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

Greetings:

Tonight, Thursday, in Phnom Penh you can find Gerard & Gaby at Botanico, while Alli G is at Can Can, and The Extraordinary Chambers go late at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Kampot, Graham Cain plays Golden Time , and in Siem Reap Andy Luna is at Pasta La Vista and Rod Tolentino is at Villa D.

Friday night opens with Ariane Parkes playing her first gig under her own namem, with an opening set from Scott Bywater at Botanico@Odom Garden. Gareth Bawden is at The Box Office, Major/Minor add Big D Walker to their combo at Craft and Intan Andriana & Gaby Courroux jazz it up at Le Vin.  Further afield, Alli G & Chema are at Bosporus and Bert & Dhel are at La Petanque, and then later and louder Kampot Playboys return to Oscar’s on the Corner.

In Siem Reap, Sokunthea does the acoustic Friday at AMBAR and in Kampot the open mic at Karma Traders is hosted by Roberto Salgado.

On Saturday afternoon The Busking Kings are at Villa Grange, while at Treellion Park on Koh Pich the Breathe Festival features dance and music from the artists of KlapYaHandz – see below.   Into the evening Central Café celebrate their first anniversary with Unity and Alli G.   Elsewhere Gareth Bawden is at Pacific Pasta, Arome Khmer play The Box Office, and Cecile Dahome & Phil Javelle at Bouchon Wine Bar. Cheska Villazor is at Beer O’Clock and Austin Rizer is at Cloud, and going late at Oscar’s on the Corner are Alli G & The Quilas.   In Siem Reap Kampot Playboys are at Arin’s and in the south Ant Colloff is at Kep Natural.

Come Sunday, Alli G & Chema are at The Vine, and there’s the Sunday Sundowners open mic as usual at Tacos Kokopelli.  Later, Mayazon Lounge presents Chor Yee, Austin Rizer & Phil Javelle and Joe & the Jumping Jacks are at Oscar’s on the Corner.

This Weekend’s Big Event

         SIN Setsochhata                         Vuthea                                           Seyma THORN

Photos: supplied

This Saturday Treellion Park on Koh Pich presents the Breathe Festival, an outdoor family-friendly (face painting!) event tracing the evolution of Cambodian music and dance from the traditional to the latest beats, featuring singers and DJs from the KlapYaHandz stable, Princess Buppha Devi’s Apsara dance school, and contemporary dance company New Cambodian Artists.

The event will commence with dance performances, moving through singers and ending with DJs, on three different stages.  “We call it Breathe because Treellion Park is the biggest green park in Phnom Penh,” says Karl Diederich, general manager of Aquation, the company that manages the venue.  “It will be one of the only occasions that you can see all the KlapYaHandz artists performing at the same time.”  Other activities will include live painting and face painting.

Breathe follows other successful events at the park, including a concert for International Jazz Day and the Treellion Talent Club.  Early bird tickets are $3 and come with a free drink.  Gates open at 4 pm.   

Department of Something New

The nothing-if-not-persistent Stiff Little Punks have been conducting video experiments of late.  Among the NSFW delights are Get A Grip and Something Better.  At your own risk.

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

Photo: Alecia Janeiro

Mäkss.  Currently the drummer for Kampot Playboys and 4Riel.  He got his Cambodian start when living in Sihanoukville, coming out of jams in Otres Market.  “I played with Woody Dares a lot, with Graham Cain in the GC Riders, also Barangutans, Wildflowers, and Rage Jam.”  You can catch him behind the kit with Kampot Playboys at Oscar’s on the Corner this Friday and Arin’s in Siem Reap on Saturday.

Do you have a pet musical hate?
If I go to an open mic and it’s unorganised – endless blues jams and guitar solos with nobody in control.

A private musical indulgence:
Sometimes I like to listen to old style country, like David Allan Coe, New Riders on the Purple Sage.  Or the music I used to listen to when I was young, 80s heavy metal.

The year you first came to Cambodia:
2012.  Two weeks in Cambodia, one week in Vietnam. I was blown away.  I was on my way to Australia – some musician friends had organised some gigs and I was thinking about moving there – and a friend of mine had lived Sihanoukville before and wanted to visit, so we travelled together.  Cambodia was going to be a stopover, but it turned out to be the opposite – I went and spent three months in Australia, but it was too much like Europe.  A year later I came back to South East Asia for seven and a half months of backpacking.  In 2014 I came and stayed.

An early music memory:
Listening to my father’s Estonian folk and rock’n’roll records.  I listened very close to the speakers to hear every nuance.

The last thing you had to eat:
Burrito bowl at Karma Traders.

A country you want to visit:
Madagascar.  Years ago Bob Passion organised a visit to Cambodia by a Madagascan drum troupe – it inspired me to want to go there.

A book or movie you keep going back to:
A lot of things changed when I moved to Asia – I don’t watch too many movies anymore.  For a book, Eckhardt Tolle’s The Power of Now.

What languages do you have?
Estonian is my mother tongue, and English.  In Khmer I’m doing pretty good.  When I lived in Vietnam I did pretty good at Vietnamese, and in Philippines I learned Tagalog.  I also studied Spanish years ago.  But when you don’t use it you forget it.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
Drums.  I started quite late, I was in high school already.  I grew up in the countryside and I didn’t have access to much.  My father wasn’t very supportive, I remember.  I desperately wanted to play but there wasn’t a place with a drumkit.  But I made it.  I did a couple of years of music school but I didn’t graduate – most of us didn’t attend the compulsory classical music classes, we sat in the bar with other musicians who came in to drink and chat.  So I got to know the right people, and started earning money.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
People are often surprised that I’m 47 years old.  And also I stopped drinking alcohol.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past.  What do you choose?
I’d like to see some of my favourite bands at their peak, like Soundgarden in 92, 93, 94, Suicidal Tendencies in 94, 95, Smashing Pumpkins in 93, 94.   I love 90s music.

A question from the last participant: if you had to choose between weed and beer for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
As I don’t drink now the choice is easy.

Steve Porte Photo of the Week

 The name, the man, the legend – Oscar playing with Cambodia Country Band at Oscar’s on the Corner, Monday, 5 September, 2022

Our 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.  Every Tuesday – to subscribe send a subscribe email to fabianhipp@kumnooh.com.

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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 8 September 2022

** residency/weekly

For DJs and clubs, we recommend Phnom Penh Underground

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

*Note that Wednesday events are often not announced until early in the week – check back here for updates*

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By Weekly Wrap