Boy Blues Bar - Chiang Mai: My new favorite live music spot in the city
I only discovered this place because of a friend's recommendation. It is not the easiest place to find as it is on the 2nd floor of a popular market and they only have a very small sign on the ground floor. To steal a quote from Zoolander, "it's so exclusive nobody knows where it is."
Once you do find it you are in for a real treat though. On Monday nights they have open mic night, but not just for any goon with a guitar, you need to be talented and boy are they ever.
The music was mostly (as the name would suggest), blues; which is actually a very easy type of music for musicians who have never jammed together before to get together and play quite well on their very first try. This is because there are certain "standards" of chord progression that exists across many of the songs.
You never know what you are going to get on a Monday because the lineup is always different. I was in for a real treat on the random night I attended because a trumpet and harmonica player who had toured with the Rolling Stones were in attendance.
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The owner of the bar is nicknamed "Boy" and he is an extremely talented musician that is also very approachable and friendly. When he is not on stage he sits around the audience and has a chat with the attendees. By the end of the night it was standing-room-only so if you enjoy blues, or simply live music in general, this centrally-located establishment is well worth the difficulty you might face in actually finding it.
Soon you are going to know every hidey hole that is going. It takes time and you have done really well. I like blues music as well and it goes even better with a few drinks and some good mates.
I don't know about that. There are thousands of pubs / restaurants in this city. I think i could attend a different one every day and never get around to them all.
But, the real question here is would they be cool if I came in with a guitar doing some boner jams via cover songs from the band Anal Cunt? Because if not, I would have to drop my trousers down and lay some moist ass to face on the owners.
I think if you are crazy / nice enough they will let you play whatever. During a break there was a guy that went up with a cowboy hat that knew only 3 chords and played 3 Johnny Cash songs. The chords were not correct and he was clearly a bit "off" as far as his mental state is concerned but "Boy" humors him apparently, every week. He gets three songs. I don't know if Anal Cunt would be appreciated, but i suppose if you made the crowd feel bad for you, they would allow it. :P
Come on, you're telling me they wouldn't appreciate such hit songs like "Hitler was a sensitive man", "Quit doing heroin you pussy"and "I lit your baby on fire"?
i know i would.
I just realized how much exposure you've given Thailand as a potential tourist attraction...
Someone should really pay you for this...or at least give a big thank you
So you tell us it's a great place to have a nice time. If the owner is the one who appears in the last photo, the description you made of him matches that beautiful and sincere smile. I think he's a nice guy and charismatic. What all of us clients ask of public place owners. Continue to enjoy, friend @gooddream. A hug.
excellent brother had days without reading you this is what I call eating with culture ....
Wow, that is really awesome. I was going to say when you mentioned it was tucked away on the second floor and there was only a small sign that it was probably going to be a pretty awesome place. I've been to a couple of blues bars before and they are always a lot of fun. As you said, the type of music makes it easy to just jam and the atmosphere is always very relaxed.