CAMBODIASTOCK

The walk from our house to Olympic Stadium usually takes ten minutes; yesterday it took forty. Normally at 8 pm, the city is asleep; yesterday it was still bumping at 10. Usually we stay in at night for lack of better alternatives; yesterday we went out. It was the concert event of the year and we sure weren't going to miss out.

There ara approximately 1.2 million people in this city, and I would posit that last night at least 80 000 of them passed through the turnstiles of the Big O. That doesn't even count the hoards of tailgaters eating prawn crackers and swilling warm Anchors. The scene parallelled Ralph Wilson Stadium, except instead of JP Losman and Lee Evans we were treated to Kokonut and Stacie Orrico. Stacie tanked-- her band didn't show and the music and BGVs were piped in. Kokonut, a Khmer original rock band, stole the show. They were cool [in a weird Cambodian rock band sort of way]. The lead guitarist had pink hair and could really shred, while the lead singer, dressed in an Alice Cooper T-shirt, gave it his all. Put it this way: I'm not rushing out to buy the CD, but these guys would give Billy Talent a run for their money.

Surprisingly, the biggest crowd pleaser of the night was a 5 minute laser light show advertising cell phones. The crowd was rapt and the stadium was lit up with flashbulbs and cell phone lights. It was kind of like watching the Symphony of Fire with a kid who's never seen fireworks-- lots of oohing, clapping, whispering, and cheering at the finale. Good times.

Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of the event. We left our house not knowing what to expect and ended up staying almost 3 hours. A great surprise weekend highlight.

Now'it's Sunday, and for the first time ever, I'm surrounded by palm trees on Palm Sunday-- gotta love it.

Enjoy the week, folks.