A Review of the FAT Festival

Last weekend I was intent on experiencing the touristy side of Bangkok – Wat Po and the Grand Palace, Jim Thompson’s house, etc.  Thus far all I have seen has been the shopping of Siam Square, Thais dancing and singing in the best bathrooms ever at RCA, and Khao San Road.  But Saturday morning Ryan and Amy came to the room Doug, Leah, and I were sharing with a great idea: The FAT Festival.  One of Bangkok’s radio stations was holding an indie music festival with hundreds of bands on 5 stages for the whole weekend.  Only 200 baht, too, so Ryan arranged a cab to take us to the convention centre on the city outskirts (I don’t know if that’s the right word as BKK seems to take up the whole of central Thailand) so we piled in, 4 in the back with Doug E. Fresh up front. After a good drive with no seeming direction, we arrived at the IMPACT convention centre which was a concrete city unto itself.

Leah and me in our sick new sunglasses.

The rest of us: Ryan, Amy, and Doug upon arrival.

This was the first concert we went to.  Each band played for about 40 minutes.  These guys were super catchy in that “I’m so Indie I’m about to be Fall Out Boy” way.  Had I known the lyrics, I would have sung along.  Actually, I think I did sing along…

We decided to leave that stage because it was so crowded.  We split up (and later lost Leah), but Doug and I found some crazy cool exhibits.

First I beat Doug at Wii Boxing – like a champ – but no worries, we both got free bottles of men’s shave gel and cologne.

Then we found the Overhead Night Club.  Oh, sure, we all know what that means…

It means you walk over, crouch under an awkwardly suspended box, and insert your head into a hole…

And see a band playing inside the box with random other heads popping up and disappearing at random intervals.

That’s Ryan a few headholes away from me.

Then we found a pile of junk that you could walk through.

Then we found a Sick People shirt that was perfect for filmstar Doug.

Then we found Leah and these creepy dudes who posed for 4687340 pictures.

This bizarre wicker creation greeted us at our last concert, a Japanese band called YMCK.   This band was hilarious – their music was synthesizing old-school Nintendo sounds together.  They jumped around in nerdy outfits while mock-up video games played on a huge screen behind them. 

The pictures basically sum up the ridiculousness that was the FAT Festival. Had any of us known any of the bands, we may have stayed longer than 2.5 hours.  But they were a 2.5 hours well spent in a crazy convention center somewhere in SE Asia.