Thao Nguyen Returns Home For IOTA Show

It’s a bitter-sweet experience when young talents like female musician Thao Nyugen return home for a local gig to flaunt their acquired skills, newly forged in a far away place. Such was the case Tuesday night at Iota in Clarendon.

No doubt proud to share a geographical connection with an imminent leading lady, the crowd, littered with friends and family (the show was delayed until Thao's mother arrived), greeted the Falls Church folk-singer turned bandleader warmly. But surely some music fans in attendance had to be sadly reminded that yet another creative spirit has fled a region that too often seems barren on the musically gifted front.

Since picking up a guitar at the early age of 12, Thao has since released four full length albums with her band The Get Down Stay Down, collaborated with the likes of Andrew Bird, Laura Veirs, and Mirah, and had a couple singles featured on primetime TV shows. Several times during the show she jokingly put her career’s upward trajectory in perspective, explaining that during her summer breaks in between semesters at the College of William and Mary, she would return home to earn $20 an hour playing cover songs at nearby Potbelly Sandwich shops. She also admitted sneaking into a 21 and up open mic night at Iota when she was in high school, revealing that it turned out to be rather “uneventful.”

Thao was joined on stage by fellow band mate and drummer of The Get Down Stay Down, Willis Thompson, also a William and Mary graduate. As soon as Thao opened with a couple slightly older originals, transitioning from “Moper” into “Big Kids Table,” it must have become especially clear to those who had witnessed Thao’s humble beginnings, that she has evolved tremendously since her singer-song writer, soloist days. Although appearing with only the help of her drummer, Thao brought the energy of a full band, playing songs old and new with a sprightly spunk.

Thao’s sound, and that of The Get Down Stay Down, perfectly mesh her Falls Church roots with her band’s hip new home in the Bohemian boroughs of San Francisco--part foot-stomping, finger-picking folk, and part sexy, tropically-infused, surf-rock swing. Playing with a dose of quirk and a splash of punk attitude, thrashing her rocker hair-cut to and fro, Thao was thoroughly entertaining, and funny to boot. The highlight of the show was probably crowd favorite “Bag of Hammers,” an infectiously hooky number. But thankfully Thao featured many of the songs from her newest and most well developed album to date, Know Better Learn Faster, revealing her unique ability to strum and sing songs simultaneously fun and funky and sad and earnest. Indeed there’s truth to Thao’s lyric: “Sad people dance too.”