Sasquatch! Music Festival Day 4: Thao and the Get Down

There are many ways to “get down,” and Thao and crew seemingly discovered them all on Monday at Sasquatch! Music Festival. Thao and the Get Down ripped through a festival ready set, encouraging the crowd to get down in every possible way. Whether it was through the plucky rhythm the group often held or the impeccable flow Thao flashed throughout the set (especially prevalent in their cover of Missy Elliot’s “Get Ur Freak On”), every variation of their sound inspired mass outbreaks of moving feet. And while everyone was having fun in the crowd, it would be naïve to label the set as a dance party and nothing more. Thao Nguyen has always tackled serious themes in her music, and the set shared the same trend. It reached a pinnacle when the group played “Meticulous Bird.” The song, which addresses sexual assault and problematic power dynamics, found Thao screaming “I take my body back.” It was certainly a serious, blood chilling moment, but not one that cast a shadow on moving bodies and smiling faces, as a Thao set is empowering at its core, and the group showed the Bigfoot stage how to take difficult themes and overcome them; demanding responsibility and celebrating the fact that they did so with the crowd in the process.