Salmonella Dub are one of the original bands of the New Zealand Roots Music scene as it is sometimes referred to. That is a music style that encompassed Reggae, dub, drum n' bass and electronica and has been a very productive scene here for the last 20+ years producing some excellent music and makes up a considerable part of my NZ music collection. The Dub formed in Christchurch in about 1992 and after releasing several albums, really hit the big time in NZ with two great No.1 albums around 2001-2004. That was the time that I first saw them live at an old hall in central Christchurch. I remember at that gig that the sound system was up way too loud(as so often happens) and the Bass, (the main driver behind their music) was horribly distorted, which spoilt an otherwise good gig.
I was still dithering about whether to go see them at this gig when I got a message from a friend asking if I was going and that she wanted to surprise her partner with a ticket, so I said I would be keen and Andy had recently moved to NZ last year and this was to be his first live gig in Aotearoa.
The Speights Ale House in Ferrymead, Christchurch is another first time venue for me. It is a little larger than the other venues I have been frequenting of late, with a capacity of about 500. We arrived there around 8:30pm while the place was still fairly empty and settled in to listen to the DJ Skew Wiff Mo. who was plying his vinyl at the back of the stage. Soulsystem were on next, a funky dubby/reggae sort of band who were pretty enjoyable and got better as their set went on although their final number was a medley mash of The White Stripes and The Eurythmics that didn't really work for me.
It was after 11:00pm by the time the Dub hit the stage, a large band with like 7 members on the stage, blasting out their boisterous music to the sold out crowd. Sound quality this time was much better and wasn't as loud as I was expecting, although with so many musicians in the mix, some stuff still gets lost in translation.
The songs that they played that I did know from their reasonably large catalog, were played quite differently from the recorded versions I am familiar with and I didn't find them quite as enjoyable as I usually do, also the bass, that is so important to their music was not as pronounced as I would have liked. They played some slower grooves that would be fine on a nice summers day at and outdoor gig, but I thought keeping things more uptempo would have been better for this night where the punters looked keen to dance their asses off. The lead singers scatting or what ever you call it also got on my nerves a bit and I did find myself getting a little bored at times during the extended slow jams. Overall the music still had me grooving and was mostly enjoyable but I felt something was missing, there wasn't quite that spark that makes some gigs just so much more memorable. The last song they did was the best of the night with a real motorik bass line that sounded really cool. Andy said he enjoyed it all thoroughly, although he is probably not as much as a fussy bugger as I am.
