Concert Reviews

The Los Angeles based band Dengue Fever played to a packed house near downtown San Diego, on a beautiful night in late January. For those not familiar with this unique outfit, they are comprised of a group of American musicians with xenophile and psychedelic tendencies fronted by Chhom Nimol, an exotic female vocalist from Cambodia. Michael Fremer reviewed their latest CD, Cannibal Courtship, here http://musicangle.com/album.php?id=1015. Sound funky? It is, in the most delicious way. 

The Los Angeles based band Dengue Fever played to a packed house near downtown San Diego, on a beautiful night in late January. For those not familiar with this unique outfit, they are comprised of a group of American musicians with xenophile and psychedelic tendencies fronted by Chhom Nimol, an exotic female vocalist from Cambodia. Michael Fremer reviewed their latest CD, Cannibal Courtship, here http://musicangle.com/album.php?id=1015. Sound funky? It is, in the most delicious way. 

The band’s use of 60’s fuzz toned, reverbed guitar, garage rock organ, horns, and even exotic instruments is intoxicating. Floating above all that is Nimol’s sultry, other worldly vocal melodies. This was all on display at The Casbah, one of the coolest clubs in the city with a storied history.  Opening up were the Secret Chiefs 3, another band worth checking out. They make soundtracks to non-existent films. Check that...soundtracks to non-existent films from another planet! Several members joined Dengue Fever for a blistering encore.

The set list was weighted towards tracks from Cannibal Courtship, which has some of their best songs to date, thoughall their albums are easy to recommend. The band was in great spirits and had the entire audience bouncing up and down like pogo sticks. At times it felt like being in a Cambodian nightclub. With exotic Asian melodies filling the air the only thing missing was a go-go dancer.

Atmospherics aside,  the members of Dengue Fever are great musicians. Drummer Paul Smith and bassist Senon Williams supplied a rock-solid, yet funky foundation for guitarist and vocalist Zac Holtzman and his brother and keyboardist Ethan Holtzman, allowing Chhom Nimol’s vocals to effortlessly weave in out of the mix serpentine-like. Missing this night was horn player extraordinaire David Ralicke due to other obligations. 

Dengue Fever is a hidden treasure in today’s music scene. The band clearly loves being onstage, and their records are an absolute trip. I intend to catch them every time they come to town, I would even drive up to Los Angeles just to see them. They also happen to be some very nice people. Bassist Senon Willliams was very kind enough to donate some of his time for an exclusive interview for musicangle.com readers.

(1)  Musicangle.com: Dengue Fever has a very unique sound, to say the least. Were you a big world music fan prior to joining forces with a Cambodian pop star?

Senon Williams: My tastes have always been varied. Even when I was a little punk-rocker in the 80's, I still listened to Fela, Marley, Nina Simone, Django Reinhardt, Hendrix, Celia Cruz, The Ventures, Can....yadda yadda yadda. I never believed in being only into one scene and limiting my musical palette nor my social pallet. I remember being on tour with my old band RADAR  BROS and tripping on how some of our fans were so committed to bands that only had a similar sound to us. When we got to eastern Europe, specifically Slovenia, we met a bunch of people who were turning us on to so much good new music and I thought "This is where I want to be! Finally people like me." I have always been drawn to the unexpected and DF lets me go there.

(2) Musicangle.com: Has traveling around the world as a unit, and individually brought new influences to the band?

Senon Williams:Yeah, especially when we play the world music fests. Some performers we have seen have never made records and were booked to play these events because some promoter travelled to a remote island and asked them if they were interested in traveling to New Zealand or something to play for some crazy Westerners. This one group I saw was 30 six-foot women dressed like goddesses singing the most haunting music I’ve ever heard. It gets our creative juices flowing and gets us very inspired. Next thing you know we are talking about bringing more voices into our work. We’ve also been checking out the intricate guitar work of Sufi musicians we have seen play. The songs seem so busy note-wise but it flows like water...almost becoming minimal rhythm based music that is just hypnotic. We definitely tried to do some of that too.

(3) Musicangle.com: The band seems to have so much fun onstage and the musical interplay is amazingly captivating. Do you have a preference for the recording studio or the stage, or are they different forms of expressions?

Senon Williams: Different expressions of course. One begets the other. Our studio THE SHOEBOX is in my back house. It is my office, I am back there every day. It's where I live at home and I love it...I'm a studio junkie. Touring has its place, though. I don't go out like I used to in L.A. So I get all my party ya yas out on the road, where every night is Saturday night. It is also a total rollercoaster on the road, extreme highs and lows. I am the type that can handle it and I do crave it, but the road is no life. Without the gig to blow steam I'd fall apart.

(4) Musicangle.com: Thanks for sharing your time with our readers! For a final question, can you describe the Dengue Fever song writing process?  How do the music and vocal parts come together?

Senon Williams: We write in many different ways. This last album, we spent more time in pre-production then we ever have. We spent hours in the studio letting the tape run while we jammed. If it was something good we would take a note and move on. After awhile songs would take shape. Zac writes most lyrics and Nimol had a bigger hand in the words on this album than she did in the past. We would remember stories she told us and help her turn those life experiences into poetry. We also have a good sense of what works with Nimol and we try to write to her strengths, because when Nimol feels a song a magical thing arises.

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