Bodyslam back in the saddle

Bodyslam kicked off their 30-province “Prakotkarn Dharmajati” (“Natural Phenomenon”) tour on Sunday night with an outdoor concert at the Arun Waterpark in Suphan Buri and while it was no doubt a significant commercial success, the atmosphere was somewhat marred by the strong stench of pig poop wafting around the venue.

“Suphan Buri, do you smell pig poop?” asked the rock band’s front man Artiwara “Toon” Kongmalai to amused laughter after an opening set that saw them performing “Krueng Lub Krueng Tuen” from their latest album “Dharmajati”, “Bodyslam” from 2003’s “Drive”, “Kraam”, “Yapis” and “Kwam Chuea, 

“At least it proves that this is a natural concert. You wouldn’t find this aroma at Impact Arena or Rajamangala Stadium,” Toon added.

The park’s location adjacent to a large pig farm was the reason for the less-than-pleasant smell and had some of the audience wondering why the show couldn’t have been staged in a better-placed venue. Another problem was the lack of adequate parking, which forced many to abandon their cars on the main road and leg it to the park.

Earlier in the day, promoter Yuthana “Ted” Boonorm proudly took a group of reporters on a tour around the venue and showed off the stage structure as well as the equipment especially made for the tour. 

Bassist Tanadol “Pid” Changsawek and guitarist Thanachai “Yod” Tantrakul seemed a little nervous about the new set up, which saw the amplifiers being stacked underneath the stage and the sound control handed over to a midi system and technicians. Tuning up on stage, both faced problems with unstable power supply but the show went off as planned with no outages.

In an earlier interview with The Nation, Ted had said he didn’t want any amplifiers on stage, as they would interfere with the LED screen. But it was difficult to see why he was so worried as the globe-like structure designed to shade the screen was raised on a elevated platform over the main stage and thus high enough to avoid such problems.

 The concert, which ran for a full 150 minutes, featured 23 songs spanning the rock band’s 12-year career. Eight of the tracks were from Bodyslam’s latest release “Dharmajati” and included the first three singles off the album – “Ruea Lek Khuan Oak Jak Fang”, “Dharmajati” and “Kwam Fun Kup Jakrawal” as well as “Rak Yoo Khang Ther” featuring Anchalee “Pu” Chongkhadikij, their guest for this nationwide tour.

Younger fans probably wondered why a veteran rocker – Anchalee is in her 50s – was bagging the guest spot but many of them were happy enough to sing along to her “Mee Ther”. This reviewer though was more interested in Ohm Plengkhum’s reverberating keyboard chords, which added depth to  “Kwam Fun Kup Jakrawal” and “Dharmajati.”

 Guitarist Yod, bassist Pid and drummer Suchatti “Chad” Janed left the stage for Toon’s acoustic show of three sing-along ballads, “Plai Thang”, “Ngom Ngai” and “Ying Roo Ying Mai Khao Jai”, replacing the acoustic guitar with Ohm’s fingerwork on the keyboards.

The audience danced in “Khid Hod”, which Toon sang with mor lam singer Siriporn Ampaiwong on the screen, and jumped during the closer, “Cheewit Yang Khon Suay Ngarm”.

Bodyslam returned to the stage for an encore featuring “Ruea Lek Khuan Oak Jaak Fang”, “Ok Hak” and “Saeng Sudthai” with the audience singing happily along as they started to leave for home.

 

On the road again

_ Bodyslam perform in Nakhon Pathom tonight and in Saraburi on Tuesday.

_ For tour dates, visit www.BodyslamBand.com, IG @bodyslamband, and facebook/bodyslamband

_ Tickets are Bt1,500 available at Thai Ticket Major outlets and online at www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.