Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Orange Alert for Dengue Fever

The future looked promising for Dengue Fever when the critically acclaimed psych-surf-worldbeat indie act fronted by Cambodian immigrant Chhom Nimol was driving home to Los Angeles after opening for Jonathan Richman at the Casbah on February 6, 2003. “However,” notes Steve Huey in their All Music Guide bio, “disaster nearly struck when Nimol was arrested in San Diego in accordance with the stringent, post-9/11 [Immigration and Naturalization Service] policy — she’d arrived in the U.S. on a two-week visitor’s visa.…” The agents who stopped the band at San Onofre and took Nimol into custody were reportedly observing an orange alert. “They looked at me and thought I was a Mexican lady,” she told Matt Diehl in an interview featured in L.A.’s CityBeat.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Chhom Nimol, from a family of Cambodian singers, had come to the U.S. a few years before for lucrative New Year’s gigs and stayed, settling with her sister in Long Beach’s “Little Phnom Penh” — at a population of 50,000, America’s largest Cambodian ex-pat community. Brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman had been inspired by vintage Cambodian rock to start a band with vocals in the Khmer language, and they found Nimol singing at the LBC’s Dragon House restaurant.

The problem at the checkpoint was overcome but not before Nimol spent 22 days in an INS detention facility here. She was released after benefit shows raised money that helped secure her legal status. She also worked long hours at the Dragon House to pay $20,000 in lawyer’s fees — prompting the title of their second album, Escape from Dragon House. Nimol also co-wrote (in Khmer) “22 Nights” on their debut, which was about her incarceration (where she charmed Mexican female inmates by singing Celine Dion songs).

“Jail was scary,” Nimol said. “I was feeling afraid I was going to be sent back to my country.” Drummer Paul Smith elaborated: “Singers have gotten acid thrown in their face in Cambodia for associating with the wrong politicians.… It was an important part of her defense. If she had been sent home, she could’ve been a target.” Nimol’s family members had sung for deposed royalty, and Nimol’s father sang on a movie soundtrack with legendary pop-rocker Sinn Sisamouth, the “King of Cambodian Music” who disappeared — presumed murdered — in 1975 after Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge took power.

Dengue Fever play the Casbah Saturday, April 19.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room

The future looked promising for Dengue Fever when the critically acclaimed psych-surf-worldbeat indie act fronted by Cambodian immigrant Chhom Nimol was driving home to Los Angeles after opening for Jonathan Richman at the Casbah on February 6, 2003. “However,” notes Steve Huey in their All Music Guide bio, “disaster nearly struck when Nimol was arrested in San Diego in accordance with the stringent, post-9/11 [Immigration and Naturalization Service] policy — she’d arrived in the U.S. on a two-week visitor’s visa.…” The agents who stopped the band at San Onofre and took Nimol into custody were reportedly observing an orange alert. “They looked at me and thought I was a Mexican lady,” she told Matt Diehl in an interview featured in L.A.’s CityBeat.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Chhom Nimol, from a family of Cambodian singers, had come to the U.S. a few years before for lucrative New Year’s gigs and stayed, settling with her sister in Long Beach’s “Little Phnom Penh” — at a population of 50,000, America’s largest Cambodian ex-pat community. Brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman had been inspired by vintage Cambodian rock to start a band with vocals in the Khmer language, and they found Nimol singing at the LBC’s Dragon House restaurant.

The problem at the checkpoint was overcome but not before Nimol spent 22 days in an INS detention facility here. She was released after benefit shows raised money that helped secure her legal status. She also worked long hours at the Dragon House to pay $20,000 in lawyer’s fees — prompting the title of their second album, Escape from Dragon House. Nimol also co-wrote (in Khmer) “22 Nights” on their debut, which was about her incarceration (where she charmed Mexican female inmates by singing Celine Dion songs).

“Jail was scary,” Nimol said. “I was feeling afraid I was going to be sent back to my country.” Drummer Paul Smith elaborated: “Singers have gotten acid thrown in their face in Cambodia for associating with the wrong politicians.… It was an important part of her defense. If she had been sent home, she could’ve been a target.” Nimol’s family members had sung for deposed royalty, and Nimol’s father sang on a movie soundtrack with legendary pop-rocker Sinn Sisamouth, the “King of Cambodian Music” who disappeared — presumed murdered — in 1975 after Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge took power.

Dengue Fever play the Casbah Saturday, April 19.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?
Next Article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.