From Hell(hounds) to Prey Veng ... and back: 7-10 January

The Hellhounds are playing Thursday nights at Sharky's in January - guaranteeing an early start to the weekend for the next few weeks. With the added bonus that they have a full drum kit installed - this not only makes it less of a lugging activity for me to move in and move out, but gives me a little more colour to play with than the old snare-hihat combo.  The Mythical Dude had some jolly nice things to say about my added extras this week.  Microphones were the issue of the week, but with a little moving about we were able to cook along very nicely.  Aside: it seems Sharky's are getting serious about live music right now: Check out their plans for the rest of the month!

Friday night META House celebrated their third birthday with a packed out rooftop party featuring one of the more exotic line-ups that the Cambodian Space Project has been able to come up with so far.  Featuring the debut of The Lovely Irene on left-handed guitar, Gildas McSwashbuckle on right-handed guitar, Eric on effortlessly tasteful percussion, plus the lilting strains of Khmer clarinet player Bun Hong (along with regulars Space Commander Bong J, Aussie Ken, monkosmonaut Ratha and the ever-charming Srey Thy) (oh, and self)  we entertained long past our allotted timeslot ... particularly with the extremely special appearance of Charlie Wat Phnom on tight-as-a-gecko's-clacker drums.  Asia Life Guide has put up some great pics from the night.

And so the next morning, The Cambodian Space Project set off for our next venture, a mission to Srey Thy's village in Prey Veng to play a concert in a rice field - with the assistance of an $80 collection from the META House audience, we purchased, delivered and handed over a brand new generator for the village.  In the last of the afternoon light we played for half an hour to a large but mostly bemused crowd; the feedback was that we weren't loud enough, so when we went back on to play in the dark, lit by a single fluourescent tube that was largely covered in mosquitos, we cranked it up and attempted to get the sound louder than the nearby wedding.  I think we managed it .... then it was back to the house for acoustic guitars and djembes until late, stretching from Ros Sereysothea to Neil Young to something in Khmer that was awfully similar to She'll be coming 'round the mountain to Del Shannon to Tom Waits ... a lot of old fashioned hooting and hollering and some pretty sore fingers.  I hope to add some photos in the coming days.

Like this one: