Concert Review: Tegan and Sara, May 21, 9:30 Club

tegan-and-sara

Context: This is an American writer’s review of a Canadian group who commented extensively on American culture, written for a Canadian blog.

Now you know.

So let’s play the ever-delightful two truths and a lie:
1) Canadians spend their waking hours riding polar bears and exchanging maple syrup.
2) Canadians are afraid of Americans.
3) Nine out of ten Americans aren’t sure if Montreal or Toronto is the capital of Canada. The tenth is pretty sure Quebec is the correct answer.

Tegan and Sara, the (actually) ever-delightful twin sister indie-pop duo from Canada gave the answer to that riddle in their sold-out show at the 9:30 Club last night. The ladies, who ROCKED the club with four back-up dudes on guitar/drum/keyboards and a killer light display, not only sent the crowd into crazed applause before each of their awesome songs but also entertained with giggle-inducing banter.

Their opening line: “We are here to try and entertain you. Thanks for coming.”

Their best bout of chatter: “It is SO great to be back here at the 9:30 Club. You know, we were here ten years ago, supporting Ryan Adams, and we remember people being like: you pretty young things need to watch yourselves around this ‘hood! DC is NOT a nice neighborhood. And we were like: ‘You know, Canada is scary too! We have some crazy psycho killers you don’t even know about*… AND we used to see kids get beat up in high school! It’s not like us Canadians just ride around on polar bears giving each other maple syrup.** But really, we were scared. Like really scared. Sometimes Canadians do just get afraid of Americans.***”

Their sweetest round of comments: “OK, so just so you know, this day has been complete shit. Our bus broke down, our lovely support bands had to get on stage without a sound check. But you, you guys are making this day amazing. Thank you DC!”

My favorite tracks from the night were not the duo’s latest and greatest hit, Closer, but instead Back in Your Head and Walking with a Ghost. So freaking good.

Canadian, American, misc, other: go see Tegan and Sara.

*Pronounced: “a-boooooot”
**Partial answer to riddle
***Partial answer to riddle

Posted on by halley in Concerts