Our hard-rocking heroes

Like quite a few members of the crowd attending last weekend’s concerts at Siam Paragon, I came away asking myself what the “Heroes” in the title of the concert title was really all about.
“Heroes don’t mean old men,” said singer and actor Pongpat “Off” Wachirabanjong to laughter at Royal Paragon Hall Paragon, on the first night of the back-to-back concerts.
“Hero reminds us of a superhero like Superman who help the troubled guys. In real life, these troubled guys are our millions of flood victims,” said Billy Ogan.
And yes, the heroes are also the idols of the rock fans that snapped up the tickets for the sold-out shows. The three-hour plus concert began with mini sets by each of the five artists: Jo, John and Kong, members of 1988’s hottest pop band Nuvo with “Luek Sud Jai”; Billy, 1987’s top pop rock solo singer with Yak Takon”; Pongpat, who was 1988’s much loved rocker, with “Aik Nan”, Nakarin “Pang” Kingsak, alternative rocker from 1994 after splitting from Hydra, with “Tham Arai Sak Yang”; and Moderndog, pioneer of alternative rock in 1994, with “Korn”. Broken hearts was the theme of this introductory set.
Nuvo dusted off old hits from their albums “Pen Yang Nee Tang Tae Kerd Loei”, “Boon Khun Poo Dam” and “Sud Sud Pai Loei”. Jo and Kong made their guitars screech on “Lok Kan Len Rue Plao” and “Luem Pai Mai Rak Kan” while John on keytar jammed with Ter on keyboards.
Billy, clad in his trademark black attire complete with dark shades, performed “Phood Duay Kor Mai Phood Duay” and “Nom Naem Pai Noi”, two stirring tracks from 1990’s “Billy Khem Talod” before slowing things down with a medley of break-up songs from the album and from his debut “Billy Khem”. Jo and Kong jammed on guitar in “Jon Tae Jeng” after he’d finished “Ao Arai Ma Laek Kor Mai Yom”.
“Yes, the floods will cause some people to be poor. If we help each other, it will be ‘jon tae jeng’ – poor but cool,” said Billy.
Pang Nakarin, for me personally, offered the most interesting set with some stunning music reminiscent of the boom years of alternative rock from “Man”, a track from 2004’s “Liem Thong” in 2004 to “Hua Larn Jai Noi” from his 30th anniversary album in 1997.
“After Hydra disbanded, I recorded my debut solo album and never thought for one minute that this song would get such a good response,” said Pang referring to “Sabai Dee” on 1994’s “Khai Pang” in 1994. Tanachai “Pod” Ujjin of Moderndog jammed on that song, and the audience was immediately up and dancing.
Like at all concerts in which Pongpat is involved, motorcycle sound effects preceded his arrival on stage. He opened his set with “Mai Roo Nee Wha” from 1994’s “Rock Nee Wha” then segued into ballads “Tua Samrong” and “Fun Fuean”.
Pongpat pretended to perform an English song with the introduction of Scorpion’s “Holiday” but suddenly switched into his melancholy hit “Aik Nan” and closed with “Jai Nak Leng” with these words of courage: “Our hearts should be strong during this period.”
The last artist was Moderndog who whipped up plenty of excitement with “Busaba” and “Bang Sing” from their 1994 debut “Serm Sukhaphap”.
The drummer then left the stage, guitarist Maytee took over keyboards while Pod sang a cover of Carabao’s “Thalay Jai” before raising the tempo again with “Tim” from 1997’s “Cafe” with Billy joining in.
The pioneering alternative rock band closed out the show with “Kan Lae Kan” and “Ta Sawang” from the 2004 album “Daed Song”.
The concert came to an end with all the artists gathering to perform Asanee-Wasan’s “Nam Aoei Nam Jai”, as scenes of the floods around the country were shown on the giant screens.