Thao with the Get Down, Stay Down

Sister Suvi

Hotel Cafe - April 29, 2009

Live Review by Amber Henson

There is nothing like seeing a band/singer happy to be up in front of people, and people just as happy to be seeing them.  It’s hard in LA to find that (I think it’s not just that we’re self conscious, I also think that it’s because we’ve been hurt so many times in the past), but last Wednesday night I was lucky enough to encounter that twice.  The first was with the three-piece Sister Suvi. 

Describing what Sister Suvi sounds like is not going to be easy, so I’ll start with telling you what they look like.  Singer/guitarist/bassist Patrick Gregoire looks like a combination of a young Charles Grodin with a bit of Jon Heder mixed in there for good measure.  Drummer Nico Dann looks like a nerdy Tobey Maguire.  I couldn’t think of a celebrity singer/bassist/ukulele player Merrill Garbus looked like, but she’s fun with her bangs and big singing (sometimes yelling).  Sometimes they channel Sublime, sometimes they harmonize, and there’s a lot of echoing of each other going on.  The lyrics are fun, and the ukulele playing gets fast and creepy.  The drummer also sings, so it seems to be an equal opportunity band.  Sometimes Gregoire goes a little Marty McFly on the audience, getting a little too into his solos, but it’s excusable since he’s good and it goes well with the act.  Overall, Sister Suvi are fun to watch and they’ve put together some great tracks on their newly released Now I Am Champion.

Next came Thao with The Get Down, Stay Down.  I was expecting such a big back up band name to be a big back up band, but it’s only a bassist, Adam Thompson, and drummer, Willis Thompson, who perfectly complement Thao and her guitar.  They let her take over the stage, which she does, and without any hesitation.  It’s hard to believe that her voice is really coming out of her, since it sounds exactly like it does on the album, and it sounds amazing on the album.

Thao is like a child throwing a tantrum when she plays.  There’s a lot of stamping of her cowboy boots while she goes town on her guitar.  Just watching her makes one tired.  It’s rare to find a lead singer who is also the main guitarist on tour.  She bantered with the audience, berating us for not clapping along when prompted by Adam, saying “Pretend we’re not in LA.”  About five songs into the set, she brought up Garbus from Sister Suvi, and eventually everyone from that band and Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers (the openers), so that there were a total of eight people on stage for “Feet Asleep” - all of them having a great time, just like the audience.

We may not have been on stage, but Thao drew us in, and soon we were all clapping and singing along like we lived in some other town, where we don’t care what we look like to the bartender.