Pong Lang Sa On at the Wat Plai Laem Temple fair

Pong Lang Sa On at the Wat Plai Laem Temple fair

Last night saw an unexpected but pleasant surprise that kept a few people awake near the Wat Plai Laem Temple fair. The band Pong Lan Sai On played at the fair and this is a band that was extremely popular some 4 years ago and the possibility to watch them perform live was something I didn't want to miss out on.

Bandleader Ead with part of the band and a local boy on stage

The band has a remarkable story and their career took off after they won a talent contest on TV. Their first album was an immense success and now they're a household name in Thailand. In 2007 and 2008 they extensively toured the USA and Europe on the back of their album.

On Samui they had a great show that lasted for closing in on 3 hours and they had an excellent PA system. It was loud though for the surrounding houses and a few people might have had problems sleeping.

Lulu and Lala, the female singers of the band and a bundle of ebergy!

We sat through two female support singers, first Asia followed by Ying Titikarn before the band came on around 11pm. It's not a concert the way we may know it in the West. The first hour or so was just the band with various singers singing songs, before Ead, the main man of the band come on and after 45 minutes or so he was joined by the two female Lula and Lala. The show lasted until around 1.30am.

The 'khen' instrument played by one of the band members

Another thing that is very different to 'Western style' concerts is that the show is stopped in-between songs and the band goes into comedy routines which has the audience in stitches. A lot of Thai is not needed to understand some of the jokes since they're fairly vivid and simple. Ead and his band had an excellent show and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of the him, Lula and Lala, the band and the dancers plus various other people that took part in the show, including the stage hands!

The bass player, check out the cool shape of the instrument

As a very unexpected bonus they played a Cardigans song (in my head)! I've seen this only once before, when Sek Loso started to play some Hendrix tunes as an encore, slightly confusing the majority of the audience. This cover however, went down very well, although it was interrupted once more for some comedy.

Stage view

The production of the show was excellent, as already mentioned, an excellent PA system was used and besides a 10 man band, there was Aed, Lula and Lala, up to 10 dancers, various other singers, male and female and they even had people participating in their comedy acts who pretended to be part of the audience. All in all an excellent show and evening was had!

To finish this up, here's a song by Pong Lan Sa On, one of their hits. Enjoy and don't miss out on them if they play your neighborhood.

Camille