There is a lot to love about Tegan And Sara, pretty much everything in fact. They’re adorable Canadian twins that write the best indie-pop out there, what more do you want? But the best part about a Tegan and Sara crowd is that being predominantly younger girls, anyone over 5’7″ has an AMAZING, unobstructed view of the show! Ok, don’t get me wrong, the crowd was great. Sara herself exclaimed that the audience was the best out of the 4 at Hollywood’s Music Box @ The Fonda Theatre. This being the last stop of a pretty solid year and a half of touring behind 2007′s The Con they played a pretty tight set with plenty of evidence of change since the album’s release. Tempo, Tone and Instrumentation seemed to differ slightly from record; It could be that reproducing what The Sisters Quin and Chris Walla created in the studio would be nearly impossible or because after their journey around the world they, themselves and their songs had changed. This is starting to sound like fan fiction, so I might as well you about this dream I had about them the other night… ok I’ll save that one, because I should probably tell you that they had some decent support on this tour with Girl In A Coma and City And Colour.

Pello Negro Latina Trio del San Antionio Girl In A Coma opened the show just after 8pm with a set of uptempo tunes in a style that I can attempt to describe as a Tex-Mex Grunge Ramones. This band was a solid power-trio led by Guitarist/Vocalist – Nina Diaz whose voice is a war of sweet and spicy, like a good Mole Sauce. The sweet side being the way she draws out her lyrics slowly with a hint of vibrato tremor at the end of each line over her rapid fire guitar playing. The spicy is the way that she peppers her vocal melodies with the snap of Souxie Sioux or Linda Perry but with a hint of a spanish accent. Esta La Bamba. They played 7 songs, mostly from their record Both before I’m Gone with a closer of Bobby Freeman’s (better known by Beach Boys and The Ramones) “Do You Wanna Dance?” Nina was forcefully backed by sister/drummer Phanie Diaz and the exciting Jenn Alva on bass.

Middle child of the show was Dallas Green a.k.a. City and Colour (Dallas and Green, City and Colour. Get it?) who played lovely harmonica friendly emotive folk whose lyrics elicited loving sighs from the crowd. The Straight Girls in the house were melting. It was like the end of a full house episode when everybody goes “aaaaw” and has a hug and a last joke. Mr. Green’s regular gig is Rhythm Guitar/Vocals for Canada’s Alexisonfire whom Ryan, a graphic designer standing next to me in the photo pit told me was as huge in the Great White North as T&S are stateside, eh. His voice is great, his guitar playing was folktastic, but explain to me why people go nuts for the harmonica? Everytime he hit the mouth harp the audience blew up like he’d just invented the thing. (They did that the last couple times I saw Dylan too, even though Dylan plays the thing like he’s gumming corn-on-the-cob.)

After City and Colour‘s set I staked my place in the photo pit and waited for the show. A girl in the front row asked me, polite as she could, “Are you going to stand there the whole show?” I told her, “No, we’ll only be taking pictures for the first 3 songs. And We won’t really be standing here.” The show had barely started and she looked ragged…I knew that look. She had to have been one of the few hardcore fans that were literally CAMPING outside of the Fonda for all 4 nights just so they could be FRONT AND CENTER for each show. If that’s not some hardcore loveknife teenage dedication, then I don’t know what is?

In the interest of full disclosure, The Con has been my guilty pleasure of the last year and a half. There’s no way I could give an unbiased review, I was really looking forward to this. I think it is the best singer-songwriter indie-pop record made in years and I stand by that statement as if in a few years people will actually recognize how amazing these girls are. If all goes well with their next record, the sound could evolve to include those lost souls that try to tell me now with a straight face that The Killers is actually for adults. (Dude, It never was. Fucking stop it.) For some reason I mention Tegan and Sara to some people and they look at me like I just said The fucking Jonass Brothers. Maybe I see something sophisticated in these cutesy love songs that not many others in my demographic can… but I did see another male friend at the show and he is older than me… he too had a mustache… I bet all the teenage girls thought we were ChiMo. But I’m pretty sure his GF made him go.

The show was great. They started with “The Con” and the early part of their set was primarily songs from So Jealous and If It Was You with “I Know I Know I Know”, “City Girl” and “Where Does the Good Go?”. Nearly half of the set was dedicated to their personal stories and anecdotes in between songs involving: Breakups after long relationships, Camping out for Smashing Pumpkins tickets in a bad neighborhood, Tegan the Goth Jesus Freak and a great rant about Prop 8. For those of you not in the great state of California we have a Proposition on the ballot that will dissolve and invalidate Gay Marriage. It’s ridiculous that religious assholes (mostly from out of state) got this piece of shit on the ballot and Tegan and Sara thankfully took time out of their set to explain that Canada already recognizes gay marriage and in the future, California, (like Massachussettes) will be seen as trailblazers for human rights. Tegan even wore a NO ON PROP 8 sticker on her Les Paul Special.

