Went to Bkk Beat last night to check out Southern Cross and was disappointed to find a Filipino muzak band, called Exotic, singing Christmas songs badly out of tune in their place. We gulped our beers and fled before they could get on to Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman. None of the staff could say when SC would be playing there again. Are you guys still playing there? I would genuinely like to hear some classic rock there.

I have now been there twice since the Frenchman disappeared and it changed its name to Bkk Beat. I cannot see any evidence of the extensive renovations they claim to have made. It looks exactly the same. They are obviously spending a lot more on music with two bands every night instead of the same house band playing only four nights a week. But both times I have been there they had only Filipino bands playing. The other one, Power Jam, was a lot better than Exotic. The backing band was much better and they had one good female singer, one OK female singer and one male singer who ought to go back to his day job. With its obsession with Filipino musicians and the multiple rotating vocalists format I think the new management is trying to go for a hotel lobby middle of the road musical wallpaper format. The problem IMHO is that the top flight Filipino musicians in Bangkok (and some are really good) already have contracts with 5 star hotels and the ones that are left over to do casual gigs without WPs are often not as good as the Thai bands available. Their only advantage is that they can pronounce the English lyrics better and banter better with foreign audiences. Anyway there were very few people in Bkk Beat those two nights, whereas Absolute 7 was always packed to the guwhales. Unless things pick up, economics will dictate more changes before long.