Exactly one week after his monstrous sets at Rainbow Serpent, Bassnectar (AKA DJ Lorin) brought his big dub beats to Melbourne, for a one-night stint at the Roxanne Parlour alongside fellow American Bluetech, Mauxaum from Italy, and a slew of local Melbourne DJs.

This hyped-up event just so happened to take place during Melbourne’s massive 40+ degree heat wave and the steamy dance floor at Roxanne’s was dripping and oozing with sweaty goodness. Hot and eager Nectar fans queued up down the alley, trying to get into the obviously over-flowing venue. I kind of wished I was wearing my “drop names not bombs” t-shirt, because this seemed to be the only glimmer of hope for getting through that doorway. As I managed to move onto the dance floor, everyone began to shout “Bassnectar in ten minutes!” and the crowd really started to rock.

Rumored to have “the largest cult following of any DJ in San Francisco” Bassnectar jumped up on the stage, with his long heavy metal rocker hair and got right into it. From the minute the first track began, the room began to groove. Mixing solid beats of hip hop, dub, dub step, drum n bass, and the list goes on, the tunes just got heavier and the bass even deeper throughout the night. There was no way that the heat was going to stop this crowd from moving, and moving it did – as you could literally feel the floor beneath you shaking with every beat. The energy that is created when those bass beats began absolutely pummels the dance floor and makes your bones ache for weeks from trying to keep up.

The tempos shifted, the beats got bigger, and a kaleidoscope of visual effects tickled the crowd’s visual fancy as the night went on. Looking around at all the smiley happy people bouncing around the dance floor, I got the feeling that this scene was a direct transformation from the previous weekend. Perhaps some of these dreadlocked hippies and electro heads had just crawled out of their tents at Rainbow Serpent and landed here tonight, just to get a little more of that juicy nectarlicious dub.

With a love for rock, metal and influences from all genres, Bassnectar threw in a few surprises including a tease of Metallica and The Steve Miller Band, just in case you were getting lost in the mix. His own description of his eclectic, diverse mix sums it up perfectly: “No rules, no limitations, all styles, all genres, all speeds, lots of heavy bass and hand-swatting beats.”

After more than two hours of sweaty hot bass, Bassnectar stepped aside and let local experimentalist Spoonbill take over, continuing the night of massive sounds, and Lorin himself hit the dance floor for a groove. I eventually moved into the second room to bliss out for a little while to the chilled break-beat vibes of Melbourne’s The Shredder.

Moving back into the main room for the end of Spoonbill, I somehow stumbled into Mr. Bassnectar on the dance floor just before he was mauled by a million screaming girls. I managed to ask him about his time in Australia and the answer was a jolting scream of “I f*cking love Australia!!! I have to leave tomorrow, I can’t believe it!” and then he continued to hair whip me with his waist-length strands and then rocked out, head-banger style, on the dance floor. Once he got that out of his system, he returned a few minutes later and handed me a CD. My friend found these actions to be overly fascinating and decided to ask him for an autograph. At this point, he took out a marker and drew his “autograph” up her entire forearm, which was a hilarious heart tattoo with mom written in the middle and an arrow going through it. Needless to say, he’s got a sense of humor. Not to mention that his face is shaved on one side but not the other, giving him a half moustache/half bearded look. A bit freaky upon first impression!

But all sarcasm aside, it really is no surprise that Bassnectar is one of the most popular DJs in the festival circuit back in the US. It’s a shame that Australian dance floors are only now getting a glimpse. But I have a feeling that the electronic veteran will be bringing his tasty basslines back to this fine country very soon. And I’m pretty sure that every one of those hot and sweaty dancers at Roxanne’s will be right there with him.