Dune Rats’ first trip to Vancouver was as FUBAR as it was memorable, the amazing thing being that the Brisbane-based trio never got to play after being booked into the now-defunct Electric Owl.

“By the time we got to the venue, it had turned into a bear nightclub,” singer-guitarist Danny Beusa says, on his cell from a Down Under beach. “I didn’t know what a bear nightclub was, but it ended up being a really fun bunch of bearded gay guys.

“I remember playing ping-pong and then getting twirled around the dance floor by this really big fellow. I don’t remember what his name was, but hopefully, he’ll be coming to the show this time.”

For some elaboration, flash back to 2014, when—long before the Peace Arch border crossing was in view—it was obvious that making it to the Owl was going to be a challenge. When tracked down in Las Vegas by the Straight for a preview, bassist Brett Jansch was on a two-day bender, admitting that the band had completely lost Beusa: “He’s either facedown in the desert or facedown in something else.”

Dune Rats—which also includes drummer BC Michaels—was on tour in support of a couple of loose-and-scrappy garage EPs at that point, and things didn’t get any less insane in the days that followed.

“By the time we got to the border, we got in trouble thanks to a mixture of long hair and honesty, I think,” Beusa theorizes. “The guard didn’t like the look of us right off the bat, so he asked a bunch of questions like ‘What’s up with all the tattoos?’ and stuff like that.

“BC had a little run-in with the law a couple of years ago, and there were other odd little things, so we just sort of openly and honestly answered the questions. BC was like, ‘Yeah, I got arrested and held for a couple of days.’

“That’s when my eyes dropped, and I sat there going, ‘Why in the hell would you say that?’ After that, it was six hours of grilling and anal probing.”

Dune Rats will arrive on North American soil this time a little wiser about border etiquette, and a lot closer to joining a list of shit-hot Oz breakout acts that includes King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Tame Impala, and Courtney Barnett. Last year, the trio established itself as more than bong-drool fuck-ups with a beyond-solid self-titled debut.

On the record, Beusa, Michaels, and Jansch weren’t above smoking a massive cone or two and rolling tape, which explains the idiot-savant excellence of “Dalai Lama, Big Banana, Marijuana” and the cartoon surf-punker “Superman”.

At the same time, they showed an admirable determination to branch out beyond dazed-and-confused stoner pop, with “ET” dressing up the Beach Boys in the Ramones’ leather jackets and “Good Seeds” being the song we’ve waited for Paul Westerberg to write since Pleased to Meet Me.

Somehow, between surviving dancing bears and anal probing, Dune Rats found time to record a follow-up. While the release date is TBA, Beusa suggests the record shows the band is serious about more than making sure the party never stops.

“We grew up in a real DIY–punk aesthetic, but for the first album we wanted to write pop and surfy songs, which we’re also really into,” Beusa says. “We’re happy we did that because it helped us figure out where we wanted to go with the second album.

“The best way to sum up the next one is 34 minutes of anxiety. The first album we’d go calm, and then psycho, and then back again. This one is the kind of record where you press Play at a party, and then it doesn’t ease up.

“And it’s really cool to be two albums deep when, five years ago, we never thought we’d even make an EP.”

Dune Rats play the Biltmore Cabaret on Saturday (November 12).