Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
There is a predictably 60s theme to much of Ray Davies's Meltdown, so it is appropriate that the festival's main world-music offering should come from a band who are influenced by the psychedelic and surf-rock music scene that flourished briefly in Cambodia in the late 60s and early 70s, before being brutally stamped out by the Khmer Rouge. Dengue Fever are a six-piece band from Los Angeles, fronted by Cambodian singer Chhom Nimol, who set out to revive songs from that remarkable era, and write new English-language material in the same style. They have been following the same musical formula for 10 years, and in the process have become an impressive live band; tonight's audience were all standing and dancing by the end of the set.
Nimol dominated from the start, a charmingly feisty figure with long black hair, a sleeveless dress partly constructed from pink and blue ribbons, and a powerful voice that was never swamped by the consistently full-tilt band. Many of her songs were in Khmer, with jaunty Asian pop melodies blended with western rock and R&B, and driven on guitar, keyboards, saxophone and the impressive bass work of the hyperactive Senon Williams. The English-language songs were mostly duets between Nimol and bearded guitarist Zac Holtzman, and mostly concerned with doomed relationships; they included the new Cement Slippers and Tiger Phone Card, a witty study of a long-distance telephone romance between New York and Phnom Penh.
It was an entertaining set, but would have been helped by an occasional explanation of the songs, and reminders of the lighter touch they showed in their Sleepwalking Through the Mekong album. Here, it sounded as if they were preparing for Glastonbury.
At Glastonbury festival on 24 June.
sandra bullock and jesse james melissa etheridge and tammy lynn michaels chelsea handler and ted harbert halle berry and gabriel aubry charlize theron and stuart townsend
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