Tegan and Sara Live in Concert: A Review of the Popular Twin Duo
I’ve seen the girl slash twin sister duo, Tegan and Sara, three times now in concert and have downloaded just about all of their songs and bootlegs on my computer. This band, consisting of the two girl singers, and guitar strummers, Tegan (of course) and Sara as well as a guy with a background instrument who stands way in the back and whose name is a blur to me because the sister team is so damn charming that all you ever want to do is watch them, can be summed up in two words: They rock. No, actually they are more deserving of three: They fucking rock. And the sassy “F” word is thrown in there quite appropriately to make t my entire sum up statement about them fitting for not only their songs but also their on stage personalities. Tegan and Sra, but especially Sara, use profane language quite liberally, so much so that many reviewers have criticized it as unattractive and foul. But if you actually attend a Tegan and Sara concert as someone genuinely interested in the performance as a whole and not as someone who has a story to write and has to think of something negative so that the piece has some balance, you will not only see the band as less than foul but you will be instantly hooked by their charm.
Tegan and Sara are absolutely adorable, despite their sister hairstyles that are close to the head, feathered, and make them look slightly like Eskimos even though they are in actuality updated, modern versions of the infamous Mullet hairdo. They chatter on endlessly between songs and quarrel occasionally. And even though their stories, as well as their lyrics are simple and one could argue, elementary and maybe even shallow, it works for them because as much as we do not always realize it, this simplicity they utilize is very familiar to virtually all of us. Their onstage stories resemble teenage small talk and the lyrics to most of their songs resemble the content of notes I passed to my friends and boys I liked in the seventh grade. But you know what it’s okay because they state the truth. So many other bands these days try to impress with their vocabulary and half of the time the words don’t even make any sense to anyone but probably the band member that wrote them. But Tegan and Sara sing with a melodic pop rhythm about love and infatuation, break ups and crushes, and neediness and passivity. And, yes, they fucking rock.
They belt out those lyrics with a masculine sort of passion and Tegan’s tunes often send her into a ferocious, sexy growl. I personally enjoy their faster songs like “Time Running” and “The First” much better live than the slower songs but they perform both types with such ease and charisma you’d think they had been performing their whole lives. Which to my knowledge, based on their onstage stories, they have not. The crowd, as I could see was completely swept away at each show that I attended, with fans dancing and singing with the twins (and also in giddy laughter to one another, half jokingly) loud and proud and constantly screaming out “I love you’s” and at the first show I saw of this year’s tour, at Lupos in Providence, “Play some old school shit.” It seems, and I agree that the “old school shit” is actually a little more fun and upbeat while the “new school shit” if you will, is a little more seductive, sultry and the kind of songs that are accompanied by lots of passively floating fog, dim lights of very slowly revolving shapes, and a trippy like hypnotic melody that does effectively make you tempted to jump on stage and give your favorite sister a big smooch on the lips.
These two definitely aren’t going to fade away quickly. They are going to be around for a while. Very impressive. Very catchy. And yes, so so sexy. Yes, they fucking rock.
