My first exposure to Tegan & Sara was through the purchase of Little Steven's "Halloween A-Go-Go" CD. The "Walking with a Ghost" track by Tegan & Sara proved to be one of the highlights from the CD.
So when I learned in November that Tegan & Sara were going to play fabled old Massey Hall on Wednesday, January 20th, I resolved to be there. Massey Hall was built in downtown Toronto to accomodate the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1892, comfortably seats 2753 concert goers and has splendid acoustics. As such it is absolutely the ideal venue for a concert, particularly in winter!
It's interesting to note that the Cream played Massey Hall in 1968 when ticket prices would have been not much more than $5.00. Just imagine seeing the Cream at their best in such an intimate venue!
Tegan and Sara are identical twin sisters who were born and raised in Calgary but Tegan now lives in Vancouver and Sara in Montreal, although Sara may winter in Vancouver. (I'd spank her ass for being such a wimp if that's the case.) They drew a full house for their concert that night although they were also scheduled to play in the dreadful Kool Haus venue the next day. I'd estimate that about half of the attendees had journeyed from the Isle of Lesbos to see the pair. The other half looked to have more catholic tastes in that regard.
The opening act was An Horse, an Aussie combo very much like the White Stripes consisting of a fellow on drums and a girl with a guitar handing the lead vocals. They politely thanked the assembled multitude for having shown up early enough to take in their show and mentioned that they'd also be making a guest appearance and playing a few songs at Criminal Records on Queen Street West the following evening. I'd characterize their sound as folk rock or light rock and they were pleasant enough.
Tegan and Sara came out to warm applause. Sara is the slighter one. The two girls alternated handling lead vocals depending upon the song. Each girl also had one of those collapsible Hammond(?) organs set up in front of her, and each switched back and forth from an acoustic guitar to an electric guitar to the organ depending on the song they were playing. They were backed by three fellows, a drummer, a guitarist and a bass player. Both the guitarist and the bass player also had collapsible organs set up in front of them which they played when required. In fact, on the second song all four non-percussionists were playing the organ!
The first five songs they played were evidently new ones. After the fifth, Sara thanked the crowd for being patient enough to listen to their new material - and then attacked her acoustic guitar so vigorously that she threw it out of tune within a bar or two! She stopped, laughed, tuned up and launched again into "Walking with a Ghost" which is probably their biggest crowd pleaser. Sara's voice sounds particularly childlike in this number. Her sister has a somewhat deeper voice.
The two girls carried on a steady banter with the crowd. They chatted about things like playing coffee houses in front of a few of their friends for just the free coffee and tea (Tegan said she doesn't even drink coffee) while growing up in Calgary, going out on a double date at the age of eight with boys that looked just like they did, how tough it was to be a lesbian in high school but tougher yet at the age of eight, and being on their periods that night. The crowd ate it up. My companion observed that they'd be good as hosts of a variety show.
They came out for a five song encore, by themselves for the first three songs before being joined by the three fellows for the last two. All in all, they played for just over two hours and the crowd left well pleased having gotten their money's worth.
Among the songs in their set were these two numbers:
Well done review Hep, love the pictures of Massey Hall too.
Tegan & Sara were here last week played at our new Winspear Concert hall I believe. I don't have any of their music, don't ask me why I just never thought about them, until a friend from Holland waxed on and on about how much he loves them, but I still don't have any CD's. That is rather embarrassing seeing they grew up here...
Nice write up Hepcat!!! Tegan & Sara put on a great show and have several excellent quality songs. I'm not a big fan but what I've got a like. Been awhile but saw them a few times several years ago.
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Here's a good writeup from the Barnes & Noble site on Tegan & Sara covering their careers from their earliest days in Calgary to the present:
Originally Posted by MacKenzie Wilson
Folk-rock duo Tegan and Sara first burst onto the Canadian music scene in 1998, when they earned the highest score in history at Calgary's "Garage Warz" competition; their quick rise didn't stop, for their melodic acoustics and charming stage personas led to a slew of dates with Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair that same year and a record deal with Neil Young's Vapor Records in April 2000. Natives of Calgary, these twin sisters transpired their music interests from the likings of their parents. Tegan and Sara began playing piano at age eight, and in their teens they were skanking around in their own punk bands. This Business of Art, which was produced by singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman, marked their debut in mid-2000, and a summer tour with Neil Young and The Pretenders followed in July. Two years later, Tegan and Sara released If It Was You, and So Jealous hit shelves in 2004. In 2007, Tegan sang backup on a song on new Sire labelmate Against Me!'s album New Wave, and the twins, who had by then moved far from the singer/songwriter mold and were more interested in exploring pop, punk, and indie rock, came out with the Christopher Walla (of Death Cab)-produced The Con. Working with Walla went well and the duo utilized his production skills on their next album as well. Sainthood was released in October of 2009.
Tegan & Sara live @ Massey Hall! 
Re: Tegan & Sara live @ Massey Hall! 
Well done review Hep, love the pictures of Massey Hall too. 
Re: Tegan & Sara live @ Massey Hall! 
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