boy band

last night as i entered my room at my guesthouse i was assaulted by loud, disorted voices speaking lao. i thought the nieghbour might have been blaring their TV. i walked the halls attempting to find said nieghbour, but it became apparent that the sounds originated across a small field where i saw some lights and a crowd. i returned to my room, but it was unavoidably intrusive.
so, if you can't beat them...

a stage was set up just off a main road, a few tables and chairs, and two large stacks of speakers. the lao, for some curious reason, feel the need to crank the volume on all remotely public sources of audio. every music store or television or sound system i have ever encountered, in restaurants and on the streets, has been obnoxiously loud. this was no exception. it was some kind of lottery fundraiser, i think. a bit like lotto 649. a young well dressed lao couple were on stage. they drew some numbers and screamed them into their microphones. the speakers crackled. i walked around with a frown and a growing headache, but i figured it was better to confront the beast head-on than battle it from a distance back in my room. i walked around. walked past some drunks, past a small, charming, and ramshakle fairground, past some food stalls selling green gelatinous squares of bean paste, and then returned to the main stage, where nobody seemed to mind the auditory assault.
and then the two said thank you, "kawp jai," and something including the number five, "haa," and then left the stage. the lights went out. tension filled the air. the crowd gathered closer to the stage. a few young girls screamed. then i saw the silhouettes of a few bodies on stage. and then, simultaneously the lights on stage came back on, a smoke machine bellowed a small cloud, and the beat of pop music came pumping out the speaker stands. a five member boy band began a choreographed dance number. they wore fancy and elaborately coiffed hair styles, and layers of black and white urban street clothes. they also sported head sets with small microphones, which they obseively fiddled with. they lip-synched through a half dozen songs and posed in grandly theatrical arrangements. they gestured out, over the heads of a hundred or so lao, and one confused but delighted westerner, to an imaginary stadium of screaming fans. it was a lao boy band, in all its mediocre glory. a smile erupted on my face. my disasterous night had been saved. i quickly grabbed my camera. i stayed through the whole set and then watched as the young lao crowded around the back for autographs.