Rock City Patong – it truly rocks

In the middle of Thailand I never expected to run into a rock club that puts anything like this back in Melbourne to shame. Rock City Patong (www.rockcity.cc) was built after the tsunami, and now has two venues in Phuket. I plan to spend every night whilst here rocking out at this club.

The stage is huge, there is a snarling King Kong complete with fists in broken chains above it, the sound is perfect, the drum kit is huge and has a gong, and there’s a huge Ace Frehley neon Gibson out the front. The place is perfect except for the price of the beer.

To top it all off, the musicians are awesome. What seems to happen is that locals are recruited to form the basis of most of the bands, with a bit of a rotating thing happening. Every now and then a genuine tribute band plays there, but otherwise it’s the “house” band playing hard rock and metal covers, or pop/dance songs in a hard rock style. Every singer has been incredibly good, and there are two girls in particular who are just amazingly good. One is tiny (see the pics) and is not unlike Janis Joplin and Vanessa Amorosi’s love child, with an awesome level of power for such a tiny frame.  Postscript: You can check out Zea’s profile at http://www.myspace.com/Zealasa. I think she may have moved on from Rock City since I was there.
The other I thought was a guy wanting to be a girl, but it turns out she is definitely female and a lesbian. Her voice is stunning! I’m hoping to film some over the next few nights.

Forgive the less than ideal shots. This camera is no good for live stage work.

Singing “Daddy Cool”

Apparently this guy is “direct from America!”

I was so close to jumping up and joining in once I saw those keyboards. I’m looking for a band that plays Mr Crowley or Jump so I can guest. Hey, even SOS or Mumma Mia will do if I get the chance.

For a minute I thought this guy might have been the bass player from Hush. Maybe he was? I should ask him tonight.

The club is owned and run by a mysterious European ex-rock star. Apparently he’s played with a few very successful bands, but he wouldn’t tell me who. I’ll work on it this week.

If only the rest of the War Pigs boys were motivated enough to play here. Wouldn’t be any money in it, but it would be an amazing experience.
OK – I’ve got 30 minutes to get some food and get back to the club for a KISS tribute band plus more.  Got to go…

Postscript: I’ve now made the entire Rock City set available online.  I hope to be going back in June 09 with my pro photography gear to capture it all as it should be.