garage-dubstep-grime-whatever-the-hell-we’re-calling-it-this-week heads were smashingly catered for with the aural onslaught that was Kodama and Cause out in the courtyard. The Daluq remix of Phuturistix’s wicked Feel It Out was a highlight, but the one that I was waiting for was Toasty Boy’s award winning hyper grime masterpiece The Knowledge. This relentless, shrieking sea-monster of a tune sounded downright obscene through the B52 speaker stack, and had me, and pretty much everyone in the courtyard grinning like an idiot when it dropped. Top set from the Outbreak lads, right there.

Following on a little later outside were the rather fantastic Rastacrew. Alternating between dubwise gear, reggae and a tad of jungle this live act laid down some tight tunes and had the courtyard jumping. Inside Ed Gee, Freddy Fred and Miss Ree dropped it on a liquidy amen tip, with Freddy playing some of his own top class production, and Mr.Gee played some shock horror, harder tunes. I’m going to get my ass kicked for saying that I think, but it was well wicked.
 
Back outside again, a bit of rain threatened to disrupt proceedings, but it quickly passed overhead without incident. I apologise here, because before I left I took a set time list so I wouldn’t forget the names of all the acts that played, but I managed to lose it in a drunken stupor somewhere between the Abercrombie and home. So whoever you were playing dancehall in the courtyard at about 11, you were wicked, and sorry I forgot your name.

Inside, Sub Bass Snarl had come out of self enforced jungle retirement with a set of live gear that would blow even the hardest drum and bass head away. Tunes from Remarc, Kid Kryptic and other drum lords were thrown through the blender and sprayed out with a vengeance to the appreciative crowd. With the uneasy task of following on from this musical battering, Eli killed it with a tough set, the highlight being Tactile’s uber-paranoid The Mist.
 
Wth all the top quality acts playing, you could be forgiven that Foreign Dub had hooked up a special guest from the UK. Hey, I did for a bit. Stamina MC, more known for his vocal stylings, donated his time to drop some fresh new tunes for charity. Playing from an I-Book, mostly, the crowd was highly appreciative of Stamina’s selection, and got to hear some very wicked tunage.

After Stamina I headed off, with 8 hours of drinking jugs being far too much for one man to handle. Massive props to the Foreign Dub crew, the DJ’s and live acts who gave up their time to play, and to the crowd who so generously donated to Oxfam’s tsunami appeal. Pats on the back all around, and make sure your bad selves get down to the next one.