Good Idea

The Pattaya International Music Festival 2006 is going on this weekend. Huge crowds at five different concert venues. Quarter million people all told, I hear.

Personally, I stay home and watch the live broadcast on UBC cable. That way, I can just change the channel when I don't like what is on... and I don't know nearly enough about any of the acts to have a clue in advance whether I will like them or not... which is the only way I would stand in a crowd of 30,000 rowdy Thai teenagers in 95º heat.

I have to give credit to the band I'm watching right now, called "Same Same" from Canada. (Twin brothers, boy band-ish.) They decided, "Hey... we don't know if we'll hit it big in North America, so let's hedge our bets: We'll tour Thailand, and heavily market ourselves there, learn to speak some Thai, and sell tons of records."

And that's exactly what they've done, apparently. (I've tried to find a website for the band, but it is impossible to get a relevant result in Google using "Same Same". If anyone finds a website to the band, send it along.) They're not bad at all. They're certainly doing well in Thailand based on the crowd belting out the choruses of all their songs. Good idea for bands trying to break through to the big time: Find a smaller big time.

Anyway, each year, the Pattaya Music Festival gets bigger and bigger... just not in the names of the musicians from overseas. Brittney and Bono are decades away from gracing a stage here. But, it certainly is a stop for all the top Thai artists.

Tomorrow is Pui's day off work... so I may yet wind up at one of the shows. That remains to be seen.