Please Enjoy Dune Rats’ Tale Of Nearly Losing Violent Soho At Their Extremely Loose Boat Party
"The coast guard rocked up...everyone was panicking because there's was drugs on board and missing people."
The only wilder thing than a Dune Rats song is a day in the life of a Dune Rat.
Brisbane’s three-piece surf punk band are best known for their acclaimed second album The Kids Will Know It’s Bullshit, and for living hard and partying harder. The grungy, rusted edge present in literally every one of their songs isn’t some kind of feint, or piece of constructed performance: it’s drawn from their actual lives.
Don’t believe us? Then take it straight from the horse’s frothy mouth.
Dune Rats recently came down to the Music Junkee office to record a segment for The Artist Alphabet, a show that encourages musicians to share their wildest and most entertaining stories.
And Dune Rats did not disappoint.
Opening things with a fairly touching story about the time that they met Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, the band then slowly segued into the tale of the night they threw the world’s wildest boat party.
“Between the two [big] boats they had little row boats that you could row between them,” guitarist Danny Beugs explained. “And the tide just made the water between the boats really intense. And it was pitch black.
“I think Maz from [fellow punk band] WAAX needed to get a jumper from one boat. So they started paddling over — with James Tidswell from Violent Soho — and all of a sudden they just disappeared into darkness. We were freaking out, because everyone had a few drugs in their system, so you can’t really think too much about what to do in a high-stress situation.”
Desperate, the band sent their manager off in another boat to save their tour mates, till that second boat also “disappeared into the darkness.”
One call to the coast guard later, and the boats were eventually discovered — but not before Dune Rats shat their dacks when they realised how many drugs were onboard.
From there, the stories only get wilder, touching on rear ends and stashes of drugs.
Watch the whole thing below. Dune Rats’ new album, Hurry Up And Wait, will be out on January 31.