So Halloween has come and gone, happy Halloween everyone. In Thailand Halloween seems to be taken quite seriously. Leading up to the day, all you could see or hear around Bangkok was parties being advertised and decorations or costumes being sold.

There was even a pre Halloween party going down on Thursday and a little bird told us there was going to be free drinks there. So apparently the dress code was Vampire, so we got a couple pairs of fake teeth, and some make up and went to the party all dressed up and ready to kill, kill those free drinks. So when we arrived it was all downhill from there. The bar was serving free Vodka until 11, so we made sure we got as many down as possible before then, because being poor South Africans that’s just how we roll.

Thanks to club Soma for putting on this most rocking party, they played mainly popular indie, danceable sort of songs. But it was way better then cheesy house or techno. A bit of Arctic Monkeys and Vampire Weekend are the tunes I can remember, so let’s just say a really good time was had by all. I know a good few people from back home who would have been in their element at this party (Justin Mcgee, Jet Jungle, Ravi ect). The venue was called Club Culture and was probably the fanciest place we’ve been to since we arrived. It kind of reminded me of a massive oriental version of “Society” a trendy up market venue in Durban that occasionally hosts bands.

The next day we all woke up with sore heads and big smiles, although everything was a bit fuzzy, we knew a party went down hahah. So now that evening we had two gigs to play and they both were pretty far from each other, so it was going to be a tough night at the office for us. But either way we were dead keen.

The first gig was at Rachatewi, at a venue called White Out, and it was a really small place. It would seem that most venues in Thailand don’t believe in something called “Monitors” or stages. But other then the sound being near non existent, we had fun and seemed to get the crowd going.

After the gig we thought we were on in an hour at another venue across town, so we ran to our newly found friend and Thailand Manager’s car in the pouring rain with all our gear. Once we eventually got into the car guess what happened, we found ourselves in a traffic jam, traffic jam at 11:30pm at night?? This was completely new and ridiculous to us, in Durban or any other part of South Africa traffic seizes to exist after 6pm. Yet this is Bangkok, this is a place where you can buy noodles on the street at 3 in the friken morning, it’s very different to where we live back home.

Pradon aka the Maverick of Bangkok decided to take a little detour, to try and get us to the venue quicker. Then when we eventually got to the road, it was flooded. We saw a Taxi almost get submerged in water. So we decided to turn back. When it rains in Bangkok it’s a weird experience, it pelts down as if it’s the end of the world. But the heat doesn’t go away. So you get to the stage where you don’t know if you’re sweating or if it’s just the rain. Apparently flooding in Bangkok is not an unusual thing either.

So we arrived at the venue just after 12 and thought we were about to go on. A few days prior to that we went to check out the venue and people where still working on it furiously so it was pretty amazing that it was actually finished on time for the show. Two guys were on the stage playing acoustic Rancid covers. Then Ton the guy who booked us the gig band jammed. Then it was the Donavan Street Rebels and then us. We only played after 2am in the morning. I was falling asleep in my chair before the gig. The energy drink I had before the show saved me from nearly passing out. Red Bull here is almost as cheap as bottled water. In South Africa it’s one of the most expensive drinks you can buy. I just checked out Wikipedia and it originated in Thailand under a different name, check out this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull#Origins_of_Red_Bull

That’s a little bit of factual Thai History for you. Well the gig was a tough one but sometimes you pass a stage of exhaustion and you just seem to play through it and go even crazier then what you would of if you had just had 10 hours of the best night’s sleep. It’s a weird experience and one that’s hard to describe. But I think we actually had more energy then usual even though I almost passed out before the gig maybe it was the Red Bull or as the Thais call it 'Krating Daeng'.

Donavan Street Rebels deserve a shout out those guys are fun. They play a really cool, dirty sort of punk/ska/oi/hardcore that’s starting to grow on me. Also thanks to Eddie for putting us on the bill for “Ghouls Night Out” and Ton and Chat from Mezz for inviting to play at their venue. Until next time keep well everyone.

-Chin