One night in Yangon

LAST MONDAY night at Yangon’s trendiest shopping mall Junction Square, Carabao needed less than half of “Mon Phleng Carabao” to convince local music fans that rock serves up a harder and faster kick than betel nut. A couple of minutes into Carabao’s major hit from the 1980s, young Myanmar fans were shaking their heads and dancing on the pavement. Even the noodle vendor was tapping his feet and bobbing his head up and down in time with the high tempo and sensational riffs. A desperate young Buddhist novice stood on tiptoe, trying to find the best view of the stage beyond the wall formed by the crowd.

“Mingalaba!” Yuenyong Ophakul aka Ad Carabao greeted the crowd of 500 people in such a loud and enthusiastic voice that it seemed he wanted to leave a message for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose lakeside house is a mere four kilometres away, before segueing into the band’s eponymous 1984 hit “Made in Thailand”.

Known the world over for their three-cha rock sound and hard-hitting lyrics, Carabao have delighted music fans in the Japan, the US, Europe and many of Thailand’s Southeast Asian neighbours during their 30 year career. They never made it to Myanmar though and were in fact banned by the junta following their release of “Aung San Suu Kyi”, “Shan State” and a number of other songs critical of Myanmar’s politics and human rights violations. 

But times change, people change and Myanmar has changed too. 

The band was welcomed with open arms to Yangon, not least thanks to a generous Bt1 million donation to the upcoming SEA Games 2013, which are being held across the country in December. Their “SEA Game 2013 Fund-Raising Carabao Concert”, which was opened by local musicians as well as beauty contest, saw the band take the stage late – at 9.30pm – for an admittedly powerful and hard-rocking set that opened with “Mon Phleng Carabao” (The Magic of Carabao).

“The concert has drawn many people from Shan State,” a Warner Music (Thailand) executive told me. 

Dressed in his standard attire of dark grey jeans, black vest, check shirt and black cap bearing the Carabao logo, Ad Carabao brought Yangon to life through “Luk Hin”, “Lung Khee Mao” and “Ganja”. Guitarists and founding members Lek Carabao and Thierry Mekwattana also performed their signature songs, among them “Bap Borisut” and “Nang Ngam Too Krajok”.

Carabao concerts rarely come without a fight and at Thai outdoor gigs, the band rarely makes through more than three songs into a set before drunken trouble-makers start brawling. In Yangon, where the police apparently never give troublemakers a second chance, it took more than an hour before a young man managed to knock an unsuspecting policeman to the ground. The fight ended quickly, with several of the cops giving the troublemaker a “foot-party”. 

Ad Carabao responded by removing his shirt and upping the heat with a medley of Carabao’s famous songs that included “Prachathipratai”, “Waniphok Phanechorn” and “Racha Ngern Phon”.

Then came the unmistakable intro to the fast-paced “Bua Loi” with Lek Carabao’s blown up to full size on the backdrop as he played a sensational guitar riff.

And then silence. No matter how loud and long the crowd shouted for more, the band didn’t reappear.

Carabao didn’t play “Shan State” and “Aung San Suu Kyi” during their first appearance in Myanmar and that was a great shame for the fans who had travelled more than 20 hours from the Shan State capital of Ken Tung to Yangon especially for the gig.

Yuenyong Ophakul, it seemed, was more interested in tapping the considerable Myanmar market for the band’s energy drink “Carabao Daeng” than playing activist. And indeed, every now and again during the 90-minute show, Carabao Daeng staff bombarded the concert-goers – especially the young ones – with free bottles of the powerful potion. Ad Carabao himself promoted his energy drink on the stage but failed to mention human rights issues let alone Myanmar’s internal political plight.

“We could have played ‘Aung San Suu Kyi’. We got the okay from the Myanmar authorities,” Thierry told me later. “But we cancelled it at the last minute because we didn’t want to cause any bad feelings.”