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

Greetings:

Siem Reap’s Rod Tolentino is conducting a mini-tour in Phnom Penh this weekend, with a solo show at The Tin Hat on Friday, fronting the trio Puso at Oscar’s on the Corner on Saturday, and appearing with Brooke Palmer and Penh Pals at Back Street Bar on Sunday for the Originals Acoustic Showcase.

Also on tour are Filipino hardcore act N4S, who will play on Sunday at Atlantis in Siem Reap and then on Tuesday in Phnom Penh at Oscar’s on the Corner, an early show with Nightmare AD and Reign in Slumber.

In Phnom Penh on Friday find Aymen, Danny & George at Craft, Penh Pals at Tacos Kokopelli, Ice at Botanico, and the experimental sounds of Elec’Tro by Kongchak Studio at Institut francais du Cambodge .  Going late, Khmer grunge band Road Crew are followed by Montra at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Siem Reap, find the open mic at The Welsh Consulate and Salazar Quartet at Endora.

On Saturday in Phnom Penh, Cardboard Lo-Fi are at Maximus Italian Kitchen, PRERNA are at Craft, Samphors & Bunly at The Velvet Room and Gareth Bawden at Botanico. Elsewhere, Joe Wrigley & the Meas Superstars are at The Deck, Sinville Roadshow are at Little Susie and Joshua & Denver are at Cloud.  Puso featuring Jed, Gaby and Rod are followed by Montra at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Siem Reap PMAC is at Old Market Lane.

Looking forward to Monday, Tiki Garden is hosting a fundraising concert for Sylvain with a long list of Kampot players.  Get amongst it and give generously – a similar Phnom Penh event at Au Marche last week raised over $1,800.

Department of What Next?

As you will see from the Coming Soon section at the end of the gig guide, Halloween gigs over next weekend are as popular as ever this year, and Phnom Penh also welcomes Angkor Classique of Siem Reap for a series of contrasting gigs.  Cambodia will also shortly welcome back Geography of the Moon after their tour of Japan and Thailand; they have a slew of gigs coming up, including headlining the Bom On Touk Music Festival at 60 Road Studios in Siem Reap on Saturday 25 November.  Also appearing in that one extravagant evening of music will be Jam Cha!, Japan Guitar Shop, Joe & the Jumping Jacks, Kampot Playboys, Sam Rocker and Scapegoat Candy.  Doors open at 5, music at 6, and a curfew of 11 pm.  Also pleasing to note is a scattering of new venues in Phnom Penh hosting music, a resurgence of gig activity in Kampot, and behind-the-scenes mutterings about more touring acts over the next few months.  Bring on high season!

Passing Chords – a few things you may not know about …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brooke Palmer – a soulful, joyful, and, at times, silly singer, songwriter, musical improv artist, looper, and funk ukuleleist originally from North Carolina.  She teaches ukulele on her Youtube channel, The Uke Revolution.  Brooke will be playing acoustic originals and somewhat-improvised loops at Back Street Bar this Sunday night as part of the Originals Showcase.

Do you have a pet musical hate?
Ok here we go, coming in hot: I cannot stand it when people get up to perform and they start off by apologizing before they even play anything, or apologize afterwards.  Stop apologizing and just play!  Why are you drawing everyone’s attention to some tiny mistake?  It’s so boring.  It’s way less boring when somebody plays something and makes mistakes or sounds mediocre, but does it with immense joy, confidence, and/or conviction.  Just say “thank you for listening” instead of “I’m sorry because bla bla bla”.  When you say ‘thank you’, it feels nice for everybody.  When you apologize, it casts a shadow over your performance, it’s lame, it’s a bummer, it diminishes your power.  If you feel the need to explain yourself, then say you’re nervous or doing something new or whatever, but don’t apologize for it.  You’re not hurting anyone’s feelings.  Everyone in general should just stop apologizing right and left for simply being human.  *steps off soapbox*  Aside from that, I hate when people underestimate me because I play ukulele, or tell me that I should play guitar.  What, like it’s a brand-new interesting idea nobody ever thought of?  Anyway, it’s just rude.  This little instrument changed my life.

A private musical indulgence:
Pop stars!  I love learning pop music dance choreography from youtube videos.  I’m a big fan of all the Mickey Mouse club pop stars – Britney, Justin, Christina.  Bring on the cheesy pop!

The year you first came to Cambodia:
I first came in 2013 for a month as a tourist.  In 2014, I came back, and lived in Sihanoukville for 2 years, when it was still in its “unhinged hot mess but fun” era.  I played music, solo and with a band, six or seven times a week, and lived the beach party life.  I returned to Cambodia last August, to Kampot, and just moved to Phnom Penh about two months ago.

