Showing their love for 'Dad'

There were a number of almost unreal moments at last Saturday night’s concert “Do for Dad” staged at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani and it’s probably fair to say that almost all the 8,000 fans in the audience witnessed musical feats they certainly weren’t expecting. 

Stone Metal Fire’s lead vocalist Pathompong “Pong” Sombatpibul put on a truly unprecedented show, joining with Thanaporn “Parn” Yaekprayoon on the theme song of the musical “Phantom of the Opera”. Although their voices didn’t quite harmonise, the effort was certainly impressive and I found myself thinking of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish’s recent posting on YouTube.

“This is the last time I’ll sing this song,” Parn admitted to the audience. She did her best but was unable to reach the same high pitch as Nightwish’s singer Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen.

In his solo set, rocker Pong gamely covered Sornkhiri Sriprachuab’s luk thung song “Nam Thuam” (Flood), singing it in his naturally soft tone. I liked it and, judging from the loud applause, so did the rest of the audience. The show also featured orchestral versions of the rock band’s hits “Satha” and “Puea Ther”.

R&B singer Peerapat “Bee” Thanewong and alternative rocker Tanachai “Pod” Ujjin also scored high. Bee pleased the crowd with “I Will Always Love You”, the ballad written by Dolly Parton but immortalised by Whitney Houston while Pod covered “My Way”.

He also sang “Duen Pen” after an interesting instrumental opening by saxophonists Pusit “Tang” Laithong and Sekphol “Koh” Unsamran and professional khlui player Thanis Sriklindee then chilled with “Chai Chana” written for the teenager who lost both legs in an accident on the railway.

Ben Chalathit is another singer with a remarkably good pitch so unsurprisingly he chose to sing Ella Fitzgerald’s jazzy ballad “Cry Me A River”. Sadly AF’s Nat Sakdathorn did less well, his voice lacking the power needed to carry Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge over Troubled Water”. Ben and Nat joined with Bee for funky songs “September”, “Stay Just A Little Bit Longer” and “Livin La Vida Loca”, before Parn got the crowd going with Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”.

She also sang a cover of Khiriboon’s “Hak Rak” in a bossa nova version and duetted with Rapeeporn “Pearl” Pathun-anon on “Huajai Salai”. Pearl, one of 10 finalists in a recent global online singing talent search, also performed Mariah Carey’s “Hero”.

Sumate Ongarj used his tender vocals to cover Thanin Inthrathep’s “Wan Dai Khad Chan Laew Ther Ja Roo Suek” then joined with Parn for “Rak Tai Rom Sai”.

Three members of 1980’s band Chalieng – Nitipong “Dee” Hornak, Wachara “Jiab” Pan-iem, and Tang – got back together for “Mai Rak Tae Khid Thueng” which Dee wrote after the breakup, Dee sang “HM’s Blues”, in English while Jiab performed the Thai version and Tang played the saxophone.

All the artists returned to the stage for the finale, paying their respects to HM the King with “Khwam Fun Un Soong Sud”.