Brown Sugar

With enforced closing times slowly creeping back to 2am, going out in Bangkok is slowly beginning to get interesting again. One can almost hear a collective sigh of relief from the boys in khaki as this of course means more cash in the coffers as that extra hour doesn't come cheap. The prime targets are of course the gogo bars as our erstwhile Baron reports on a regular basis. Despite these and other restrictions the live music scene in Bangkok  has continued to flourish and remains one of the most vibrant in  Asia.
For a Thai band in the past, copying songs as close as possible to original was seen as the benchmark. The closer you could get to the exact riffs of the original, the better you (supposedly) were. For cover bands around town there still is an element of that to this day, but an increasing number of independent young local bands are shying away from that concept and are making music that is truly original. A number of new clubs have sprung up catering to this trend, joining the ranks of more established live music venues.
One such venue, the more established kind that is, is Brown Sugar in Soi Sarasin, opposite the northern end of Lumpini Park . Soi Sarasin was of course at one point the place to go out on the weekends to see and be seen and if you were able to catch some good live music so much the better. The focus of the in crowd has now moved elsewhere but the little strip of clubs continues to attract enough punters to remain in business. In all fairness Brown Sugar was for many years considered the penultimate jazz venue in the city, long before the big hotels jumped on the trend. Jazz is still primarily what Brown Sugar is all about, although it is no longer a pure jazz venue as in the past. These days Brown Sugar still features a jazz house band every night from 11.00 pm except Mondays.
The venue is small, but despite it's size there are still some nooks and crannies where one can shy away from the crowd for a more intimate chat with that special someone. Or simply to be left alone to eat. The music on the night of our visit was supplied by Yamin, front man of on of Bangkok 's better blues bands Blue on Blue. However, on this night he was playing a soft acoustic set bordering on country. Yamin's performance was to be followed by a jazz set from a group of young students at one of the city's better known music academy's. All very professional and in good taste.
The same however cannot be said for the sound system. It boggles the mind that a venue of such repute won't bother to make a small investment in professional sound gear. The same tired old gear that was in place years ago is still the house set up. If you are playing there and want something better, bring your own. The most glaring example is the guitar player, whose sound is restricted to a little dinky speaker hanging on the wall! The music it self is still top class, but the sound system and resulting sound quality belong in a venue somewhere in the back streets of Nakorn Nowhere. Musicians want to be able to say they play at Brown Sugar and therefore put up with it, I guess. There is an old amp standing on the stage but unsurprisingly it doesn't work. The drums have seen better days, about two decades ago maybe, and despite that fact Yamin was doing his best and delivered a decent sounding set. The following jazz was fresh, the youngsters tried hard and were technically very adept considering their age. Keep in mind they are not the house band and can only be seen on Mondays when the big boys have a  night off.
Not being hungry, or even peckish, a quick look at the menu revealed a collection of Thai and International favorites at fairly reasonable prices. Quite frankly though, when it comes to cleanliness Brown Sugar is not at the top of the list! Unless it was the top of the list of established venues that could really do with an invasion of women in yellow shirts that said "professional cleaner" on the back. Why a venue of such repute would let important, if not downright crucial, details such as sound and cleanliness slide to the point of near unacceptability is beyond this writer's comprehension.
Despite these not so minor drawbacks, the real reason for a visit, the live music, was good. I have caught Lito's house band many times and the jazz with Mario on guitar is of consistent quality. I'm not sure if I would eat there though.