SATURDAY 30 | Perched atop the wobbly stool in The Shark Cage, the rehearsal space at Sharky Bar on Street 130, is the two-tone-haired drummer with Cambodia’s ‘original’ all-Khmer rock band. Above the thunder, preternatural screams. Cartoon Emo, Cambodian alternative/heavy metal rockers, signed with Svang Dara Entertainment in 2010. Their debut album, Shadow, sold in the region of 1,000 copies. Music graduates from the Royal University of Fine Arts, this band of 20-somethings – Boy (vocals), Tom (lead guitar), Din (bass guitar), Dan (guitar), and La (drums) – cite Iowan heavy metal icons Slipknot, and Massachusetts-based metalcore group Killswitch Engage as among their influences. But they’re not altogether unaware of their English forefathers. Mention The Who, The Sex Pistols or The Rolling Stones and five heavily stylised heads – all crowned with spiky technicolour hair – nod in approval. Mention K-Pop and they explode in derisory snorts. And what of Cartoon Emo’s self-penned lyrics? “When we do something bad or wrong to our parents, like a shadow that follows us, we try to think about how bad the experience feels, so we try to do something good, to make a balance. We also sing about lovers, about women, about drugs, but everything is a lesson; education. We try to teach people to be good. Many people in Cambodia are gangsters, or playboys. You see how we are dressed: we may look like them, but we are not gangsters or playboys in our hearts.”
WHO: Cartoon Emo
WHAT: Cambodian alt-rock and heavy metal
WHERE: Sharky Bar, Street 130
WHEN: 9pm November 30
WHY: Thunder and preternatural screams, Khmer style