Saturday 5th January was a hot night, Fowlers Live is a hot venue and thankfully (in my opinion anyway) Salmonella Dub played a massively dubbed-out set. Gotta say that this set was less for the upbeat-craving boppers in the audience (who must have disappeared two thirds through the show as the audience thinned-out significantly) and more for the swaying, hardcore dub fiends, of whom there were a bunch.

Salmonella Dub crooozed up round midnight and the extra string on the bass guitar did wonderful things for me. Three more players on guitar, drums and one multi-talented fella playing trombone, synth, and percussion completed this very live lineup. From listening to their last two albums, 2003’s One Drop East and Heal Me from last year, I expected more nob twiddling. But, without any disappointment on my part, we were treated to a fine set of gentle, organic and beautifully crafted dub ships that carried us away for nearly two hours. The set was heavy on tracks from the last two albums and many of these were well appreciated by the audience. Vocals, shared between drums and multi-talent man, were great on the handful of tracks they were applied to and brought a nice, deep soul edge to the party.

Rewind to the beginning… Didn’t see Supermarket live, scratched perhaps? Levitators rocked up and by their third track which featured a sweet percussion drum solo, the crowed were shaking things. They were tight, perhaps too tight for me. But during their more percussive moments, tasty synth hooks or on more jammy and less traditionally structured songs, I was digging their creations. Technically they’re great, but I’d love to see a bit more adventure in their arrangements.

I dug Jayars set. Great bassed-out beats and the MC (sorry missed the intro!) seemed to be having fun and playing it loose. Good to watch and hope I can catch more dubstep around town again soon… On a massive PA of course! So, given the season and my lazy summer demeanor, I wanna move to the coast and sail dub ships through the night.