The best things to do in Bangkok this weekend (January 1-4)

Start the year at a gentler pace, preferably with a long table, good light and a second helping. VIVIN on Sukhumvit 22 is marking the moment with a two-day festive brunch inside its teakwood house, the kind of place that makes you forget your phone exists. The menu leans comforting without being sleepy: roasted suckling pig from tribal black pig, a souffle omelette that barely survives the walk from kitchen to plate and duck confit parmentier built for lingering afternoons. Cold cuts and Thai cheeses share space with truffle-laced wheels, pate en croute and bowls of pasta that feel indulgent in the right way. A glass of GranMonte sparkling wine arrives early, salads follow later and conversation tends to stretch. Everything is rooted in VIVIN’s local, artisanal approach, though nothing about it feels worthy or forced. Just unhurried eating, done properly.

January 1. Free. Reserve via 080-463-5747. VIVIN Suk 22, 1pm-6pm

Thursday nights are getting a little sharper at All Time High. Leaf, Laugh, Love Comedy is rolling out a weekly show that trusts its audience to keep up. Advanced Open Mic Thursdays hands the stage to Bangkok’s seasoned comics, the ones who have already done the rooms and are now trying to break their own habits. This is where new jokes wobble, ideas get reworked mid-sentence and punchlines arrive half a beat later than planned. Watching it happen feels oddly intimate, like being let into a notebook you were never meant to see. Each week brings a rotating line-up, different rhythms and the occasional glorious misfire. The reward is honesty rather than polish. If you like comedy as a craft rather than background noise, this is the night that makes sense of why people still bother doing it live.

January 1. Free. All Time High, 8pm-11pm

You know the lyric where a West Coast rapper namechecks cities like postcards. LA, Miami, New York, Chicago, Houston, Portland. The chant keeps travelling and now it lands in Bangkok for a night that starts polished and ends less so. SALONE DI VITA has the doors, Hennessy the backing, and it’s all tied to the debut of X.O La Carafe, though nobody pretends the glassware is the headline. The real plot is the familiar slide from composed small talk to sweaty abandon once ‘Rack City’ drops. Expect heels kicked aside, phones raised, dignity quietly checked at the door. It’s the sort of evening that begins with people saying they’ll take it easy and finishes with taxis arguing back. Another tick on the global list, stamped with Bangkok humour.

January 2. Entry is table reservations only. No tickets sold. Reserve via LINE @salonedivita or call/WhatsApp +6683-982-6262 SALONE DI VITA, 9pm

Melvo Baptiste is heading for the penthouse at APT 101 and it is a quiet flex. Raised on soul records rather than algorithms, his taste was shaped early and sharpened later across dancefloors that reward patience. Known as the voice of Glitterbox and a trusted presence at Defected, he brings the sort of credibility that does not need explaining. He has shared conversations, decks and long nights with Jocelyn Brown, Jazzy Jeff and David Morales, though the real draw is how he stitches a room together. Expect soul, rare groove, funk and disco handled with care rather than theatrics. Nothing rushed, nothing forced. Just music that knows when to hold back and when to let go, best enjoyed high above the city with a drink sweating gently in your hand.

January 2. B500 via here. APT 101, 6pm onwards

In 2026, Till Lindemann arrives with his Meine Welt Tour, dragging the Big Mango onto a route usually reserved for Europe’s heavier moods. Known to most as Rammstein’s immovable frontman, Lindemann has spent three decades turning volume and theatre into a single language. This solo chapter feels looser, stranger and far more personal. Meine Welt travels through 17 countries before reaching Thailand, carrying an arena show stripped back to its darker instincts. Think steel, sweat and ideas better left unsupervised. If Rammstein resembles a fortified monument, this project feels closer to a confession booth with the door kicked off. Bangkok now sits on that map, bracing for an evening that behaves less like a concert and more like a vivid hallucination you’ll struggle to explain the next day.

January 3. B3,500-10,000 via here. UOB Live, 8pm onwards

Yasmin Regisford lands at HORN with the confidence that feels earned. A recent arrival on Paris’s electronic circuit, she stepped away from fashion in 2023 and found a sound that moves with purpose. Her sets favour driving techno softened by flashes of trance, emotional without tipping into sentimentality. What makes her interesting is control. Tracks are chosen with intention, transitions are tight and the energy builds without ever feeling frantic. You can hear someone still shaping their voice but doing it in public, night after night. With new releases lined up, this appearance feels like catching a DJ mid-sentence, before the story hardens into myth. Expect precision, groove and a sense of forward motion that carries the room along, best experienced close to the speakers where subtle shifts actually matter.

January 3. B500 via here. HORN, 10pm onwards

Saturday mornings with Stuart and Kam offer a bracing alternative to lie-ins. From 9am-midday, their Wim Hof Method community session gathers people who already know the drill and are keen to keep going. Think guided breathwork that sharpens focus, followed by the shock of ice baths that never quite get easier, then the slow reward of sauna heat and time in the hot tub. It is less about proving anything and more about showing up, week after week, alongside others who understand why you would choose cold over comfort. Conversation comes easily after shared discomfort and the mood stays grounded rather than evangelical. You leave steadier, clearer and slightly smug, in the best possible way. A solid way to reset before the weekend disappears under errands and unanswered messages.

January 3. B1,650 via here. Breath Inspired, 9am-midday

Sunday nights take a different shape when a dance floor fills with 140 to 180 bodies moving for the same reason. It starts earlier with free workshops split between beginners and open level, easing everyone onto the same rhythm before the lights drop. By the time special guests step up, the room feels loose, confident and ready to keep going. Not everyone needs to dance all evening. A free chill area sits nearby for friends, spectators and anyone catching their breath. Professional cameras quietly document the night without getting in the way, while generous fans keep things bearable when the floor heats up. Complimentary parking at the Sheraton helps too. It feels organised without being stiff, sociable without trying too hard. A weekly ritual that knows how to balance movement, rest and the pleasure of staying out later than planned.

Every Sunday. B300-400 at the door. amBar Bangkok, 8pm onwards

Czech contemporary art gets a brief, welcome stretch in Bangkok with the return of Jan Bican. Known for treating streets, bodies and public space as his canvas, he brings new works that feel quietly confrontational without raising their voice. Light plays a central role, cutting through shadows and reflections, asking you to slow down and actually look. Bican’s pieces often sit between opposing ideas: exposure and privacy, intimacy and distance, softness and control. That tension gives the work its emotional charge. Seen far from its European context, the effect sharpens rather than softens. You notice how easily the themes travel, how little translation they need. It invites wandering, second glances and the occasional pause mid-step, which might be the point.

January 3-28. Free. Vanich House Bangkok, 10.30am-6pm

An evening of spoken word and live sound takes shape as a shared experiment rather than a polished recital. Some of Bangkok’s sharpest poets step forward to tell their stories, personal, political, quietly devastating. As each voice settles, the Kinetic Poetic Kollective Band responds in real time, building an unrehearsed soundtrack that follows every turn of phrase. The music shifts freely from cinematic swells to hip hop, funk, jazz and moments that feel almost ambient, guided entirely by instinct. Nothing is planned, nothing repeated. Each collaboration exists for one night only, then disappears. That unpredictability is the point. You listen closer, breathe slower and feel the room lean in together. It leaves you thoughtful rather than dazzled, moved without being told how to feel. An experience that rewards attention and lingers well after the final word fades.

January 4. Free. Smalls, 9pm onwards