The set thundered on through most of the latest record with “Like O, Like H”, a lengthy story about Tegan breaking up after a long-term relationship and writing “Nineteen”, cut to “Hop A Plane” which seamlessly transitioned into “Superstar” from 2000′s The Business of Art.

Thanks to YouTube I’d seen a few Tegan and Sara performances but mostly wanted the experience to remain a mystery. What am I trying to say? I had no Idea who wrote or sang which song. I’d read that they write seperately and then work on the music together and that whomever wrote the song sang the lead vocals. Over the course of the show you get an amazing sense of each girls’ personality based on which song belongs to each of them.

Continuing through their set, they presented the strongest block of songs in my opinon “Knife Going In”, “Walking With A Ghost”, “Living Room” and “Burn Your Life Down”. I would put all of these songs on a Tegan and Sara Megamix just to give the listener a taste of their brilliant hooks.

Post-Encore, Tegan came out with Dallas Green of City and Colour to do a mellow re-working of early T+S song “The First”. Thereafter Sara came out with guest Matt Sharp (ex-Weezer, The Rentals) with a pair of glasses for herself and her sis in honor of Mr.Sharp joining them on guest baritone vocals (probably the only thing the girls can’t do) for cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark”. Matt asked that the audience to YouTube the performance so he could explain to his mother what exactly Tegan and Sara is. It should be pretty simple, right? And Sara gave a shoutout to X-Tube. And the perverts in the crowd laughed and cheered …yes we did.

The Encore finished up with lots of thanks to the band and crew and Matt Sharp stayed on pretty much the rest of the show playing bass on a cover of Weezer’s “Tired of Sex” (from Pinkerton) and joining the girls on percussion for their finale of last year’s hit “Back In Your Head”. The last to leave the stage was Tegan who expertly chose the worthy recipient of her setlist. And with that Tegan and Sara had pulled off The Con.

Tegan And Sara, much like Butch Walker, are probably just too amazing for the world to grasp. After 10 years and 5 albums, being covered by White Stripes, hopping on opening spots for some of the biggest bands in the world; 95 people out of 100 have no idea who they are here in America. But they can name the American Idol with dreadlocks (which I totally can’t do)? Fuck It, I’m moving to Vancouver.

Oh yeah, I’m supposed to “review” this show. Well then I give Girl In A Coma a 7.4/10, City and Colour an 7.8/10 and Tegan and Sara an 8.8/10 (That’s what I put up on Filter-Mag.com so that’s what I’m staying with; as a reviewer and not a fan.) But this was one of those situations where I’d missed 3 or 4 chances to see them and things finally came together so as a fan I was very satisfied with this being the show I finally got to see. Secretly I rate this show a 9.4/10.

VOTE NO ON PROP 8!

The Setlist: (with witty notations, see gallery for photo)

10.19.2008 – Bill Murray. Andie McDowall

THE CON – hotel minibar
I BET IT STUNG – remember in kindergarten when the lady came to do shots and there was that kid who cried all day? I wonder what became of her.
I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW – you sure are confident
SPEAK SLOW – and LOUDLY
WHERE DOES THE GOOD GO? – after you leave the ice cream on the counter
CITY GIRL – trying to learn the art of farming
CALL IT OFF – call waiting
SO JEALOUS – of Denmark
RELIEF NEXT TO ME – on the subway late at night
LIKE O LIKE H -similar to a silent 3 but different than G.
NINETEEN – ways to leave your lover. Paul Simon is perhaps more creative [50 ways to leave your lover, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)
HOP A PLANE --> SUPERSTAR - super Dave
ONE SECOND - Yello.
GIVE CHASE - it's the ice cream man!!!
KNIFE GOING IN - for a quick drink
WALKING WITH A GHOST - to keep the circulation flowing long after life...
LIVING ROOM. - blue carpet. big brown leather couch. lots of cds. Gage's toys all over the place
BURN YOUR LIFE DOWN - no no - see ME in the light
YOU WOULDN'T LIKE ME - if you had to be on a bus with me
THE FIRST - time i ever camped all night for a concert
DANCING IN THE DARK - new jersey
I HEAR NOISES - somebody must be snoring
TIRED OF SEX. - wow, that's pretty tired
BACK IN YOUR HEAD - after a long day at work

Thanks to the fans at saraandtegan.ca for posting the setlist.

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Thanks to the miracle of RABID fans who recorded all 4 nights at the Fonda, here is a playlist of nearly all of the show from YouTube!

Tags: Canada, City and Colour, Final Tour Date, Gay Rights, Girl In A Coma, Live Review, Music Box @ The Fonda, No On Prop 8, Tegan and Sara, The Con

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 1:41 am and is filed under Hollywood, Images, Music, Personal, Stupid, You should know:. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.