Coachella: Thao With the Get Down Stay Down
Kevin Bronson on
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Who: Thao with The Get Down Stay Down at the Outdoor Theatre
In 3 or Fewer Words: Please get up.
I’ll Remember This Until: The next underwhelming mid-day folk rock set. Whipping hair and quivering thighs do not a great frontwoman make. There’s no doubt Thao Nguyen is a creative soul with great talent, but if there is a reason her Coachella set on Saturday was unmemorable, it is this: she just needs to write some better songs. Where’s the passion? The rally cry? The Get Down Stay Down were a tease, their set rife with stomping fiddle-fits and Thao’s distinctive yelps that gave clues to a great spasmodic catharsis never to come. Not until the final song, “Easy,” did Thao With the Get Down Stay Down get up and resemble rocking-out. It was the only memorable song of the set. Do you think inviting members of Here We Go Magic to assist had something to do with that?
What I’d Tell My Friends Who Were At Cults: You won this round, manchild!
– Ben “Mouse” McShane
Photo by Scott Dudelson
I saw Thao &TGDSD in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago, and despite the fact that she put a lot of energy into her show, her stage presence bothered me. Her interaction with the audience was limited to stock phrases (“It’s really great to be here in Milwaukee (wait for applause)” “You’re a real pleasure to perform for (wait for applause)”. And when the inevitable applause appeared after each stock phrase, she turned to the band (back to most of the audience) with a wry grin on her face that I can only describe as “appalled”. Kind of insulting, really. I keep thinking of that what-a-bunch-of-idiots smile every time I hear her songs now. It makes it hard to enjoy her music any more.