Live Review: Dubmarine, Bullhorn, Noah Slee

Noah Slee and his band starts tonight's dreaminess with the ethereal strains of Ordinary Love. The early birds for tonight's local showcase mellow into the weekend, taking seats on the ledge of the dancefloor. Whether he's singing or rapping or anywhere in between, Slee plays his acoustic, occasionally jamming out on the drum pad, eyes closed as he sways feeling each word and each note, making everyone else feel each element with his mesmerising intensity.

They breakdown into a reggae remix of Outkast's beloved Miss Jackson to everyone's delight and then he takes time to give thanks to tonight's headliners and all lovers of original live music.

Replete with seven-piece brass outfit and drummer, Bullhorn crowd the stage and blast into a sound big enough to cover the entire West End strip as MC Roman matches their breath control on the mic.

After MC Roman exits to let the instruments take over, the dancefloor is now packed as they blow everyone away with ska, jazz and hip hop stylings, taking no breaks while fusing through songs with only the occasional sips of water. Roman then returns with Slee for a freestyle collaboration which gives a positive and entertaining glimpse of a close-knit Brisbane industry.

The light show begins as the curtains reveal Dubmarine in their secret society cloaks for tonight's future-themed launch of Laser Sound Beam. Human didgeridoo D-Kaz shows off his signature tribal body paint, this time in cosmic silver and even with metal caps adorning his head and shirtless body.

Billie Weston, usually an explosion of colour, keeps with the theme in black and silver but is still decorated with Barbie pink covered eyes to match her Barbie bangs. As the band move through their tracks – mixing up live elements of world music, pop vocals, rap rock and growls, dub, pop, drum'n'bass and any other type of fusion that can take you to space – each audience member is either dancing uncontrollably or standing stunned just absorbing the sound and watching the entire band rock theatrically out on stage, each on their own wild trip.

It doesn't matter how many albums you have or how many Dubmarine shows you've been to, you'll never know where they'll take you visually and musically in every performance. They invite indigenous dancers onstage as the crowd celebrates and the two vocalists circle and sing with them, while the green lasers and convulsing strobes lights mix in with the high energy.

That high, exhausting, uplifting energy continues all the way to the encore as they take time to say 'thank you' to their sweaty and loyal supporters, who can finally take a breath after that mind-blowing journey.