With the hypnotically sultry Chhom Nimol on stage, singing in Khmer to music from an eclectic Californian quintet, Dengue Fever is no typical cover band.
At Maxine’s bar in Phnom Penh Thursday, the floor undulated as a packed house bounced to the beat of 1960s Cambodian rock and roll classics, as well as original tunes that touched on that aesthetic but took on a flavor of their own.
Dengue Fever flawlessly recreated the lilting whine, wailing saxophone and haunting, wandering melodies of Cambodia’s tragically short rock and roll period.
While three of the band’s American musicians are in Cambodia for the first time, Chhom Nimol is returning home for the first time since she moved to the US state of California five years ago.
She left a life of full-time singing in Cambodia and adoring fans for English classes in the US, a weekend gig singing in a Long Beach Cambodian restaurant and relative anonymity.
She said America still feels only 60 percent like home to her, and mused on the possibility of returning to Cambodia for longer than her current visit.
“In Cambodia it’s more fun,” she said. “Americans have a lot of money, but they pay a lot of money too.”
Dengue Fever is moving forward musically and Chhom Nimol said she is gradually adding English-language songs to her repertoire, though guitarist Zac Holtzman is still trying to perfect a few songs he has been learning phonetically in Khmer.
Chhom Nimol often sings the classic “Anupheap Ney Pokmoat,” meaning “Power of the Beard,” to Holtzman, whose chest-length beard has proved—along with bassist Senon Williams’ towering stature—a marvel to locals.
The band also incorporates influences of psychedelic rock into their own songs, and during their current visit members are recording with Cambodian musicians on traditional instruments.
“At first we didn’t know each other or understand each other, but after a while it got good,” said 73-year-old Cambodian traditional xylophone master Tep Marie at the end of a Sunday afternoon recording session with Dengue Fever.
“The master musicians, they’re so good, but I don’t think they’re used to improvising,” said band organist Ethan Holtzman, a brother of Zac Holtzman.
Blind chapai master Kong Nay adopted a blues-like sound to negotiate a middle ground with the band, he added.
Though the band has been well received, the visit to Cambodia has not been entirely smooth sailing.
One scheduled show for a mostly foreign audience was canceled at the last minute after approximately 100 people had already paid $5 at the door Sunday night at the Peace Pub in Phnom Penh.
The pub’s owner, David Finch, said Monday that he believed the band had simply walked out because Chhom Nimol’s voice was strained and the band didn’t want to play.
Zac Holtzman, however, said the band showed up in good faith.
“A week ago I told [the bar’s management] about the equipment we needed…. All there was was half-a-drum set and this tall stage that was all rickety” when the band arrived, he said.
And though the show was supposed to be free, the bar charged a cover at the door, he said, adding that the band is working on a possible Friday show at an undetermined venue to make up for the cancellation.
(Additional reporting by Kim Chan)
