s h ! n d ! d

Having missed their last two tours over the last two years, I finally got to check out Canadian identical twins Tegan and Sara – live.

Their acoustic + electric guitar pop-rock musical fusion works really well, despite having voices which could, under traditional musical standards, be considered slightly whiney and a little nasal (forgivable as the Canadian accent coming thru). They sing cute little songs about love, the one that got away, the one that didn’t work out, and the neighbour whose house I can look into; but they can also really gut out (loud) the electric guitars (and utilise the keyboard to a fun slightly 80s style), in the new album ‘So Jealous’. I liked the show tonight when they cranked up their tracks ‘Walking with a Ghost’ (which, if you are learned in the ways of the internet, may be able to find the White Stripes cover of), and I think it was ‘Time Running’ or ‘Take Me Anywhere’. I’ll have to find a setlist to check…

Anyway, they’re also cool live cos they chatter through some of it, often releasing passive aggressive sibling frustrations on stage. Bickering is fun. Oh, and before the show started, they were roaming the Gaelic Club, just wondering around. I dig that. It was also, really helpful for newbies like me, that they stood on stage exactly how their band name is ordered. That is, Tegan stood on the left. Then Sara on the right. I couldn’t tell them apart, until this was explained to me. Tegan is the more casual one, with tatts and lebret-piercing, while Sara was more “professional” looking: glasses, ponytail, clean pressed stripe shirt…

Top 3 cool things about Canada:

1. Red Maple Flag
2. Degrassi (even the new one)
3. Tegan and Sara

Here are some bad photos. I should really take better ones… Or take a film camera to gigs…

Tegan (left) and Sara (right)

Tegan on keyboards.

Blurry…

Moving…