An early music memory:
My parents have an excellent collection of 45s and 12″ vinyl from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.  I used to make up little song and dance shows in the living room to songs like 60 Minute Man by Billy Ward and His Dominoes and Poison Ivy by The Coasters.  I remember hearing Why Don’t We Do It In The Road? and thinking “Do what?”  When I was a teenager, I saw Prince perform Pussy Control on TV at the VH1 Fashion Awards in 1995.  A man performing a feminist song in such a funky and sexy way?  I didn’t even know anyone could do that – this was so appealing to me at the time.  I was mesmerized by how confidently he did everything and how he was always 110% unapologetically himself.  I’ve been a die-hard Prince fan ever since.

The last thing you had to eat:
Lunch.

A country you want to visit:
Does Paisley Park count?

A book or movie you keep going back to:
Can I say TV shows? Tales From The Tour Bus, a part-animated series by Mike Judge about the history of old country and of funk music, with stories told by the people who lived them.  It’s so entertaining and interesting.  And Queen’s Gambit.  I’ve watched them both countless times.

What languages do you have?
English, The Funk, music theory, and a smattering of German, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Thai, and Korean.  Khmer is a work in progress!

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
Voice, from the get-go I suppose!  My parents put me in the Orff program, an early childhood music education program, at the local college when I was 4.  I sang with any and all choirs and musical theater groups that would have me throughout my whole childhood.  Then I majored in classical vocal performance at university.  I didn’t start playing ukulele until I was 30.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
I don’t play Somewhere Over The Rainbow.  Never learned it, don’t play it.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past. What do you choose?
This is hard….either the 1980 Rick James tour on which Prince was the opening act, or the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969.

A question from the last participant – Silver or Taylor?
I asked the online Magic 8 Ball and it said “Don’t count on it.”

Department of Mutual Support:  Friends of LengPleng

Being a Friend of LengPleng gets your logo into the weekly email and onto the weekly wrap page and an automatically click through to a page on our website for further information, photos, videos and so on.

We also pay special attention when you have a good story for us – an upcoming event or an artist you wish to highlight.

Email gigs@lengpleng.com for further details or bail up Scoddy wherever you see him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Porte Photo of the Week

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See ya later, champ – Big D Walker at his farewell show at Oscar’s on the Corner, 13 October 2023

If you wish to receive LengPleng in your inbox every Thursday please send a subscribe email to gigs@lengpleng.com.

Musicians, venues, punters:  if there are things 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 19 October 2023

** 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*

Coming soon:

  • Angkor Classique, 6.30 pm, 26 October, Craft
  • Geography of the Moon, 6.30 pm, 27 October, Craft
  • Angkor Classique, 6.30 pm, 27 October, Green Pepper
  • DORE, 7 pm, 27 October, Botanico
  • The Broken Cymbal, 7 pm, 28 October, Botanico
  • Geography of the Moon, 8 pm, Sundance
  • The Grave Rave with Nightmare AD, Winsum Losesum and After God, 8 pm, Cloud
  • Greg Beshers for Beer Fest, 4 pm, 28 October, Noisy Chili
  • Alli G & Friends, 6.30 pm, 28 October, Lantern
  • Maozi, 8 pm, The Tin Hat
  • Alli G & TheQuilas, 10 pm, 28 October, Oscar’s on the Corner
  • Rod & Gerard, 7 pm, 28 October, Harry’s & The Welsh Consulate (Siem Reap)
  • Musica Felica choir charity concert, 4.30 pm, 29 October, Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra – note ticketed event
  • Andrea Amorre & Sinville Roadshow, 5 pm, 29 October, The Vine
  • Marianna, 6.30 pm, 31 October, Craft
  • Miss Sarawan, 6.30 pm, 3 November, Lantern
  • Arome Khmer, 6.30 pm, 3 November, Craft
  • Scott Bywater, 7 pm, 3 November, Botanico
  • Greg Beshers, 8 pm, 3 November, Voodoo Boulevard
  • Cardboard Lo-Fi, 7.30 pm, 4 November, The Velvet Room
  • Geography of the Moon, 9 pm, 4 November, Back Street Bar
  • Japan Guitar Shop, 4 November, Monkey Republic (Kampot)
  • Geography of the Moon, 5 pm, 5 November, The Vine
  • Bald Gringos, 7.30 pm, 7 November, Karma Traders (Kampot)
  • Japan Guitar Shop plus Alli G & Pervez, 5 pm, 11 November, Craft
  • Graham Cain, 5 pm, 12 November, The Vine
  • Cove Aaronoff & Frank Scarfone, 5 pm, 19 November, The Vine
  • Bon Om Touk Festival featuring Sam Rocker, Scapegoat Candy, Kampot Playboys, Jam Cha!, Joe & the Jumping Jacks, Japan Guitar Shop, Geography of the Moon, 25 November, 60 Road Studios (Siem Reap)
By Weekly Wrap