Category: Night & Day

SUNDAY 8 | Indochina’s longest-running rock monoliths Bum N Draze – the studded-leather-wearing, black-Cadillac-driving, fake-blood-spitting creators of unforgettably titled tracks such as Big Dick Dilemma – storm the stage at Sharky’s tonight to headline a fundraiser. It’s to help out the bar’s much-loved general manager of more than eight years, Ross Hounslow, who is returning to his homeland of Australia following a prolonged bout of illness. Joining Bum N Draze are Steve Murray, of Fast Cars fame, and newly formed Sonic Detergent, peddlers of classic rock.

WHO: Bum N’Draze, Steve Murray, and Sonic Detergent
WHAT: Fundraiser
WHERE: Sharky Bar, Street 130
WHEN: 8:30pm September 8
WHY: Support one of the local rock scene’s most loved faces

SATURDAY 7 | The thought of endorsing roots reggae groups founded by Frenchmen can trigger apprehension in reggae snobs, especially when such groups have never set foot on Jamaican soil. But what Vibratone lack in geographical legitimacy they more than make up for with enthusiasm, as evidenced by their recent performance at Doors’ Vibe Music Festival. Between them, Ben and Leonard (guitar), Julien (bass), Vibol (keys), Luis (drums) and Maia (vocals) boast an eclectic background, with musical roots from Brazil to France to the Philippines, yet their all-original reggae genuinely rocks. Keep your ears peeled for Dreams, of which Maia says: “Dreams talks about just that: dreams. The wants, needs and desires that we all have. When I wrote it, it began on a really materialistic note – be it money, a house, a car – then Julien and I spoke and I realised it needed more substance, so there is this transition between the first and second verses. It talks about being at peace with oneself and gaining happiness through fulfilment. We have another song called Who Are You Fooling? and it’s very political; it criticises the status quo and speaks about injustices.”

WHO: Vibratone
WHAT: All-original reggae
WHERE: Equinox, Street 278
WHEN: 9pm September 7
WHY: See ‘what’

SATURDAY 7 | In April 1988, at the English home she shared with her Tibetan scholar husband Michael Aris and two young sons, Aung San Suu Kyi received an unexpected phone call from her native Burma. Khin Kyi, her mother and a former ambassador to India and Nepal, was critically ill. By December 28, Khin Kyi was dead and a new military junta had seized power, slaughtering thousands of people in the process. Faced with the extraordinary choice of continuing as an Oxford housewife or sacrificing her personal life to serve her country, Suu Kyi had returned to Rangoon. There, amid unprecedented political upheaval, the daughter of independence hero General Aung San became the de facto figurehead for the pro-democracy movement. Her destiny to become a Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident was sealed. Twenty-three years later, on the eve of historic by elections, Marc Eberle – a German filmmaker based in Phnom Penh – secured unprecedented access to ‘The Lady’ as she took the dangerous step into everyday Burmese politics. The resulting documentary, Aung San Suu Kyi: The Choice, captures how Suu Kyi chose to remain imprisoned in her Rangoon home rather than rejoin her family in Oxford for fear of being banned from ever returning to Burma. And for the first time, in her own words, she offers a glimpse into the “personal regrets” she has had to endure as a result.

WHO: The face of Burmese democracy
WHAT: Aung San Suu Kyi: The Choice screening, presented by filmmaker Marc Eberle
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd
WHEN: 7pm September 7
WHY: “People ask me about what sacrifices I’ve made. I always answer: I’ve made no sacrifices, I’ve made choices.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

FRIDAY 6 | Relive the San Francisco renaissance and the birth of punk rock with RNA & Friends playing the best of flower power from the ’60s and ’70s, followed by Generation Y & Z noize from the ’80s and ’90s.

WHO: RNA & Friends
WHAT: Virgo Virgins’ Bash
WHERE: The Village, #1 Street 360
WHEN: 9pm September 6
WHY: Time travel STILL hasn’t been invented

FRIDAY 6 | In the shtetl (‘villages’ or ‘ghettoes’) of Eastern Europe, itinerant Jewish troubadours once roamed, expressing through klezmer music the full gamut of human emotions from joy to despair, from devotion to revolt, from meditation to drunkenness – all served up with a generous dose of Yiddish humour. Inspired by secular melodies, popular dances, and the wordless melodies used by orthodox Jews for approaching God in ecstatic communion, klezmer’s evolution was spurred by contact with Slavic, Greek, Ottoman, gypsy and, later, jazz musicians. Using typical scales, tempo and rhythm changes, slight dissonance and a touch of improvisation, today’s klezmorim include Sam Day, a young mandolin player from the US who, before returning home recently, was instrumental in founding the Klezbodians. The band includes members of Grass Snake Union and the Phnom Penh Hippie Orchestra, featuring Bun Hong on clarinet, Giacomo Butte on accordion, Jose Encinas on guitar and Ali Benderdouche on dumbek. When not peddling Yiddish tunes to Cambodian audiences, Sam is to be found recording with the US-based and magnificently named Shtetlblasters. “There’s something danceable about klezmer music,” he says. “There’s a very clear rhythm; it’s driving, propulsive music. And the scales used are sort of major and minor at the same time, so there’s something melancholy about it. It’s very vocal, too; the melodies are played on the clarinet or violin in ways that attempt to emulate the human voice, the sound of a cantor – in a synagogue, the person who’s singing the Jewish prayers…” [Erupts in song] And what can we expect of the Klezbodians? “Mostly fast-paced klezmer instrumental music – similar to gypsy music – along with some Yiddish vocal tunes. It will be feisty!”

