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Khao San Road is renowned as one of the best places
for nightlife both in the Bangkok capital and elsewhere
in the Kingdom of Thailand. Sitting alongside excellent
restaurants and pubs, KSR's clubs now rank parallel
with Sukhumvit 11 haunts as some of THE places to
visit when in town. Given the importance of the strip's
role in catering to global club officiados, the fact
that Cafe Democ is seldom included in any foreign
clubber's itinerary remains a mystery wrapped in an
enigma.
For those in the know, a trip to Cafe Democ is very
much a trip to the source - to where it all began.
Despite its unimposing architecture and presence (by
Bangkok club standards anyway), Cafe Democ is the
spiritual home of Bangkok's club scene. Opened in
1999 and located on a corner of Democracy Monument
(hence its name), Cafe Democ is no more than a 10-minute
walk from Khao San Road and is where the seed of local
DJ talent was nurtured into the vibrant scene that
exists today.
As I sit outside the club with owner Mr. Apichart
- or Tui to his friends - we talk against a backdrop
of some killer homegrown Drums and Bass. "This is
not really a club to me," suggests Tui wistfully.
"I also own club Culture, a big club in the center
of town. That to me is a club - this (Cafe Democ)
is my home! This is where I was brought up," he enthuses.
Now in his 40s, Tui started life as a DJ at Diana's
in 1984, one of Bangkok's leading clubs back in the
day. There he pumped out Madonna, Michael Jackson,
and any other commercial sound his undiscerning audience
fancied. At the time the local talent for even this
was limited, and UK companies would send DJs out to
Thai venues to entertain the masses.
The DJs brought a smattering of club sounds that
although established in the west, represented something
of a revolution in Thailand. Rubbing shoulders with
these DJs, Tui's tastes changed, as did that of his
audience. Slowly, seamlessly, pockets of resistance
to commercial music emerged and along with it local
DJs experimented. Thailand's first real underground
music scene was born.
"15 years ago Bangkok was the leading place for club
music in Southeast Asia," adds Tui. "DJs from places
like Singapore and Hong Kong came over here to sample
the scene. Unfortunately, as with other places in
the world, in 90s the club scene became synonymous
with drug culture. Drugs pretty much killed the underground.
The police closed venues, and Bangkok became a bit
of a wilderness. Hip Hop changed that."
"Local artists like Joey Boy made Hip Hop respectable
and brought it into the mainstream," he continued.
"Once there, the scene emerged again - it was
a safe environment where people could experiment with
sounds. Clubs and DJs started to flourish again, and
Cafe Democ was there to help things along. Local DJs
came here to play exactly what they wanted, with no
commercial pressure. We brought over the occasional
international act, but primarily, Cafe Democ was for
local DJs".
The scene grew to the extent that Cafe Democ DJs
turned professional and a number of venues emerged
to cater for the increased demand for club music.
RCA flourished and places like Astra (now Club 808)
went from strength to strength. Many of those venues
though stuck to a more traditional format, catering
for Bangkok's party scene.
"Cafe Democ is no Route 66,"suggested Tui, talking
about a famous RCA club where patrons dance around
small tables to top 30 US tunes alongside more commercial
local sounds. "There's a genuine sub-culture around
these days. This sub-culture has had to be resilient.
It's faced 'Social Order' issues that placed curfews
on clubbers, political uncertainty, and of course
bouts of economic downturn. Despite all of this, the
scene remains healthy and you can experience it at
Cafe Democ."
These days Cafe De Moc serves up an eclectic assortment
of sounds - Electro, Mash Up, Drums and Bass, and
despite its proximity to KSR, caters to a predominantly
Thai crowd (often based out of Thammasat University)
and a few expats who speak a smattering of Thai. Things
warm up around 23:30, but before that people sit around
and enjoy the great local food Cafe De Moc offers
its punters.
"We don't have the marketing budget," suggested Tui
when asked why Cafe De Moc doesn't compete with some
of the brasher places on KSR. "Nowadays foreigners
only stay on Khao San for a couple of days and then
they are off. It's not like before when they used
to stay up to a couple of months and really get to
know the area, including this place (Cafe De Moc)."
Cafe De Moc does though have a small but loyal foreign
clientele. DJ Curmi (?) from Brighton, UK was there
the night we visited. He wasn't playing; he was just
hanging out. "I love this place," he confided. "This
is where it all started and it's still going strong.
I come here every time I am in Thailand. It's not
like one of the big Sukhimvit clubs - it's very intimate".
Cafe De Moc opens nightly until about 1:30 in the
morning. If you are looking for a slice of the local
scene, it's well worthy of a visit. It's usually free
to get in and there's a solid line up of acts.
Check out the much less than pretentious Cafe
De Moc website to see what's on offer.
Check out the toilets for excellent graffiti!
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