Thao with the Get Down Stay Down at the El Mocambo; Sunday November 1, 2009.

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down at the El Mocambo; Sunday November 1, 2009.

Thao Nguyen is a from San Francisco and she's about as cute as they come. Her first full length album is titled We Brave Bee Stings and All. It's a solid release of little ditties about absolutely nothing. My personal favourite is called "Big Kid Table" which reminds me of being really small and always referring to the table I use to sit at as the "kids table". The song also sounds really fantastic too... with the words "you are strong, strong, strong, stronger than me. With a heart much more love, love, lovely." She tends to write about how people have to be stronger or who are better than she. Which is totally cool, I think it's sort of modest nice.

She played the "Big Kid Table" tune third in her set. She peppered her new tunes in throughout her set. I really liked how she did it. It came off sounding very put together. All the songs sort of had the same flare to them, so an unaided listener wouldn't even notice.

I really like her presence, she's all over the place. Thao's voice is stupid choppy live, almost to the point where you get every other word out of her - and that's about it! Regardless, I felt like it was all there. She puts her all into it, that's for certian. She screams, dances and loses her voice while she sings.

She played "Geography" following "Big Kid Table". "Geography" is probably my second favourite song off of her first album. I really like the riff that trails throughout the song on the keyboard. I also really like the lyrics - "Oh Geography, You're gonna make a mess of me!" which she wales at the beginning of the tune and regroups back to it later.

There's something to be said about an Asian front woman. Her guitar playing is absolutely spot on. She carries herself extremely well, belting out distinct sounding vocals and maintains the guitar to some complicated level. She would leave many chord strumming girls in the dust.

If you like Kimya Dawson, lay off the crack and listen to this girl. Her lyrics are much more put together but are still a pinch kooky and rough sounding.

I seem to think Bob Boylen had an amazing desk set with the lovely Thao. I'd be interested in hearing her solo, because I think her sound could use a bit less instrumentation. I really detested her band's use of the cello, it sounded terrible with her plucky sounds.

I wish there wasn't a meowing lacing the entire set, it got pretty annoying!