WHO: Klezbodians
WHAT: Itinerant Jewish troubadours
WHERE: Slur Bar, Street 172
WHEN: 9:30pm July 6
WHY: “It will be feisty!” – Sam Day Harmet

FRIDAY 6 | Had he not succumbed to a lethal combination of alcoholism and prescription drugs at the age of 29, Hank Williams – also known as ‘the hillbilly Shakespeare’ – would have turned 90 this month. In homage to one of country music’s most enduring legends, Grass Snake Union’s Andre, Daniel Greg and Jose are teaming up with concrete cowboy Joe Wrigley as Holey Bucket Union to perform a catalogue of Williams’ classics. Sharing the stage is local chanteuse Mealea Lay, performing her first full set of Cambodian hits from the 1960s.

WHO: Holey Bucket Union & Mealea Lay
WHAT: Hank Williams tribute
WHERE: Le Jardin, #16 Street 360
WHEN: 6pm September 6
WHY: “Don’t take life too serious. You can’t get out alive, anyhow.” – Hank Williams

WEDNESDAY 4 At the end of the 1960s Sean Flynn, the swashbuckling son of movie icon Errol Flynn, abandoned a floundering movie career and headed to Southeast Asia with his camera to document the Vietnam and Cambodia conflicts. Like many others, he never made it home. Abducted by Khmer Rouge on the Vietnamese border along with fellow photographer Dana Stone, Flynn was murdered. With Flynn throughout his final months, although not at the time of the abduction, was Tim Page. A green war photographer from London, he became close to Flynn during his four years in Vietnam before a shrapnel hit to the head put Page out of the action. He returned to Southeast Asia in 1990 to search for the bodies of Flynn and Stone, and for the true story of how they died. Along the way he made a documentary, as any true journalist might. Danger On The Edge Of Town follows Page on his quest.

WHO: Sean Flynn in spirit, Tim Page in the director’s chair
WHAT: Danger On The Edge Of Town screening
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Boulevard
WHEN: 7pm September 4
WHY: We’re all just grooving off war, aren’t we, really? No? Oh, OK then. Me neither.

SATURDAY SUNDAY 31-1 | “Marriage is a wonderful institution,” once quipped Groucho Marx, “but who wants to live in an institution?” Who indeed? Some of you lot, as it turns out – and so the Sofitel is throwing open its doors to betrothed types for a Wedding Fair this weekend. Expect a haute couture wedding wear show by local designers along with jewellery; decosrations; videography and music.

WHO: The nuptially inclined
WHAT: Wedding Fair
WHERE: Grand Ballroom, Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, Sothearos Boulevard
WHEN: 9am-5pm August 31 & September 1
WHY: “Marriage is a wonderful institution…” – Groucho Marx

SATURDAY 31 | Chhan Dina and Warren Daly are daring to tread in some of history’s most well-heeled footsteps. The duo – one a classically trained Cambodian artist; the other a DJ from Ireland – are redefining for the 21st century the complex relationship between sound and vision. Dina and Daly merge electronic dance music with live instruments and artists and audience participation to create a multisensory experience – a trip without a trip. Led by Daly, who in 2000 co-founded online record label Invisible Agent, they’re building on the work of 1960s San Francisco arts collectives that used disco balls and light projections on smoke to produce trip-like sensations (The Brotherhood of Light, who toured with The Grateful Dead, were inspired by the Beat generation and Ken Kesey’s ‘expansion of consciousness’ Acid Tests). In Swagger, Daly fuses pop culture, high culture and low culture by hooking painters, musicians, graffiti artists, digital artists and DJs into one psychedelic show.

WHO: The sonically and visually open-minded
WHAT: Swagger
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd
WHEN: 10pm August 31
WHY: A trip without a trip

SATURDAY 31 | In Greek mythology it’s a serpent-like water beast; in Marvel Comics, a gang of terrorists. Fortunately for our purposes, Hydra is a Kuala Lumpur rock quintet that covers hits and ballads from the ’80s onwards.

WHO: Hydra
WHAT: Rock and ballad covers
WHERE: The Village, #1 Street 360
WHEN: 9pm August 31
WHY: They’re neither water beasts nor terrorists. Phew.