thao & mirah

this is my charles peterson photo from the evening

Every year we lived in Los Angeles when Jaime’s birthday rolled around we always took a trip home to Seattle.  As a result it was never left up to me to plan a party or buy a cake or even buy and wrap presents.  Usually she would get a couple of small gifts but really the trip home was her present.  This year we were already home and it fell on me to put together some kind of party.

I didn’t know what we should do until about two weeks ago when I noticed that the power duo of Thao & Mirah were playing at the Crocodile in Belltown.

I began following Mirah about two years ago but she’s been around in the Pacific North West for over a decade.  She’s been quite successful for a Northwest act in the post grunge era.  Thao and her band The Get Down Stay Down, I was not familiar with until now.  Her music is similar to Mirah, perhaps a little more on the rock side.  She’s got a unique voice that I couldn’t quite identify until I heard someone compare her to Cat Power.

I bought two tickets and set to invite as many as I could to the show.  I wanted it to be a surprise so I didn’t tell her until we got to the Crocodile.  I was expecting it to be a fun evening with some great music.  I was wrong in the best way possible.

another action shot... the best I could do with a digital elf

The big group I was hoping for fizzled until it was just Jaime’s best friend Eryn (she’ll be happy about the mention) and her boyfriend Ryan, which was perfectly fine since we always have a great time together.  Thao & Mirah were not just great, they were down right amazing.  

I had secretly been listening to their self titled album since it was released at the end of April.  This is a perfect collaboration where Thao brings a more polished and pop beat to Mirahs often lounge/folk lo-fi vocals and guitar.  It is an album that can totally stick in your head and have you singing “oh, oh, how dare you,” all day long.

Seeing them live totally exceeded my expectations and easily made me a die hard fan.  Since I’ve already gushed about their debut album you will understand how incredible when I say, I think that they may be even better live.

This isn’t the kind of music that has you flailing your arms and legs about but is perfect for holding your girlfriend (and there were a lot of girlfriends as easily over 50% of the audience were lesbians) from behind and rocking to the beautiful rhythms and vocals.

I was rather proud of myself for having pulled off such a great surprise for Jaime’s birthday.  When her actual birthday rolled around on Monday I felt like an alien gradually learning about the birthday customs of Earthlings.  I completely forgot that you need birthday cake Jaime and I rushed down to QFC and after studying the cakes for about ten minutes we decided on the fruit flan.

    All in all the evening of the concert and Jaime’s actual birthday went well, but I am positive that we will never forget about her 27th as it was truly a wonderful experience holding her and rocking to Thao & Mirah.

If your interested in looking for more from Thao & Mirah you can find a video of their performance of bag of hammers on our facebook page: face book: secretly important

Also visit their band page at Kill Rock Stars where you can download two of their songs for free.

Lastly check out a great article from bitch magazine giving you five reasons for why you should see them on tour.

posted by: brian snider