Concert Review: Tegan and Sara (22/06/2010)

Yesterday I got the chance to see Tegan and Sara, one of my favorite bands, perform in Antwerp (Belgium). It was an evening filled with impressions, and I'm going to try my best to share all of them with you. First of all, the concert took place in an open air theatre (Openluchttheater, also the name of the venue). It was a beautiful environment for a concert, and refreshing to watch a concert in full daylight.

The concert was topped off by singer Hesta Prynn, you might know her as a member of girl-group Northern State. Hesta is about to release a new EP named Can We Go Wrong? (I believe on July 6th), and the songs she performed were all from that EP for as far as I know. I must say, at the beginning I wasn't feeling it at all. She seemed to have a little party on the stage, while the crowd was like: umm, okay.. But she managed to convince the crowd, and her last few songs were all rockin'. I didn't buy her EP to be honest, but I will give it a listen after the release and maybe buy it later.

Then... the moment we'd all been waiting for. Tegan and Sara got on stage. Everyone was excited, the crowd cheered at the start of every song. Oh, a small sidenote, as for the crowd: I've never been around so many lesbians in my whole life. And guess what? I loved it. There was so much love, there were so many cute couples and I know there were a lot of girls who could be themselves where usually being themselves raises disapproval. Yes, we STILL live in a homophobic society. But all of that aside, I enjoyed the crowd almost as much as I enjoyed the concert. Here is a picture of Tegan and Sara and the crowd at the beginning of the concert, when the sun was still shining:

Unfortunately I forgot my own camera, so these were made with my boyfriend's phone.

The girls started off with a few new songs from the Sainthood album (like Alligator, Hell and On Directing), then some oldies (like The Con, Hop A Plane, So Jealous and Walking With A Ghost), then some more new songs and finally an encore. I noticed a few things that are definitely worth mentioning. First of all: in my opinion, Tegan's voice is better than Sara's. Sara sounds a bit like she's got a cold, I think. But I must admit I sometimes preferred Sara's songs (the songs where most vocals were done by Sara) over Tegan's. Well, in the end I love both of them equally I think. They are both hilarious by the way! Sara talked about dating people who speak multiple languages, and she just kept going on about it, until the whole crowd was laughing. Tegan said she had noticed a lot of people making out to their music. She encouraged people to make out during Where Does The Good Go, and afterwards she told us she had noticed that people took her advice. Before playing Don't Rush, Tegan told us to act like we had just won a billion dollars during Johnny's (the drummer) part, because his family is from Belgium and we had to make them proud of him. So we cheered our asses off. I really loved how both women made an effort to connect with their fans, it definitely made the concert extra good, because it's no fun to watch an artist perform a routine without speaking to the crowd.

After many, many great songs, they announced their last song. But, as could be expected, they returned to the stage for an encore. A SICK encore, consisting of FIVE songs. The first one was the song I had been waiting for the entire time (not because it's my favorite, but because a Tegan and Sara show isn't complete without it): Back In Your Head. They played a slower version than the CD-version (they said they were gonna use it to put all the little Flemish babies to sleep), but it actually sounded pretty good. After that, they played Feel It In My Bones. The original song is a collaboration with Tiësto (yes, the Dutch DJ!) which can be found on the album Kaleidoscope, but they played an acoustic version of the song. I never really listened much to the Tiësto version, but I loved this version! I think this song sounded the best live out of all the songs they played. Ok, then, Nineteen. A lovely song, it reminds me of a boy I met on the internet. I felt him in my legs, before I even met him... That boy's name is Bart and he's now my boyfriend :) Then, Call It Off... This song is so beautiful, I must admit it brought tears to my eyes. And I need a moment like that during every concert; if I didn't almost cry, the concert wasn't successful. The last song they played was a happy one, named Living Room. A great way to end a great concert.

I love Tegan and Sara more than ever after this concert. I hope all of you T&S fans agree, they are awesome and adorable!