In partnership with Maho Rasop
The Thai music festival Maho Rasop could not be better named. ‘Maho Rasop’ is a traditional Thai phrase that means “festive celebration” – and at the 2023 edition this past weekend (December 2-3), the air at ESC Park in Rangsit was electric with excitement and anticipation.
Curation is king at Maho Rasop. British post-punk got a good look in this year, with Yard Act, Squid and IDLES flying that flag – but equally appealing were North American indie exponents Alvvays and Alex G. Some of East Asia’s best group performers were on the line-up – Otoboke Beaver, Atarashii Gakko!, Balming Tiger – and that’s not even mentioning the excellent, varied homegrown Thai talent, nor the DJs of the Boiler Room takeover.
This year made it clearer than ever that Maho Rasop is a fun, festive celebration of music at large, but also specifically of performance and artistry – making it a welcome refuge for music fans who value the full spectrums of both. Relive this year’s festival with our recap below…
Day 1
Our weekend began with sunkissed shoegaze by Death of Heather, who stoically faced the early audience that had drifted over from the colourful opening set by funk band Ford Trio and proceeded to unleash their thunderous, transcendent walls of sound. With ears ringing from their final salvo of ‘Pretty Things’, the lead single of their 2023 album ‘Forever’, we trooped over to the Maholan Stage for Yard Act. Like many acts on the line-up, the band from Leeds were performing in Thailand for the very first time. Frontman James Smith put his best foot forward despite the stifling heat, winning the curious crowd over with his uninhibited singing and oddball dance moves.
The canny curation of Maho Rasop’s line-ups has persisted with each passing year, allowing the festival to go from strength to strength. The artist bookings speak to each other, especially today: the anarchism of Otoboke Beaver got the blood pumping for IDLES’ righteous fury, while the psychedelic grooves of Melbourne jazz fusion act Mildlife whetted appetites for Kamaal Williams’ keyboard voyages.
Standing out from this year’s line-up, though, was Alex G. The Philadelphia singer-songwriter has always been difficult to pigeonhole: he started out a lo-fi cult favourite on Bandcamp and is now a Domino artist who’s cherrypicked sounds from Americana, alt-country, noise rock and more genres besides. His unpredictable songs translated well at Maho Rasop, from the blaring menace of ‘Blessings’, when he set down his guitar to stalk the stage, to the sudden breakbeat switch of ‘No Bitterness’. Fan favourites ‘Sarah’ and ‘Mary’ went down a treat, too.
Alex G saw in the sunset and the night began to tempt chaos: Otoboke Beaver drew a huge crowd to the Viman Stage with their raucous punk ragers while Mae Happyair and Club Mascot b2b Winkieb turned up the energy at the Boiler Room takeover at Sawan Club. Throughout the weekend, this dance haven consistently provided the intimate club euphoria one can’t really get from a festival mainstage.
While Thai alt favourites Zweed n’ Roll and US post-rockers Caspian cut poised figures on the Maholan Stage, IDLES ended day one with massive singalongs and moshpits. The band have begun rolling out the red carpet for their fifth album, ‘Tangk’, but they left the lead single ‘Dancer’ off the setlist. Instead, they blasted through the songs Bangkok has been waiting years to hear, frontman Joe Talbot singing, stomping and spitting up a storm. When they concluded with the triple threat of ‘Never Fight a Man With a Perm’, ‘Danny Nedelko’ and ‘Rottweiler’ – all from that beloved album ‘Joy As An Act of Resistance’ – IDLES brought their set and day one of Maho Rasop to a triumphant and exhilarating close.
Day 2
Singer-songwriter Numcha ushered in day two with smooth indie tunes, bringing out a violinist for her debut performance at Maho Rasop. Primed by Saturday, today’s crowd didn’t need much warming up: when Squid took the Maholan Stage, fans were on board with the post-punk band from the start, gamely following every tempo zig and every guitar zag.
It was a good start to a pretty stacked Sunday. A strong contender for best act of the weekend were Atarashii Gakko!, who appeared to be the sole reason some were at ESC Park: fans brandished scarves and banners emblazoned with the Japanese group’s name, while some diehards even wore schoolgirl outfits that matched the four-piece’s signature look.
Atarashii Gakko! (or ‘New School Leaders’) delivered on the anticipation in spades, executing cheeky and kinetic choreography with the irrepressible energy that has earned them fans worldwide. When they performed their infectious hits like ‘Nainainai’ and ‘Otona Blue’, the stage soundsystem pounding the beats and basslines into your body, it was impossible to not want to declare yourself a loyal follower of Atarashii Gakko!.
On top of carefully curating a line-up, Maho Rasop had a surprise up its sleeve: an unannounced set by Alec Orachi at a tiered rest area. Sporting a hard hat and a high-vis construction vest, the gleefully energetic rapper and his band fed off the already-amped crowd, delivering jazzy alt-rap and earnest calls to embrace community and change the world for the better.
The rest of the night was a bit of a blur; the sheer number of exciting acts made it difficult to stay at any one set for its entirety. Recovering from a recent illness, Alvvays frontwoman Molly Rankin asked for grace from the Maho Rasop crowd, who were more than happy to provide. The Canadian band performed a set of glittering indie gems, the singalongs to the gorgeous chorus of ‘Dreams Tonite’ a particularly potent reminder of the beauty of their songwriting.
From there, it was on to the cathartic post-hardcore of Japanese legends Envy. Frontman Tetsuya Fukagawa is as much singer as he is conductor: when he wasn’t giving full voice to his angst and anguish, he was gesticulating and sweeping his arms in time to the sublime playing of his bandmates. Then onto Sawan Club to see Thaiboy Digital do his first official live performance in Bangkok, nearly eight years after the Drain Gang rapper moved from Sweden to Thailand. And then back to Maholan for austere, moody headliners Interpol.
The thrill of seeing Interpol grace a Thai stage for the first time, though, could not compete with the sheer pandemonium of Balming Tiger, who were on at the same time at the Viman Stage. From the sensual ‘Sexy Nukim’ to the kooky ‘Frog’, the South Korean hip hop/alt-K-pop group covered all bases of their vibrant discography. Between the childlike choreography of the entrancing ‘Kamehameha’ (inspired by a Korean drinking game song) and the butt-swaying to the cheeky ‘Buriburi’, Balming Tiger practically demanded that we dance with them to make this last set of Maho Rasop a finale to remember.
Maho Rasop 2023 took place December 2-3 – the festival will return in 2024