Not so many years ago in Falls Church, Virginia a small, female wild animal was born. Her mother gave her the name Thao and the music scene lay quietly waiting, unaware of the unearthly delights that would soon be unleashed from inside the tiny body of this Thao Nguyen.
Thao played with The Get Down Stay Down last night for a group of enthused UCLA students, employees, and friends. It was a student run show and I have to tip my hat to the choice of Thao as the headliner for the event. At almost every break between songs an enthusiastic (read inebriated) student would yell something up to the stage. Each time Thao was a quick draw with a quip and an implied wink. Or in the case of the “bro” that yelled, “Let’s fuck!” at her, quick with outright humiliation and utter fearless wrath - insisting that he, “Say it to (her) face!” over and over, asking for a spotlight on the random stranger until everyone was laughing full belly laughs through their open mouths of shock.
Thao and The Get Down Stay Down bring their Virginia Southern Twang to a shoe-gazer folk rock sound, making it very hard not to dance along - a little bit of “hoe-down” while rocking out never hurt anybody. Thao herself is an incredibly sexy, wild woman on stage. I should have known a woman with lyrics like, “bring your hips to me” and “everybody please put your clothes back on,” would appeal to me on a primal level. Instead I came in entirely unprepared for just how appealing a firey woman with a wrack of tricked out guitar dancing in cowboy boots can really be.
I was sad to have missed Thao and The Get Down Stay Down at Coachella this year, but even in the weird proscenium of UCLA’s Royce Hall I was not disappointed - they were worth the wait!
This is my favorite Thao with The Get Down Stay Down song. Such a cute video too - I think it gives a good sneak peek of what a live show from these guys feels like...
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down "When We Swam" music video from what rabbit on Vimeo.
P.S. If you need more Thao, I wrote a little something something for the KCRW Music Blog about her collaboration with another rockin' female artist, Mirah. They were produced by yet another bad ass female, Merril Garbus better known as tUnE-yArDs and their new album is crazy amazing. :) Check out these girls being generally friggin' awesome below...
Eleven (Thao + Mirah ft. tUnE-YaRdS) by thaogetdownstaydown
No comments:
Post a Comment