Thao Nguyen on the road, in GR59

I've seen Thao Nguyen play a couple times, but tonight was the first time for me to catch her with The Get Down Stay Down--a totally different experience than her doing a solo show or fronting a crack band in tandem with other Hotel Cafe regulars. Her already catchy and complex older songs take on new directions and dimensions. The new ones sound heavy on their own. And Thao gets a lot sweatier.


The Hotel Cafe gig was only the second stop of the trio's current tour, and there's a lot of shows left to catch as they work their way to Thao's home state of Virginia. The band sounds great--even without puppets.



Don't forget to check out Thao's third consecutive contribution to Giant Robot in issue 59. Her no-holds-barred interview with the Get Down Stay Down covers everything from beards to truck stops to tour romance... Is it her finale?