While most Americans were sitting at home rooting for their favorite native Olympians, I was cheering for two confident, talented, inspiring, totally loveable Canadians, twin sisters and travelers celebrating the release of their sixth full-length and latest release, Sainthood.
Bubbly folk-rock duo Tegan and Sara drew all walks of life to Tampa Theatre this past Saturday night, from timid first-date wooers to rowdy groups of lesbians to a father and his 8-year-old headphone-wielding kid. If you weren't among the Tegan and Sara devotees, you were either dragged out to the show by one or became one shortly thereafter.
Tegan and Sara hit the stage around 9:30 p.m. with three talented backing musicians. Naturally, the crowd blew a fuse. Tegan wore black from her shoes to her messy hair, suspenders and tattoos aplenty. Sara sported skin-tight leggings and an oversized button-up shirt, her face partially hidden by a severe fringe of dark hair. They were rock n' roll adorable.
Both strapped on guitars and launched right into "The Ocean," a fast-paced track from their new album with quick verses flowing into a calmer but powerfully catchy chorus. It took me back to those countless nights driving alone, blasting their music loud enough to drown out my own dreadful voice; belting the song out with a thousand strangers was amazingly refreshing.
They continued with two more songs from the new album, "On Directing" and "The Cure," both pleading anthems about admitting mistakes and promising change. After plugging their new video and challenging those who'd seen it to "remember the dance moves," they struck the first chords to "Alligator," a sharp-edged toe-tapper evocative of early Madonna piano-pop and driven by a seriously grooving bassline that filled the room and demanded immediate dancing. When Sara cut through the rhythmic breakdown with jazzy, deep synth melodies, the place went bonkers.
Tegan was quick to engage the audience, shameless in her skin, laughing at herself frequently. An extended exchange with the stage huggers involving a boob hat encouraged more banter from the twins, who touched on intense family trials over a game of Monopoly, gave a hilarious account of a foolhardy security guard who wielded a "buck knife," and reminisced about looking too boyish at karate class when they were kids. Sara was the more reserved of the two and sometimes even seemed embarrassed about Tegan's candid disclosures of their tongue-tied past, revealing just how different the twins actually are despite wearing identical faces.
Tegan assured longtime fans that they'd play much of their older stuff and I was stoked about hearing the pop-punk melodies that were the soundtrack of my college life, the music that played as I navigated in and out of relationships ... bad ones, good ones, one-night ones. They had a song that fit every situation I found myself enduring back then, like "So Jealous," a one-time personal anthem of mine that permeated the auditorium and gave me chills. The verses are fleeting and self-reflective but lead to an angry, shouted chorus — "I get so jealous, I can't even work" — that became the most thunderous moment of the show.
Once the sisters made their exit, a tech jogged onto the stage and set up a glockenspiel. They re-emerged for the encore sans band and opened with a gentle, unplugged version of "Back in Your Head," arguably one of their most commercially-recognizable songs. Tegan made the song extra playful by replacing the simple, all-too catchy piano notes with the tinkling bell-like toll of glock.
The ladies closed the show with the beautifully layered vocals of "Call it Off," a short but oh-so-sweet number that Tegan confessed to writing when she was extremely depressed. It features some of her most moving lyrics, and as she sang her heart out to the song, most of us joined along with her.
Ford Barsi is a 23-year-old Tampa resident and a USF sociology student due to graduate this summer. Barsi has been writing most of his life — he started out as an English major — so his father snagged the "Music Critic for a Night" Holiday Auction package for his son as a Christmas gift. He's good, too, so you just might see his byline in here again... To read the review in its entirety and see more pics from the show, visit cltampa.com/teganandsara.
