Dog with strings attached
Two decades on, Pod Moderndog tries out his hits with the Siam Sinfonietta
It was a little disconcerting for fans of rock band Moderndog that they couldn’t go nuts dancing to “Tim” and “Busaba” and instead had to remain seated at the Thailand Cultural Centre last Saturday afternoon. But this was “Pod & The Orchestra by Majung”, and they knew they had to behave.
Thanachai “Pod” Ujjin, the rock band’s frontman, was making a classical debut of sorts, alongside Somtow Sucharitkul’s Siam Sinfonietta.
That didn’t stop the audience screaming when Pod came onstage. He swung into “Tim”, slowly at first to make best use of the orchestration, before getting more uptempo in the subsequent verses.
Fans cheered again as the first notes of “Ruang Jing” arose from the piano followed by lovely strings, and sang along on the reprise.
“Good afternoon!” Pod declared. “It’s pretty unusual for me to do a concert in the daytime and see the fans sitting so politely!” But a little dignity was in order, he said, since it had been 20 years since he released his first single, “Lom Hai Jai”, while still in third year at university.
“This is an experiment, performing with a full orchestra and with orchestral arrangements of my songs by Trisdee Na Patalung, the Siam Sinfonietta’s conductor.” Then, as if to reassure the long-time fans. “But Moderndog’s new album, our sixth, is expected to be released at the end of this year!”
After “Sing Thi Mai Khoei Bok” and “Ngern Larn”, Pod and Trisdee had a little chat. Which, Pod asked him, is harder to score – rock or orchestra?
“Rock is about the power of the musical instruments, but orchestra is about power of the voice,” Trisdee replied equitably. He’d given “Sing Thi Mai Khoei Bok” the sound of the full orchestra. “The original song is kind of acoustic, so I painted a new colour for it – with an acoustic orchestra. Like ‘Tim’ – it’s like ‘Phantom of the Opera’.”
“It’s ‘Phantom of Pod’,” Pod laughed.
Warm applause greeted the pleasant melody of “Chuang Thi Dee Thi Sud”, again introduced on piano, and the crowd sang along with Pod.
Pod’s first guest of the afternoon, Teeranai Na Nongkhai, joined him for “Khae Khueb”, a classic originally sung by Charin Nanthanakorn, and “Proh Ther Samkhan”, penned by Trisdee.
The second guest was Somtow Sucharitkul, taking up the baton to lead the orchestra through
two pieces he wrote, “Angel (Nangfa Nai Duangjai)” from “Reya: The Musical” and “Burmese March”.
Pod next sang “Hang Klai Luea Kern” and “Ma”, and then Pod and Trisdee were on their own again. “That song ‘Ma’ was never played at any Moderndog concert, but it was popular among religious students,” Pod quipped, earning much laughter from the crowd.
“Pod wanted it to sound grand,” Trisdee chimed in, “but I figured that would be impossible because of the lyrics.”
With a violinist joining them to form a trio, they performed Pod’s newest songs “Thi Trong Nee” and “Khao Soi” and the hit “Lom Hai Jai”, a funny song that Pod still isn’t sure should be on the new Moderndog album.
“I’ve played a lot of concerts and everybody always jumps around during my songs like ‘Busaba’,” he said. “This is really challenging, though, because there’s such a different musical vibe.” And, indeed, the audience only sang along when Pod invited them to.
With wide-open arms, Pod welcomed veteran baritone singer Santi Lunphe to handle the infectious hook in “Chai Chana”, and then left Santi alone to perform another Thai classic, “Yoei Fah Tha Din”.
Pod finally churned through three hits in a row – “Ta Sawang”, “Korn” and “Dao” – before closing the show with an encore of “Busaba”. He was rewarded with a standing ovation.
The concert was a fine attempt for the rocker and the classical composer. Some of the songs could have been better arranged for the orchestra, though – some sounded simply too smooth. As for Pod, it was a shame he couldn’t hit the high notes in songs like “Chai Chana” and “Dao”.
