Silly Fools.
UNDER ONE ROOF
R
The folks of Khon Kaen must have been perplexed to witness the ubi- quitous and out of the ordinary presence of tinted windows and high-roof vans with Bangkok licence plates zooming around town during the past weekend. The night owls of Khon Kaen relished the presence of self-appointed _ in certain cases _ indie royalties and their groupies who ravaged the local watering holes with as much gusto and thirst as that of foreign navy men shoring. The food vendors of Khon Kaen must have felt a bit fed up with these new faces in search of ''local'' delicacies while the souvenir shop owners couldn't wait to get rid of the Bangkokians who overreacted after stumbling upon authentic sweets that are also available at Klong Toey.
None of this would have happened if Fat Festival hadn't chosen this northeastern province as the location for their regional festival. After successfully rocking Chiang Mai earlier this year, Fat Festival, known as the biggest annual music gathering for the past eight years, has since set their sights on conquering music fans nationwide via showering them with a fun filled music festival, and by the looks of it, are well on their way to achieving that goal.
Hats off to Fat Radio for trying to decentralise all things hip as Bangkok alone can't be the whole of Thailand. Over 15,000 revellers attended the Fat Festival in Khon Kaen to shop, relax and most importantly, support their favourite stars in the parameters of Khon Kaen University's multi-purpose hall.
The scorching sun, humid weather and profuse sweat couldn't stop these teenagers from pouring in, wearing all sorts of supposedly fashionable items from hoods to leg warmers. But being the savvy people that they are, Fat Radio smartly opted for a massive, air-conditioned hall that could house both the concert area and booth arena on two floors. Besides, it also gave some space for the young ones to flaunt their designs through products, attire and other titbits.
Fat Festival also arranged several rooms for independent record labels to sell their CDs as well as a room for artists to interact with their fans, sign autographs and chitchat.
To bring the arts outside of Bangkok, the organisers also arranged for three installation art pieces to be spread across the venue. An enlarged Google earth was laid out on the floor for children to tag their abodes on while a human vending machine, inside a clear plastic box, substituted mechanical food production. Most notably though was an ''overhead discotheque'', which had already made its mark at last year's Fat Festival held in Bangkok. You basically stuck your head up the hole to see and hear the music provided by various deejays while passersby can only see the rest of your body and not your head. It somehow gives you an eerie feeling of being a headless chicken moving about to the beat. It isn't much of a ''theque'', per se, since you can't really dance like that, but one of the deejays, Boon, gave it his best shot. Boon's selection along with Stylish Nonsense set in the overhead theque provided the coolest music outlet of the day.
The one stage concert hall had two levels; the upper level housed seats. Being that it's a university hall, not built to host concerts and accompany extreme acoustics, the sound quality was quite severe. But it would be pointless to harp on such matters since sound problems are nothing new in Thailand. With only one stage, it wasn't much of a ''festival'' in a sense, but on second thought, it would be murderous to hop around the field to different stages under melting hot conditions. And on a smaller scale, everyone was satisfied to see act after act perform on one stage.
The downside, however, of having a single stage was that people didn't have much choice and were forced to stick around throughout the acts _ which may not have suited their tastes _ prompting many onlookers to become bored and silent. The crowd, made up of revellers from neighbouring provinces, all knew the bands and songs, and expressed this by screaming, singing and jumping around. The performances began at noon and ended a little after midnight. But for Bangkokians, the band list may not get their adrenaline pumping simply because they see these bands and their performances all the time, but for the not so jaded, unspoiled audience, it was something worth sticking around for.
It's not like Thailand has that many bands to offer anyway, so we're stuck with the same names in the same ''Dullville'' with no way out. Then again, let's not complain too much here since all of the bands that attended travelled a long way in a van, returning home with only their hearts and empty pockets. Of course, some bands are worth checking out repeatedly because they have a different energy and perform differently, but the less worthy acts (usually the bands with big egos, crappy attitudes and lame tunes) could be flushed down the Mekong River, and no tears would be shed.
Silly Fools definitely took the cake that night. Descending down from a van with a ''music god'' aura and a huge, huge load of equipment, these four men know their way around the music scene, and know exactly how to rock without trying to be cool. Silly Fools' new singer Benjamin proved to be a consummate performer while the rest of the band wielded their instruments with such expertise that you couldn't help but stand up and wave your hands in the air. Speaking of high standards, Apartmentkhunpa also springs to mind. Newbie the Richman Toy was a testament that you don't have to be old hands to get people going as they were the first band to have people dance along with. The crowd also went crazy for Flure, Slot Machine (whose singer cut the ''surprise'' cake on-stage, and probably gave it to Silly Fools afterwards), Friday, Jui Jui (who drove all the way from Chiang Mai), Teddy Ska and Singha Sqweez Animal, who appeared as a special guest, were also crowd favourites.
Hailing from Laos was none other than Cells, whose popularity on their home turf is comparable to Bodyslam here in Thailand. Cells, armed with catchy tunes and wit, were also a joy to see.
Paradox came with an acoustic set instead of their usual circus hoopla as well as Penguin Villa, who gave an amicable one-man show. The coolest, most daring booking of the festival had to be Sai Amnaj, the comedy folk hipster, whose deadpan social satire tunes weren't too fitting to perform in front of adrenaline crazed teenagers. But his take on ordinary subjects and simple guitar chords eventually brought out some laughs from the crowd.
The fun didn't end with the performances. The backstage area was full of laughs and a lot of back slapping praises. Yes, everyone loved everyone. Some of the bands also managed to secure to play in local venues outside of the festival to make some extra cash and have some extra fun, too.
A good weekend for every easygoing person involved, definitely. So where to next, Fat Festival?
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