How Now Brawn Thao

Thursday night, I was at The Great Hall. It was a small crowd which unfortunately meant that Toronto missed out on one of the best performances I've ever seen. The evening started with some moody pop from Austin band Why Bonnie. Given how mid-tempo their music was, I laughed when they said they were now going to play some slow songs. But those songs about Texas were their best as they layered on a sonic palette of dreamy psychedelic vibe.

Next up was Nashville transplant Becca Mancari. Her music had a sunnier vibe with some strange twists, often interspersed with (ear-splitting) whoops from Mancari. Her songs "for the gays", especially First Time, got cheers from the young queers crowding the stage. Once again, I felt her slow songs were more interesting.

I wasn't sure what to expect with Thao and a full band. Her solo set at The Danforth Music Hall a few years back was quite compelling. Tonight, she started on the mandolin but also threw in some banjo and lots of powerful guitar. On the second song, she did the immensely punchy Phenomenon (the first "zoom music video" released at the start of the pandemic) off her new record. I was shocked because that seemed like a peak song. How wrong I was. New songs (Temple, Mauraders) or old songs (Fool Forever, Meticulous Bird), they all were bangers. It was appropriate that Thao slipped in Mia's Bad Girls because with her penchant for dense, staccato lyrics, there was often a rap/hip-hob vibe to her numbers. Doubly so with a tight, touring band of furious drums and slithering bass. Thao provided the jumpy riffs and maniacal solos on every instrument.

I thought those young queers were there for Mancari since they were closer in age. But they were here tonight to dance to Thao, a queer person of colour. There were old folks too including a septuagenarian (or older) who was rocking hard by the stage. A larger than usual number of POCs also came out. So it was a sparse but diverse crowd that still were loud enough to impress Thao (unless that was just professional banter on her part, whatever her feelings about the audience size).

As the night wrap up, I couldn't help but compare this crowd to St. Vincent's. No disrespect to the latter, but I thought Thao is the stronger songwriter/guitarist. I'm certain that being non-white disadvantaged her career. Of course, both women are better than 90% of the male-dominated music industry.

As a sad aside: the woman taking tickets also work at The Horseshoe so I asked about a long-time staff who I haven't seen probably since 2018. It turns out Tyrone suffered a bizarre injury when someone in a wheelchair fell off the stage (wheelchair and all) onto his foot. This led to a series of leg problems that surgeries didn't fix. He wasn't working much anymore and was considering whether to stay in Parkdale or move back to Trinidad for his mom.