Gigs: Tegan & Sara, Komedia, Brighton
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Carefully interspersing well-known favourites with tracks from their latest release, The Con, allowed onlookers to revel in the girls’ back catalogue whilst marvelling at how far they have come and how much they have grown – musically and lyrically.
On first listen, The Con does not fit together quite so perfectly as Tegan and Sara’s preceding albums (‘If It Was You’ and ‘So Jealous’). Yet, on further inspection, it is categorically their strongest, most dynamic and memorable record to date. This transferred effortlessly into the live performance. With their smart wit and ironic humour, the girls kept us entertained with tales from the road between songs and treated us to unconventional explanations of what each song from The Con was inspired by. Most memorable was the tale of the girls attending a summer school in Canada where they ran around bare footed whilst learning about God. I can’t even recall which song this was supposed to explain but the sentiment was appreciated.
The crowd was a mixed bunch of hipsters, newbies and what appeared to represent a large proportion of the local teenage gay scene. Tegan and Sara are habitually praised for their unaffected approach to being gay sisters in a male-dominated industry. They admit their pride at being able to stand up as examples of real success, regardless of their sexuality and the way many fans clearly look up to them as role models. The girls operate a strict no ‘drinks, drugs (or sex)’ rule backstage whilst on tour, reiterating their dedication to both their music and their fans – behaviour that will defy all rock critics who seek out gratuitous gossip from thrill-seeking groupies.
The Quin twins’ energy and vitality is never entirely conveyed on their albums so all opportunities to experience them live must be taken. Slamming guitars and keyboards all night, they demonstrated their genuine passion and talent for live shows. The rawness of Tegan and Sara’s vocals when performing live is what really sets these girls apart from their competitors - that and the fact that they write incomparably superb songs about heartbreak, loneliness and anger in such simplistically poetic terms.
For the first time in a long time I found myself completely absorbed in a live performance sufficiently captivating to prevent me from being distracted by common concert woes of annoying neighbours bopping into me, the tallest guys in the room standing one foot in front and lack-lustre sound systems, that usually reduce me to an aching mess willing the unfortunate performers to shut up and let me hop the train and go home. But in the girls’ own words, Not Tonight…
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