Photo taken by Melody Lau
Tegan and Sara live is a wonderful time.
You can paint a show with any brush you want but for what it’s worth, Tegan and Sara are just the right combination of humor, humility and songs to really get you feeling good after a show. It really helps that the band have quietly developed an arsenal of tracks that can cater to a Friday night crowd.
Love You To Death is the 8th studio album released by the duo and it’s light, anthemic, hook laden music was perfect for a crowd that was ready to roll on Halloween weekend. The new album is one of my favourites of the year and I actually had to stop listening to it earlier this year to prevent burning out. The album builds on the pop formula seen in full display from 2013’s Heartthrob, which produced one of their most popular tracks, “Closer.” After hearing set closer “Stop Desire” live, it’s pretty apparent that track has a new rival for best T&S track to dance to.
Fans of the older material didn’t need to fret though, as one of the two pointed out very early in the show “only 8 out of 24 songs on this set list are new,” just in case people were worried. That kind of self aware banter went on throughout the night and it added a personal touch which is strange because we were in the cavernous Massey Hall. Of particular enjoyment was a conversation about the body aches that comes with aging and also, another moment where everyone was waving their hands and one of the duo ( i can’t tell which) casually quipped “this is the part where we do this.” Some of this material probably gets repeated on a nightly basis, but who the hell cares when it’s this enjoyable.