Dave Owen (Metalheadz / V, USA) Tonic Rooftop Bar

Event Details

This event took place at Tonic Rooftop Bar, 79 Quốc Hương, Thảo Điền, Thủ Đức, Ho Chi Minh City, from 9 PM on 28 June 2025 until 3 AM on 29 June 2025. Scientific Sound Asia welcomed US Drum and Bass producer and DJ Dave Owen to its Thảo Điền home venue just days after his appearance at LOCUS Festival 2025 in Bali.

The booking brought an artist with releases connected to Metalheadz, V Recordings, Liquid V and Good Looking Records into an open-air rooftop setting overlooking Ho Chi Minh City. Dave Owen's music sits within the deeper and more musical end of Drum and Bass, combining substantial low frequencies with jazz-influenced melodies, soulful detail and rolling club rhythms.

Originally from the United States, Owen built his reputation through a production style that could retain bass weight without depending entirely on aggressive drops or harder dancefloor formulas. His records frequently favour fluid drums, warm musical elements and carefully developed grooves, placing him naturally alongside the deeper traditions that have run through the scene since its formative years.

Releases through V Recordings and its Liquid V imprint connected his work with a label family central to the soulful and rolling side of the genre. Material associated with Metalheadz brought another connection with one of its's most influential underground imprints, while Good Looking Records represented the atmospheric and jazz-informed lineage pioneered around LTJ Bukem and the wider intelligent D & B movement.

Those label connections made the Saigon appearance particularly appropriate for Scientific Sound Asia's own approach to bass music. The organisation has long programmed Jungle, Liquid D & B and deeper underground selections alongside harder contemporary material rather than treating the genre as one uniform sound.

The rooftop format gave him room to emphasise that more spacious side of his music. Tonic's open-air setting suited rolling basslines and melodic passages particularly well, allowing the programme to remain dancefloor-focused while retaining the warmth and detail associated with his productions.

The night also arrived during a concentrated period of international Bass Music bookings in Ho Chi Minh City. Scientific Sound Asia had opened 2025 at the same venue with 35 Years of Formation featuring Grooverider, DJ SS and MC Felon, connecting Tonic directly with several foundational figures from the British scene

In April, the programme continued with General Levy live in Ho Chi Minh City, bringing one of Jungle's recognised vocal figures to Thảo Điền alongside DJ Psycho-UK, Throe, Skitty and Dobbo. That event placed sound-system culture and Jungle at the centre of another international bass booking while widening the range represented through Scientific Sound Asia's 2025 programme.

Only a few weeks before Dave's appearance, Dutch producer Buunshin made his Ho Chi Minh City debut through Dystopian Frequencies. His appearance represented the more contemporary and experimental edge of Drum and Bass, creating a useful contrast with the soulful, rolling direction Owen would bring later that month.

He therefore arrived in Saigon as part of a programme deliberately showing different generations and interpretations of bass music. Formation history, Jungle vocals, forward-looking production and deeper Liquid Drum and Bass could all appear within the same year without requiring every event to follow the same musical formula.

His LOCUS Festival appearance immediately before Saigon also placed the Tonic booking within a wider regional route through Southeast Asia. Moving from Bali to Ho Chi Minh City allowed audiences in Vietnam to hear an international artist while he was already active in the region rather than treating the booking as an isolated stop far removed from the surrounding Asian scene.

For Scientific Sound Asia, the event continued a relationship with Drum and Bass extending back through earlier Rehab and Drum Save The Queen parties in Ho Chi Minh City. That history has included international guests, UK veterans and locally based residents while maintaining a particular connection with the deeper underground culture around Jungle and Drum and Bass.

The organisation's wider activity now connects those live bookings with its radio station, DJ agency, events programme and music news. The session formed part of that broader network, bringing an artist familiar from respected international labels directly into the developing Drum and Bass community around Ho Chi Minh City.

Tonic Rooftop Bar had become Scientific Sound Asia's home venue during this period and provided a setting quite different from a dark enclosed club. The elevated Thảo Điền location gave the music an open-air context while still allowing a six-hour night to concentrate fully on bass, drums and the gradual movement required by deeper Drum and Bass.

With him as the focus, there was no need to overcomplicate the programme with an oversized bill or unrelated styles. The night was built around quality selections, soulful pressure and the groove-led side of bass music, giving the visiting artist enough space to represent the musical identity developed across his international catalogue.

His appearance at Tonic Rooftop Bar therefore added another distinct chapter to Scientific Sound Asia's 2025 Drum and Bass programme in Ho Chi Minh City. From the deeper lineage of Metalheadz, V Recordings, Liquid V and Good Looking Records to the open-air atmosphere of a Saigon rooftop, the event connected soulful Drum and Bass history with a contemporary audience in Thảo Điền.