***for full gig listings jump to the bottom***

Greetings,

Those who want to get an early start to the weekend will not be disappointed with Thursday’s line up.  From the Busking Kings at Ponytails to Alli G at Botanico, to Frank Scarfone and Colin Grafton joining Phil Javelle at Elephant Bar, to The Extraordinary Chambers rocking out at Oscar’s on the Corner, there’s something for everyone.

The weekend offers a similar smorgasbord.  In Phnom Penh on Friday night you may sample from a Japanese bossa nova special with Mari & Takeshi, Hiraiwa, Colin and Keiko at Veg Life restaurant, Two Country Drunks at Odom Garden, Pristine, Gerard & Phil at Green Pepper, singer-songwriter Charlie Ward at Sunset Boulevard, a U2 tribute by Joshua Chiang at Central Café, Geography of the Moon at Bosporus, and Blender at Oscar’s on the Corner (see this week’s feature article).

In Siem Reap on Friday Alpaca Lips are at The Harbour and Jam-Cha are at AMBAR.  At Kep Natural on Friday and Saturday this week is Pete Foerster.

There are two farewell performances this Saturday.  After their appearance at the Kampot Craft Beer Festival at Monkey Republic, the Uncomfortably White Brothers will be hanging up their dancing shoes and other sundry items, and at Sam’s in Tuol Tom Pong Little Thieves go out with a bang with The Last Heist Festival featuring special guests Faceslap, Spiked Gravy, and a mystery band.  LengPleng has dug into the archives to present the original interviews with both bands back in their early days – read all about Little Thieves here and the Uncomfortably White Brothers here.

Another new and/or morphed band appearing on Saturday in Phnom Penh is a soul/funk line up of Intan & Friends at Central Café, a tango night with Falafel Con Mate at Duplex, and who knows what to expect from Alli G & the Foxes at Oscar’s on the Corner.

Our revived sister publication, kumnooh.com, aims to provide a lengpleng.com service for the wider arts – painting, sculpture, literature, dance, architecture and classical music – across Cambodia.  Check it out every Tuesday – to subscribe send a subscribe email to fabianhipp@kumnooh.com.

 

**For the rest of the gigs check out the listings at the bottom of the page**

Note:  LengPleng.com has returned to its weekly email service.   If you wish to receive LengPleng in your inbox every Thursday please send an email saying Subscribe to gigs@lengpleng.com.   And tell your friends.

The Leng Pleng Weekly Feature

New licks: the arrival of Blender

On a big weekend for farewells, with the final performances of Little Thieves and the Uncomfortably White Brothers, it can be seen from a brief glimpse at the gig guide there are new or morphing bands rising up to fill the gap.  One such is the new outfit Blender, and LengPleng sat down with bandleader Will Canuck to discuss his new venture.

“Blender is a new band, built on the foundation of the rhythm section of First World Problems, Ricky and myself, and the original songs and covers that we had integrated into FWP during our Wednesday residency,” says Will.  “To some degree, Blender is where FWP was meant to be going.”

Read the whole article here.

Passing Chords:  a few things you might not know about…

Lewis McTie.  Little Thief (for just a little while longer), now member of Japan Guitar Shop and increasingly appearing as a solo singer/songwriter.  Little Thieves play their last gig this Saturday night, going out with a blast with The Last Heist Festival (with special guests) at Sam’s in Tuol Tom Pong.

Do you have a pet musical hate?
Yes. Rather not say to avoid upsetting anyone. Hmmm, actually; insincere performances and out of tune guitars!

A private musical indulgence:
It’s meant to be private, right? (writing sad songs).

The year you first came to: Cambodia?
2019.

An early music memory:
Singing in front of the primary teacher as a duet with another student and accidentally harmonising. The teacher freaked-out in an overly positive way, and I had no idea why.

The last thing you had to eat:
Oh no.  Gross.  I just finished rehearsal… the second last rehearsal ever for Little Thieves.  We had a late one, to savour these times, and ordered three average-at-best pizzas from…. (guess).

A country you want to visit:
Mexico

A book or movie you keep going back to:
Anything by Georgios “Yorgos” Lanthimos: Dog tooth / Lobster / Killing of a Sacred Deer.   Lobster, if I had to choose one. Super cerebral stuff.

What languages can you speak?
English.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
It was voice, from a very young age. But it’s now guitar, which I started slowly teaching myself at around 15 years old.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
I was a sponsored snowboarder at the age of 15. I had a bad injury, then got heavy into music. It all checks out!

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past. What do you choose?
John Mayer, Live in Los Angeles A.K.A. Where the Light is – first thing that came to mind.  Or i could travel FORWARD in time and enjoy the Last Heist Festival, right now! Can’t wait to be there to enjoy that killer line up.

A question from the last participant, Michelle Bowen: Where’s your favorite place/venue to perform in Cambodia?
So, we just counted it up – how many gigs we have played in total… I think we got up to 17, with our 18th coming soon at our final show ever, coming up this Saturday at Sam’s Bar. It’s the Little Thieves : Last Heist Festival that we are organising ourselves. We have the pleasure of sharing the stage with a very secret spooky band, Spiked Gravy and Faceslap. Sam’s is cool – exactly what you want for grimy live music venue/dive bar.  Sunset Boulevard is f$%^# great for classier Hollywood vibes. Both Alchemy and Bassac Lane had very profesh sound and monitoring, but we payed those two acoustically/unplugged and it was little weird, even for Little Thieves. Monkey Republic in Kampot was lovely too.  But goddamn, how can you argue, how can you deny the pull, how can we not mention, the bar on the corner… Oscar’s! It is a special place… I’ll say no more.

Steve Porte Photo of the Week

Master Kong Nay, with Fluf founders Aymen Ghali and Alex Dance at The Secret Garden concert at Sofitel Phokeethra Hotel on Saturday 19 February, 2022.

Musicians, venues, punters:  if there are things that you know that LengPleng should know, please tell us and we’ll do our best to tell the world.

See you around the traps.

your correspondent,

Guillermo Wheremount

LengPleng.com
gigs@lengpleng.com (mailto:gigs@lengpleng.com)

Weekly Gig Guide – week commencing Thursday 24 February 2022

** residency/weekly

For DJs and clubs, we recommend Phnom Penh Underground

Thursday


Friday

 

Saturday


Sunday


Monday

 

Tuesday

 

Wednesday

Coming soon:

 

Coming later:

 

By Weekly Wrap