Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
Description
Reaching back into her musical catalog, Thao Nguyen and her band the Get Down Stay Down will play live, accompanying classic, strange and funny films from the silent era, including: Charles Chaplin’s anarchic The Pawnshop, Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich’s groundbreaking The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra, alchemical animation by Harry Smith and classic newsreels. The evening also features original short videos that Nguyen made in collaboration with filmmaker Lauren Tabak, including one created especially for this event. As anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing the Get Down Stay Down live knows, Nguyen is a force of nature, a ferocious guitarist with the wild and beautiful voice of an angry angel. After taking a break from music to focus on her relationship to her community, a hiatus during which she became a member of the advocacy group the California Coalition of Women Prisoners, Nguyen roared back with We The Common. The 2013 album bore the fruit of an artistically and personally transformative year with its incisive songwriting, diverse musical styles and strong social messaging. In recordings and on stage her juggernaut-like performances speak to resiliency, hope and infectious, catalytic energy. This promises to be a special night, as she and the band perform live to a program of films for the very first time. —Sean Uyehara