Partying with Pang

Popular singer Nakarin “Pang” Kingsak celebrated two decades in the entertainment business last Saturday at the Indoor Stadium Hua Mark with a full-length concert dubbed “21 Years, Pang Nakarin Comes of legal age”.

Pang walked out on stage after an opening set by young rapper Nattawut Srimok aka “Golf F***ing Hero” and immediately swung into his hits “Man” and “Kui Kab Tua Aeng”.

Sitting down on a sofa placed in the centre of stage, a relaxed Pang thanked his fans for turning out.

“I’m getting old so I wasn’t sure whether the people that used to go to my shows would still want to come to a concert. But since signing up for Facebook, I’ve become close to my real fans and they let me know that they wanted to see me back on stage,” he told the cheering crowd.

Pang then performed the ballads “Kob Mai Dai” and “Arkaat” followed by the upbeat “Tum Arai Suk Yang” before welcoming his first guest, the ever-popular Apiwat “Stamp” Eurthavornsuk. He duetted with Pang on “Podhak” before turning solo for “Khwam-kid” then handed the stage back to Pang for “Jeb Puad Tee Ngod Ngam” and “Tee Wa Kan Amphoe”.

“I’ve been working in the music industry for a long time but have few friends inside the industry. But I know one little band and I think they’re cool,” he said as rockers Big Ass came out on to the stage. They played “Lom Plean Tis” then sat down on the sofa for a chat with their host.

The gags were good and drew laughter but sadly those sitting to the side of the third tier suffered from the vagaries of the sound system and could also guess at the dialogue.

The rockers and Pang were then joined on stage by Bodyslam’s vocalist Athiwara “Toon” Khongmalai.

Pang told the screaming crowd that before the concert, he’d contacted the singer’s friends to find out whether he had any free time at all these days but finally called Toon to ask him whether he’d come along. Toon’s first words when he picked up the phone were, “I’ve been waiting for your call.”

The Bodyslam vocalist then joined Pang and Big Ass for “Plor Bang” and followed up by performing with Pang on “Tor Mee Jing”.

As Pang swung into “Rao Ruk Kan”, his guitarist was replaced by veteran entertainer Manote “Sun” Puttan, another special guest and Pang’s idol. 

The concert then switched to luk thung (Thai country folk) with Pang performing “Kaew Ta Kha Rock”, “Kid Arai Yu” and “30 Yang Jaew”. 

Taktan Chollada was the next guest to duet with Pang on the hit “Phum Pae Krungthep”.

After a short intermission, Pang returned to the stage to perform a set of sad ballads including  “Lerk Koy”, “Nangsue Roon”, “Pu Chai Rong Hai”. The audience fell silent, sinking deep into their own emotions and reflecting on their schooldays as he crooned “Nangsue Roon”.

Swinging back into uptempo mode with “Hua Lan Jai Noi”, Pang borrowed a guitar and quickly had the audience up on their feet and dancing. He followed up with “Krai Tao Derm”, the hit that sent him and his former band Hydra into the stratosphere back in 1992 and while the fans had fun, they were disappointed that bandmate Thana “Pond” Lawasut wasn’t also on stage.

Pang made amends by bringing back Golf F***ing Hero and the pair joined up for rap versions of “Pood Mai Kid”, “Sabai Dee” and “Man” to close out the show.